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Since you all have made me feel welcome I've decided to make this forum home to the progress log of my Bronco buildup.
Something happened to my original linked-inline pictures so I've re-worded my inaugural posting here. All pictures are now down in the attachment section.
The first picture is my 1970 Bronco Sport the day I picked it up down in Santa Cruz. This was by far the cleanest, straightest and most unmolested Bronco I found after searching for 6 months or so. I was looking for a later model with a D44 but after looking at many, many beaters (for higher prices I might add) I could not pass it up. It was the PO's daily driver for 11 years and for what it was, it drove pretty well. It still had the original 302, 3-on-the-tree tranny, seats, top, doors, etc.
The body is incredibly straight and (was seemingly) rust free. The second picture shows the Bronco loaded up for the ride home. This is no trailer queen - I'd have driven it home but it had a fuel leak at the carb and I didn't want to set my new baby on fire coming over Hwy 17 before I even got it registered in my name... Aside from the color I think I did pretty well with this find.
Initially I planned to drive it around stock for a while just to get a feel for the truck, but after driving it for less than 30 miles around town, the bugs started to become more apparent. The plan was to gut the (seemingly clean) interior (pic #3) and get Line-X sprayed in, but I soon found problem #1. The floorboards were toast up front (pic #4)
This was hidden (somewhat cleverly I might add) by a previous owner who put down a rubber floor on top of a layer of 3/4" felt padding, on top of a layer of 30-year composition roofing shingles, glued gravel side down to the entire sheet metal floor up front. Call it poor man's dynamat I guess.
Not being one to go into things in a small way, teardown began. Knowing that I wanted to put in a granny tranny and that the engine at least needed head work, the Engine/Trans/T-Case came out and that project began. Picture #5 shows my NP435, with my rebuilt D20 transfer case attached, and with my sweet D44 axle in the background. The D44 is used but is set up nice - it's got an ARB, chromoly shafts, chevy disks, and relatively new components throughout.
Picture #6 shows the WH floor repair panel in place, welded and bondo'd after much "coaxing" into shape.
Picture #7 shows the stock D30 ripped out along with much of the suspension up front. This has made it so much easier to get up into the wheel wells and give things a good scrub down. I plan to hit the inner fenders with a rubberized undercoat and por-15 the whole frame.
I used to be a project manager by trade... To use terms from my professional line of work, this project is experiencing "scope creep". Next on the agenda is a brake booster and figuring out which steering box I want to go with. I may rebuild the box that is there but it's awfully sloppy - 6-7 turns lock to lock. Of course suspension is not far off either.
I'll keep posting updates... I have hundreds of pictures of this thing already and I've only had it since October of 2006!
Tony
Something happened to my original linked-inline pictures so I've re-worded my inaugural posting here. All pictures are now down in the attachment section.
The first picture is my 1970 Bronco Sport the day I picked it up down in Santa Cruz. This was by far the cleanest, straightest and most unmolested Bronco I found after searching for 6 months or so. I was looking for a later model with a D44 but after looking at many, many beaters (for higher prices I might add) I could not pass it up. It was the PO's daily driver for 11 years and for what it was, it drove pretty well. It still had the original 302, 3-on-the-tree tranny, seats, top, doors, etc.
The body is incredibly straight and (was seemingly) rust free. The second picture shows the Bronco loaded up for the ride home. This is no trailer queen - I'd have driven it home but it had a fuel leak at the carb and I didn't want to set my new baby on fire coming over Hwy 17 before I even got it registered in my name... Aside from the color I think I did pretty well with this find.
Initially I planned to drive it around stock for a while just to get a feel for the truck, but after driving it for less than 30 miles around town, the bugs started to become more apparent. The plan was to gut the (seemingly clean) interior (pic #3) and get Line-X sprayed in, but I soon found problem #1. The floorboards were toast up front (pic #4)
This was hidden (somewhat cleverly I might add) by a previous owner who put down a rubber floor on top of a layer of 3/4" felt padding, on top of a layer of 30-year composition roofing shingles, glued gravel side down to the entire sheet metal floor up front. Call it poor man's dynamat I guess.
Not being one to go into things in a small way, teardown began. Knowing that I wanted to put in a granny tranny and that the engine at least needed head work, the Engine/Trans/T-Case came out and that project began. Picture #5 shows my NP435, with my rebuilt D20 transfer case attached, and with my sweet D44 axle in the background. The D44 is used but is set up nice - it's got an ARB, chromoly shafts, chevy disks, and relatively new components throughout.
Picture #6 shows the WH floor repair panel in place, welded and bondo'd after much "coaxing" into shape.
Picture #7 shows the stock D30 ripped out along with much of the suspension up front. This has made it so much easier to get up into the wheel wells and give things a good scrub down. I plan to hit the inner fenders with a rubberized undercoat and por-15 the whole frame.
I used to be a project manager by trade... To use terms from my professional line of work, this project is experiencing "scope creep". Next on the agenda is a brake booster and figuring out which steering box I want to go with. I may rebuild the box that is there but it's awfully sloppy - 6-7 turns lock to lock. Of course suspension is not far off either.
I'll keep posting updates... I have hundreds of pictures of this thing already and I've only had it since October of 2006!
Tony
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