My '73

[tortuga]

Not sure how much progress this project will make any time soon, but here goes.

Started with a medium clean, fairly stock '73. So far, Most of the work has been to disassemble, reassemble, clean, lube, etc.. Took the top off, folded the windsheild down, hunted high and low for rust. Other than floorboards I think I got lucky.

Did install a Pertronics ignition module, coil and wires and a Harmonic Balancer from Wild Horses. The Pertronics pieces seemed to improve performance quite a bit, but a good tuneup was needed anyway so I don't have a good benchmark.

Also found a nearly new set of 33" General mud tires on 15x10 wheels for cheap on Craigslist. Should work while I clean up the 15x8 chrome wagon wheels that came with it.

The wheels throw the tire out a bit farther than I would like. Any input on that? What offset & width works best with 33x12.5 tires and minimal lift? I want to keep this as low as I can, suspension mods are going to focus more on droop than lift. Must be a holdover from my landcruiser days, but it seemed to work for me.

Have body and paint lined up, biggest decision right now is do I cut the front or not.

Edit - Added pic, thanks for the dig

Later,

Brian

[Delta 4 Wheel]

COOL. Can't wait for pics. You know, I waited over 7 years before I cut the front. Now, I am kinda sorry I did. I liked the look of the nicely painted rear flares and the stock front fenders...but the 40's necessitated the front cut. Whadda ya going to do.

OOH, a nice friendly jab to the new member...

[raharr3]

you sir..are a BRONCO tease

[tortuga]

Been busy working on it lately, thought I'd update the project.

So far:

Pertronix ignition, new wires, etc.. Added constant duty relay, starting to move aux circuits off to that. Idea is to fire that relay off the ignition switch.

Swapped in NP435, new clutch at the same time.

Wild Horses shocks, and a no-name lift from the P/O - around 2 1/2 inches.

28 spline mini-spool in back - looking for BB housing and then go 31 spline, full spool. Like the spool so far, it worked great on the trail and is OK on the road as well.

Custom unistrut rear rack, made the night before I left for the Rubicon. Worked great. I love unistrut, it is right up there with duct tape.

Also fabbed some tunnel covers out of sheet metal, gotta do floor pans soon.

Bought some seats from TBS-POPS, very comfy.

Current project is electrical, rewiring from scratch probably - one circuit at a time.

Also going back to a Motorcraft 2100 for now, should be here soon.

The pic is coming back up the hill at the far end of Little Sluice. Been down it a bunch of times, never realized how much of a bitch it was to get back up.

[tortuga]

By the way - in this pic, you can see that the body is not square to the frame up front. It is about 1/2" lower on the drivers side. It has new body mounts, but that didn't cure it. Everything looks straight on it's own, it just sags. Any ideas?

[highlander]

Check to make sure the body mounts on the fram are not bent up or down. I would check the mounts on the body as well.

[tortuga]

Long time no update, so here goes:

Added long tube headers, got them from Pops when my manifold busted clean in half. Came out OK but I would never do it again - too many clearance issues. Still have to engineer a new clutch return spring.

Did my own exhaust, tried to keep it above the frame. Also not something I would do again, but it saved me some cash at the expense of a LOT of time cutting and fitting to get it in tight.

The front bumper worked out fairly well, wanted to get an 8274 up there with the bumper high, but the winch low. It is sunk in about as far as it can be for my fab skills. Still need to add a brace/skid to the bottom of the frame rail but that is easy enough.

Picked up some bling wheels and 35" M/T rubber off craigslist as well, they are a custom set from Stockton Wheel - about had a heart attack when I went by to get a matching spare made. $200 per wheel. Who Knew.

Added a 2d battery and a big ass panel for fuses, relays, etc.. That will get condensed once all the electrical is done, right now it is nice to have the space to work in.

Other mods:

BB rear housing, 4.56 gears, ARB and 31 spline WH axles
Changed out the front D44 to 4.56, still open up there
93 F150 Starter - gear reduction, clears the headers
CB & Stereo underway
CO2 tank and pneumatic switches for ARB control and OBA

Next up:

Rear bumper
Rocker protection
Family Cage.....

List goes on

[tortuga]

Long time no update, too busy wheelin' and wrenchin'. Got the wild hair to paint it myself - haven't paid for any work on it yet and want to keep it that way. So far it is definitely a DDW but haven't done any finish work yet.

This is basically the best rattle-can I can do until the rock crawling season is over, then we see how important it is to get a real paint job.

The dash is basically a std bronco unit with all the flats cut out to mount aluminum panels. I have an old circle cutter that does a great job on guages and speaker holes in .080 aluminum.

[earlybronco72]

Love the red. I think I used the same shade on mine.

[tortuga]

Re: My '73

Time to update this. Got a few things cleared up that kinda held me back and ready to get back to business. Here's how it looks today, on stands in the garage getting the engine bay stripped.

Changing steering to 4x4x2, TRO, brakes to Hydroboost, cleaning and painting the engine bay, clearing up as many PO issues as possible and rewiring.

Oh yeah, got the front end back from the shop and will be trying to roll it out this weekend. Need to set front end back in and put whatever rear end I can into it so I can get it out of the garage for a little while to reorganize.