BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

[BroncRider]

Well as most of you know I am in a land far far away and I am not able to work on my Bronco so I had a great friend Jesse valunteer to work on it for me. Jesse is a avid drag racing fool. He has been racing drag cars for the last 15 years and he just picked up a new ride in a mustang that runs 7 sec and about 190mph. I think the car has 1200hp. When he is not racing he is working in his shop every night building race cars and repairing them. He picked up my bronco and its in his shop so he will be starting to tackle it soon. The plan is to pull the engine and he said he wants to completely rewire the bronco. With the engine out the engine compartment along with the engine is going to be painted. I have been lucky enough to have been donated a pair of the wildhorse valve covers and i think that will really make the engine look better. I am planning on putting an MSD ignition system because of the higher altitudes I plan on going. Jesse's dad is getting me a NP435 and he is also looking for the NP205 for me. When that is being installed I am going to replace the clutch and am thinking about putting the LUK clutch on. Later on I am going to replace the DANA 30 with a Dana 44 that i might purchase from a NorCal Bronco member that has Detroit soft lockers, rock crusher steering, disk brakes, 4.56 gears, and heavy duty axles. Then along with that I am going to throw Detroit lockers in the rear along with the matching gears and 31 spline axle's. It currently has a 3.5 in lift and I am planning to add a 2 in body lift. I will keep this thread updated with pictures and notes on progress along the way. please add your thoughts to help me with anything cause I am a new bronco owner and everything I have learned so far has been because of the members on this site. here she is right when she was brought home.

[blwngsket]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

That's a pretty rig. Very nice. Wish my was in that good a shape when I started.

[TRAILBOUND]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

wooo thats perrrrty.

[BroncRider]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

Thanks. yeah it does look nice but she needs a lot of work.

[CityHick]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

Very nice looking rig! And very cool that your buddy is doing some work on it for you while you're out of the country.

[Fungus232]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

Looks good Cole and don't kid yourself into thinking that you'll ever have it "done"! Right when you think you've got it where you want it you'll find something else to stick on there or modify...

[crawlin68]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

Very nice Bronco you've got there bud. Sounds like you have a solid plan for building it too. Now hurry up and get home so you can wrench on it too!

[BroncRider]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

Yeah I am coming home in July for R&R (rest and recooperation) he is going to save some stuff for me.

[BroncRider]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

anyone using the electric windshield wipers from wild horse's i would like to get that. Just wondering how they are

[TBS-POPS]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

Just a reminder that when you are buying parts for your 66, REMIND them that you have a 66 because some parts dont work on 66's and would have to be modified to work.. most vendors have 66 specific parts that dont require mods... will save a lot of returns.

[Spaceburger]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

Sweet rig! Which electrical harness kit are you going to use? West Coast Bronco's has a new one out, requires more work than a Centech but about half the price too. Let us know. Cityhick is now our resident 'custom electrical' expert!

[CityHick]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

West Coast Bronco's has a new one out, requires more work than a Centech but about half the price too. Let us know. Cityhick is now our resident 'custom electrical' expert!

Thanks for the props and all... but I'm hardly an expert! I'm a hack at best, and I'm not afraid to try stuff and make mistakes. Spaceburger knows what I mean when I say I like to "learn by doing".

The WCB kit is probably what I'd have gone with had it existed when I was in the market - Seems as if I read something about it having built-in headlight relays, etc.

I went with the "EZ-Wire" kit from EBay. It is a nice starting point but requires quite a bit of customization. There are plusses and minuses - plusses being that you get to route everything the way you want to, and that its easier to wire aftermarket stuff directly in vs adapting to what's there. The minuses are that you have to figure out how to route everything the way you want it, and that you have to supply all your own connectors and figure out how you want to wrap/loom, etc.


All in all I am pretty happy with my setup. I am NOT an electrical expert by any means and I was able to figure out about 90% of it on my own, the other 10% coming from friends with EE degrees and my father who's an electrical guru.

I think you need to assess your abilities and factor in how much you want to spend. The cheaper kits will suit your purposes but require a little customization and extra brain work!

[blwngsket]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

I shopped around a bit for mine and went with Centech. It was as simple as it gets, each wire is embossed with what it is every 3 inches and the wires are good to like 900 degrees or some silly big number like that, and they would do any mods I wanted. Painless wouldn't deviate from the plan one bit. It cost a bit more, but the time it saved me was worth it. To me anyway.
The hardest part of the job is getting the stones to rip out the old sh#t.

[BroncRider]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

the LUK clutch works on the NP435 right? im sorry i shouldnt have said that the bronco is going to be completely rewired i just ment the engine compartment is going to get cleaned up its a mess with loose wires. that probably will be something i do later on down the road though.

[blwngsket]

Re: BroncRider's 66 Bronco Project

There's a few of us using that clutch with our 435's, including me. I hear they work real good. Only have about 3 or 4 miles on mine. But soon, very soon.