dbasile wrote:It was great to meet you the other day. Just checked your build out, WOW it looks awesome! Look like lots of time and skills put into your tide. Keep up the good work. Once it done I would like the chance to go wheeling with you.
Dbasile, it was nice meeting you as well, wheeling for sure!!
I haven't worked on the bronco for several weeks as we took a road trip to visit our daughter in Wenatchee WA, then had some house landscaping that the wife requested, but today I received my gas tank 2.0 version from Aero. This one is correct its hard to see in the photo but the sump is 5" in the rear and 9" in the front vs. 9" F/R on the first tanks. So now I can install the gas tank mounting tabs on the cage paint and start back on the build.
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Yes big thanks to Jake at Aero, he didn't even hesitate once he saw the picture he said our mistake and said he would make a new one and was sorry for setting me back on the build.
Mounting the gas tank proved more work than I originally thought, my plan was to put the gas tank 1" away from the tailgate and 2+" above the tailgate line which fit perfect but didn't realize that the rear hatch is angled inwards and now would hit the tank and not fully close. This meant I needed to cut and move the tubing that ties the rear shock mounts together 1.5" forward so the gas tank can move forward.
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I was able to get the F/R seats mounted and not sure how someone is getting in the back seat lol, I then removed the cage for the last time in order to sand and paint the inside of the tub and then starts the final assembly!!!
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Progress has been a slower than I like, I got the roll cage all painted and was ready to install and then I stumbled on a 90's Bronco 2 at the UPNP and damn if it didn't have the passenger manual seat slider I've been looking for. So now my cage seat mount were not going to work due to the fact that this sliders is about 4" tall, so I thought I could just install a plate to the current design which still wasn't low enough, needleless to say I had to cut out my cage mounts and just make new brackets than mount to the floor. Good thing is the slider has about a 12-13" throw which gives descend access to the back seat.
More important than that is I got my roll cage mounted to the tub and FINALLY have some garage space to work in!!
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I think I'm done painting (HVLP) everything I need for now and can start working on setting the engine cage/motor. I'm starting to see a faint glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.
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Finished up mocking up the passenger slider and pretty happy with the placement/rear access. The passenger seat sits about 1" taller than driver but you really cant tell IMO. but that could change if the wife doesn't approve.
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I got the fuel tank bracket all painted up and mounted along with the making/installing the driver seat brackets in order to make a center console for the stereo, gauges, cup holder etc.... I also forgot to pain the dash white so for now I'll just have to live with it unless we get a +60 degree day.
For now I'm just temporally installing the motor/transmission to see where the floor shifter need to be along with installing the fuel lines I hope to have the axles back under it and on its own weight by the end of this weekend so I can work on finalizing the suspension cycle before painting.
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I was able to settle with a center console design along with the most important part "cup holders". I made the cup holders big enough to fit the Yeti can cooler so that once you remove them the you can fit a water bottle/24oz drink. Installing the lower cable mounts on the gate shifter was tedious I needed to drill a hole through the cross member along with making a custom bracket as the OEM one was not at a best angle. I'm not sure if the front drive line up travel is going to clear the lower shift arm I'll find out once the front axle is installed.
With the rear shocks now mounted I came up with a way to seal the inner cab that I'm pretty happy with IMO. The panels are in 3-pieces and I thought about painting them orange but since I'll be using silicone to seam the gaps the contrast of black/orange will look tacky so I'll just use the same color as the cage. Next was trying to find a way to seal around the shock body and I was way over thinking it so after drinking a Red Bull and staring at it long enough I remembered I had a few square sheets of 1" poly foam laying around so using a hole saw I cut a few 4 inch circles. The cuts weren't super clean but if you apply some heat with a heat gun it actually looks pretty good. Overall I think it will be fine
The last picture is the spare tire stops that I made up, there are two inside the cab and the 3 point mounts to the rear bumper stinger using the "Y" ratchet strap.
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landshark wrote:i feel your pain on the shifter bracket - refused to cut the crossmember and alternated the bracket/cable mount to clear the cross member
IMG_6251.jpeg
With that shifter lever pointed down vs. up like stock its not the best I may have to rotate it 180, I was able to just drill a 3/4" hole at the rear of the cross member and that seem to help, but still think I'll be hitting
So the foam allows the shock to sway a little in there and still retain a seal. I like it! Now, what about the hole where the spare resides? LOL!
Console looks great! Looks like there is still a litter room rear of the cupholders to make a little tray or covered storage if you needed it. As long as whatever was inside didn't mind a little heat.
1973 Bronco, 351 SEFI, Locked, discs, 35's ZF-5spd and Atlas 4spd. 235:1 Crawl Ratio. It may be ugly, but it's slow. http://www.ucora.org
Now, what about the hole where the spare resides? LOL! I don't think much dust will enter thru the spare tire opening, did I forget to mention that I'm building a Mall Crawler
Small update as it seems the little stuff take more time than you think. I was able to get both axles on and sitting on its own weight the ride height with 1" preload plus adding 400lbs for top/gas etc.... seem to be pretty close to plan. I've been working on bump stops and limit straps which has taking way longer than I anticipated.
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