Justin's retroactive build thread

[Justin]

So, in keeping with the retroactive nature of my build thread, thought I'd post up some long overdue updates. The pace of the build slowed a bunch after we moved in April, but I've made a few changes. One of the biggest was picking up a Ramsey RE8000 worm drive winch from FrankCastle (thanks again!). It's huge, mostly due to having 150' of cable, but I think I can make a pretty low profile mount for it by sitting it down right between the frame rails. I also fabbed up a mount to put the CB antenna in place of the stock radio antenna. After having the Cobra 29LTD cleaned out and tuned up the CB setup is working pretty well. Mostly this summer has been spent driving it. Near future plans include installing the stereo I picked up for it, getting the hydroboost power brakes in at the tech day on 12/8, and creating some locked storage in the bed area. I'm hoping to build a new front bumper, add sliders and add some tubing to the cage before spring.

[akaFrankCastle]

150', really? Damn. No wonder that thing was so heavy.

[Justin]

Yup. There isn't too much to it, otherwise. I'm hoping someday to swap out the cable for rope. I figure it'll knock at least 30lbs off the weight.

[Jesus_man]

Winch Rope is the way to go. It's not cheap, but it's so nice. Just not as tough for wear.

[Kinder]

Dibs on the cable when you upgrade to synthetic rope

[Justin]

Not happening any time soon. The synthetic rope is something like $400 for that much.

[akaFrankCastle]

......and creating some locked storage in the bed area.

Sumpin like dis?

http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/EB_Tuffy_Storage_Trunk/Bronco_Storage

[Justin]

More like the side trim panels in the bed, but with some doors. It'll be a good place to store small soft items like tow straps.

[Justin]

Many thanks to Kinder and Casadejohnson, got the Astro hydroboost mostly installed. Just need to get some brake lines fabbed up and the system bled and it should be ready to roll.

[Eck]

Let me know if you need a hand with the rest of it. Brake lines and bleeding is actually one thing that I know how to do. Would be more than happy to lend a hand or a brake bleeding calf to pump the lines!

[Justin]

Thanks! PMed ya.

[Justin]

Spent some quality time with some new brake lines and the proper fittings this evening. No one will mistake them for professional, but I'm fairly certain they'll keep the brake fluid in and the air out.

[Jesus_man]

Mission accomplished. Looks good to me.

[Colorado75bronc]

Looks good Justin!

[Justin]

Eck came over yesterday and help out, many thanks to him! Got the brakes bled and re-routed some of the lines to accommodate a power steering cooler. Got that installed today, everything buttoned up and the system filled. Began bleeding the PS system when the wife summoned me for Christmas tree assembly. Currently have some odd brake behavior (brake is firm sometimes, going to the floor others), but I've only cycled the power steering about a dozen times. I'm guessing I've got air still in the lines that further bleeding will solve.

[Justin]

I've officially got power brakes! Finished getting the power steering bled out, tidied up the hoses, and took it for a test drive. Two words: Holy (expletive)! I've never driven a Bronco with power brakes, but I'm pretty sure I could lock up all four tires with minimal effort. They grab harder than my WRX with performance pads and upgraded rotors. It's going to take some time to readjust my driving to match. Many thanks to the guys that helped make it happen!

[Colorado75bronc]

Awesome man I'm jealous, I hate my vacuum brakes since I did the 3/4 ton swap the booster doesn't have enough, and I can't fit a bigger vacuum booster so I'm doing a hydro swap, how much did it cost you in parts overall?

[Eck]

So are you still having the intermittent soft then stiff brake issue?

[Justin]

Awesome man I'm jealous, I hate my vacuum brakes since I did the 3/4 ton swap the booster doesn't have enough, and I can't fit a bigger vacuum booster so I'm doing a hydro swap, how much did it cost you in parts overall?

Off the top of my head:
Booster: $20
6AN fittings x4: $60
5ft of HP hose: $50
Adapters to 6AN: $50-$75, could probably be sourced more cheaply
Adapter plate: $40
other misc: $30-$50

Under $300 total. It could be done for less, but I wanted to use an adapter plate that met up with the factory holes instead of poking new ones, and I like the ability to rebuild the PS hoses in the field if needed. That's probably the biggest place you could shave off some $$. I've never driven a vacuum boosted EB, so I can't compare, but the reviews on CB.com suggest that the hydroboost is a decent chunk stronger. It's got a pedal feel that will take some getting used to, as it doesn't have much feedback. It's probably similar to driving a rig with ram assist steering.

[Justin]

So are you still having the intermittent soft then stiff brake issue?

Nope, bled it out some more and the problem went away. Just air in the lines like I suspected. I'm expecting it to get even better with more use. I've seen posts by guys that said it took a few days of driving around to really get all the air out.

[Colorado75bronc]

Awesome not bad at all, thanks Justin

[Eck]

So are you still having the intermittent soft then stiff brake issue?

Nope, bled it out some more and the problem went away. Just air in the lines like I suspected. I'm expecting it to get even better with more use. I've seen posts by guys that said it took a few days of driving around to really get all the air out.

Nice! When it doubt, bleed it out! I will look forward to taking a ride...once of course you have figured out how to NOT send people through the windshield.

[Gunnibronco]

Justin,

Didn't know you never had power brakes before. I assumed you were upgrading from vac booster. The difference must be . I swapped to vac power brakes soon after going to 33's, I can't even remember driving it without power brakes. I upgraded to h-boost when the vac booster went bad, every time I hit the brakes w/ no gas, the motor died. That was fun. I remember putting my h-boost in and taking it for its first run outside the body shop. After a couple dry runs, making sure the truck had brakes, I tried a panic stop from about 30 mph. Had everyone in the shop laughing when I pretty much stood the Bronco on its nose, and almost sent me and my passenger through the windshield.

Must feel like the difference when I finally upgraded to power steering after years of strong arming it around.

My original set up had a very touchy pedal, but I got used to it. I felt it was a lot like my 83 911 w/no power brakes. Recently, I upgraded to the T-bird front calipers (78/79 F150 disks), with a larger capacity, huge single piston. Since they use more fluid to push the huge piston, the pedal stroke is longer & less on/off. It also pulled my brake bias forward, but I think that was necessary because I'm running a disk/disk master cylinder (99 Mustang), but drum rears.

[Justin]

It was a pretty big upgrade. Manual brakes were no big deal on my '73 on 29" tires, but it turns out that 35s are another thing. The comparison to putting in power steering it pretty accurate-I went from manual steering to a 4x4x2 box. The pedal action is similar to what you're describing. Fairly short range of engagement, and the rears still lock up before the fronts despite putting in a prop valve and a disc/drum M/C. I'm guessing the increased weight transfer under braking with a lifted truck is making a difference over a stock one. I've kicked around doing the t-bird calipers, sounds like it'd be a good, relatively inexpensive upgrade. I might look around to see if there is a master cylinder with a slightly smaller bore that still bolts up, as I wouldn't mind having better modulation overall and more power should the booster ever fail.

[Jesus_man]

Someday, I think this upgrade will be on my list, but honestly, and I can't explain why, my manual brakes work pretty well with disc/disc setup. Sure, it takes some effort to hold on a hill for a while, but I have never felt as if I couldn't stop. Maybe I simply don't know what I am missing. I guess my old excuse was, I didn't want the brakes to feel any different if the engine died on me. With the Atlas, that rarely happens now.

But I also wonder if my used Astro Van Saginaw could keep up with h-boost and ram assist?

[Justin]

JM, didn't see your post till now. I'm guessing it could, but am not sure. After a little more driving around, it looks like I'll need to upgrade to something with dual return. The brakes drag for a second or to when I let off them. After some reading, this is a classic symptom of using a T in the return line, as the h-boost units don't tolerate much back pressure.

Just finished up a couple of long standing projects. Did a bunch of wire cleanup to get rid of excess wire. Pulled out at least 15 feet of wire, much of it from the wiring harness on my ARB compressor and lockers. Finally got my Smittybilt center console installed with bolts instead of gravity. Best of all, I got around to installing my stereo, so I'm now streaming anything I can get on my smartphone. I'll be semi-permanently installing my old beater iPod to act as local storage for my music collection when I'm out of cell range and can't access my media server directly. I'm expecting the driving experience to be improved greatly by a little Master of Puppets.

[ZOSO]

Hey quick question. When you did your door post and kick panel did you have to worry about the dash/windshield frame drooping? Booger and I were talking about tackling this on his this up coming winter. We were thinking about bolting the hard top back on to hold the windshield up.

[Justin]

Yup, this was an issue. I measured a bunch before disassembly, but my rig had been in a minor fender-bender that badly damaged the door post and the brace under the floor so the measurements were only partly useful. Part of the build was to take some of the tweak out of the body. I cut out the rotten part of the door post, then sectioned in the new part of the kick panel. Before I welded the kick panel to the floorboards I used a floor jack and a piece of 2x4 to lift the entire assembly into alignment, then screwed it down. I then sectioned in the piece of door post, attaching it to the kick panel with screws. Test fit the door about a billion times to line everything up, then welded. It was a major PITA.

[Justin]

I've gotten to enjoy a summer of driving the truck with very little work beyond routine maintenance. Now that we're rolling into fall, I'm trying to get some of the projects taken care of. While checking out my rig I discovered that my rubber fuel lines were in far worse shape than I'd realized. I picked up a roll of 3/8" fuel line and bent up some new lines. I'm taking it down the outside of the frame rail, then up over the inner fender to keep the lines well away from the exhaust. It'll also have me well set for when I go to EFI. I'll post up a pic of the chassis line when I get everything all put together, but for now here's a pic of the line I made for the pump -> carb run.

IMG_20130826_232925_939.jpg

Once the fuel lines are done I'll likely drive it around for a few more weeks, then pull it off the road to make the leap to long arms and full width axles.

IMG_20130806_170900_308.jpg

Oh, and I got new wheels. They're more bling-tastic than I like, but they were an unreal deal. Might need to break out the Plasti-Dip. They're 17x9 with a 4.5" backspace, another step towards 37s.

IMG_20130819_180038_375.jpg

[Jesus_man]

37's on 17's!! That's where I'm headed. Can't wait to watch the FW build chapter!