Hey guys just found through CB site.
unfortunately I missed the meet and greet on the 9t of Oct.
(became a CB member on the 10th)

definately looking forward to meeting up with some of you guys in the future.
I am on my fourth EB, 72,73,76 (so shoulda kept) and now a 74.
had my first one around 1998.
Was a part of the Bronco Registry of No Co back then, and got in on the big picture up at red rocks. sorry I missed the most recent group picture.

Current rig status is full replacement panels and fresh, albeit mediocre paint.
302, 3spd, twin stick,2" rancho coils,ps,man drums x4, and 4.11 with a front LS.

Flares,disks and 3.5" lift will be getting picked up tonight after work.
Beard seats are on order for the missus and I and a bench to match for the kiddos.
truck has uncut 1/4s and I have planned to cut them since my wife hates uncut trucks.
I think I might do the lift first though just to see how it looks.
rear section of family cage is on order, to be welded in with my new Lincoln 180 wire feed , been using borrowed stuff and stick welders for waay to long.
future plans also involve the building of a tire carry rear bumper.


trying to decide on what wheels I want, aluminum is nice but I will be looking at a set of 7 eventually, so steel might fit the budget a little better??? we'll see.

I plan to build a trailer (wheel 6&7)to camp with a family of 4 and need a little more room
Our previous camping rig was 26' of toy hauler.......downsized just a little.

Its gonna be a busy winter, propane heater in the garage and welders, grinders going like crazy.

taking wheel and cut or uncut suggestions......
here she is:

Welcome! Personally, I prefer the cut look along with aluminum wheels simply for the weight savings. But whatever YOU decide, it will be awesome:) Glad to have you.

That looks too nice to cut, but I guess if you must to fit bigger tires then be gentle. I'm in Parker so let me know if you need a hand this Winter and I'll come on over.

Wow - you and I have a lot in common. My wife likes the uncut Broncos better, making my Bronco for my family of 4, and thining of building a trailer. I really like the color.

I vote Uncut and Aluminum Wheels.

Way excited to have some more guys from the original B.R.O.N.CO Club. I want to get suggestions to keep this one going. It is staggering how many guys were in that club. The Red Rocks picture is one of my goals with this club. We have a lot of rigs in this group and more joining so we may get up to the BRONCO Club numbers relatively quick.

Welcome and thanks for the pics. My EB will be Uncut so you know who runs things at my house. It will be interesting to see who runs your house

Well I damn sure wear the pants in my house!! whichever ones she tells me to.

We decided over a phone call to go ahead and lift it to see how it looks but I think wheels make the vehicle, so we may have to buy wheels after the lift to give a final look to see what happens with the fenders.

realized I hadn't kept up to date on the progress of my Bronco and my trailer build so I will post a whole bunch of info then some pictures.
This is cross posted over at the CB site so you might see it there too.

Ok here goes

It started out as a 74 with a 2" unknown coil in the front, late model f150 steel wheels, 33x10.5x15 BFG At's, 4.11 gears and a factory LS up front. It is a Ranger but all that has been stripped from it.

3 spd moved to floor, front cage welded in, 302 in good health, maybe slightly tweaked and a carter afb 4b. All the rockers and front and rear fenders have been replaced, in a mediocre fashion but it looked good and was a good starting point for the price.

now what to do?

was going to try and do it right the first time seeing as this was my fourth EB and wanted to only do things once. Had plans to take it slow and keep it basic but kinda went .

so where is it now.......

get a drink and a snack this might take a while.

Wild horses 3.5 suspension lift.

coils,leafs double shocked up front with hoops and stock mounts in the rear.

I found some late model Bronco/F150 alum wheels for cheap, finished stripping the clear and polished out and mounted the 33x10.5 BFG AT's it came with on the new wheels.



Installed a disk brake kit up front, Hydroboost brake booster off a JY astrovan.

Upgraded to a new mustang high amperage alternator and threw in an Optima Yellow top when my battery promptly died the first winter.

It now is running a canned ham steering pump as the stocker just wouldnt hold up to the extra duty running the hydro boost.

It originally was going to get cut from the get go but after the Wild Horses lift decided to leave it for the time and it hasn't changed yet, the tires have just cleared their own path off road.

Converted the wiper arms to the Jeep Cherokee rear setup so I can now run any modern wiper blade(huge improvement).

I started working on the inside as it needed a bit of help.

Installed a twin stick on the Xcase and for now am running the stock 3 spd manual, that is on its last legs,

However there is a ZF5 sitting on my side yard waiting for me to install when time permits this winter, that should be awesome.

I extended the cage to complete the family kit and go to the complete rear so my kiddos are protected, found a hard top for a decent price and ran that for awhile but decided that it was g my kids on the trail in the summer.

Bought a Rampage soft top from WH and installed that,liked it so much I sold the hard top.

Then realized the tired dual exhaust was putting my kids to sleep as it was seeping into the passenger area and when quoted to repair the existing duals, said F it and went for a new custom bent manifold back 2-1 and have been very pleased with it.

Next on the list was to reconfigure the dash.

Cut and relocated the the glove box door and added a pocket for my CB.

then added some space under the radio area for some gauges.

In that slot sits some pro comp ultra lites that keep track of volts,oil pressure and water temp.

while it was apart I piulled the stock speedo and polished the face and added a fresh coat of flouro orange paint to the needles.

Next I installed a new stereo in the dash some side rear speakers in the 1/4 panel diamond plate(it came with) and in the doors in some awesome 1st run door panels from JGZ, thanks again Jay.

I ran the stock seats for awhile and modded a stock rear bench to accomodate some harness mounts for my kids by welding shock tabs to the top rear frame rail of the seat and a flat bar across the bottom that used the stock seatbelt holes, turns out leftover shock mount bolts from my 92 bronco I sold years ago thread perfect into those, sometimes it pays to be a packrat.

I decided I needed better seats and my kids grew up a bit so I placed an order for a full set of beard seats and harnesses.

This did however bring up the problem with the rear harness mounts for the kids so I fabbed me a frame and added a bit of Bronco customization too it just because I could. Its amazing what can be done with a welder and a pile of steel.



made mounts and installed them, these turned out really slick.

The door panels were in rough shape so I recovered them in a seat cover material (motorcycle) that I aquired from a local upholstery shop and it has the appearance of a carbon fiber weave.(matches the new seats on the backs)

After some time I got the idea I needed a rear bumper to carry a fullsize spare and a gas can, since I cant justify the cost to buy a bumper I built one.

turned out pretty good and was exactly what I wanted.

now the front bumper didnt match the rear and I wanted more protection as well as the ability to mount a winch and some light mounts so I built me a front. the rear was made out of tube but the front I went more of a plate design with a tube light bar.

The cool thing about building my own I was able to mount the winch really low between the frame rails to keep the radiator from being blocked off and potentially overheating the Bronco.

Some time passed and my hobby ADD kicked in and I went away for awhile and played with building motorcycles, but got a message from one of the guys here asking where I was and if all was well. it was and I pulled back into the bronco a bit and found some guys were starting to consider doing 1 ton chebby tie rod setups.

Well seeing as how I had the space and the equipment I volunteered my place and some of gurus came over and we knocked out I think 6 or 7 front ends that day. twas a long day but we made it happen.

I have been stuffing fenders on this thing and couldnt be happier.

I will likely cut it one day but the BFG's have a fair bit of life left and I will run them until they are gone and then who knows if the fenders get cut? if they do I might go nuts and bump the lift and go 37"tires or just cut deep with 35's. You just never know with these things.



Now to continue, the 4x4 trailer.

For a family of four to go camping in an early bronco it is tough to pack everything you need. There are companies that make trailers(that I can't afford) and i can build one so I set out to start with the plans.

All the while my mrs was scouring craigslist to see if anything turned up reasonably priced.



She calls me one day and tells me to check an ad she found.

Did some research and called the guy nonstop til he finally called back.

drove the hour and 1/4, pulled in the guys driveway and knew I would be going home with the trailer.

we talked price, shook hands and we were headed home.



It is a 1950 Higgins tent trailer.

all aluminum,15"wheels, high ground clearance looks freakin cool.

The canvas for the tent portion is in very rough shape but overall the trailer was great. we opted to ,for now, use it to haul out camp gear, as replacement canvas is custom and lotsa $$$$.



The factory specs show it weighing in at 750 lbs, we removed the canvas and frame and now it cant weigh more than 500lbs, that canvas is heavy.



We couldn't decide if we wanted to leave it all original or paint it its original color(had been painted a few times) or paint to match my Bronco.

It was decided to paint it to match.

So it matchs my Blue and the top and wheels are Wimbleton White.

it has an aftermarket cooler and propane rack on the front and those are white as well. We replaced all the damaged rivets with stanless steel hardware and welded new hinges to the support bars for the beds.

Made a paint booth out of plastic in my garage and went to town.

I put the same size tires on it that it had, but went BFG AT and because of the profile could not get them to remount, they were more square then the trailer tires on it. They wouldn't get into the skirts on the trailer.

Uh oh.


Not really, just busted out a quick axle flip and they went right in and now there is even more clearance on the trailer than my Bronco.....;D

Oh and they did things right back when this thing was built,

solid 2" steel axle on that thing.

My wife and I worked our tails off and had it done in 10 days.

I still need to make a mount for the spare but time has been thin lately, it will hopefully be done by next spring for wheeling and camping.


Hope I didnt bore with all the details.

The day I brought it home.
As seen above too.







after lift and new wheels, installing rear cage



with hard top

seat lower bars to attach kid seats



Seat frame upper for kid retention



Rear bumper done



front bumper prototype



pile of steel with hours of labor yet to go



more time


finished



and installed with winch and "Mall" lights, they arent wonderfull but help.


new door coverings



with JGZ speaker mounts installed


and finished


new dash completed


polished speedo with fresh needles



I dont have any pics of the seats but you can kinda see them in the dash picture.
need to make that happen as well as my rear harness mounts for the kids.
I will get those added soon.

new soft top


first wheelin trip stuffing fenders


some newer ones with the soft top













Now for the trailer.
as stated before it is a 1950 Higgins tent trailer.
all alum and in my mind (nobody elses matters ;D ) pretty dang cool

Day one








and a DR Pepper bottle opener from who knows what year.
We cleaned and painted everything except the bottle opener. it went back on with all of its original look.


almost done, I do have some build pics somewhere but can't find them.



hooked up for its maiden voyage behind Bronco,just around town 10 days after bringing it home


Its first real road test to Holy Cross trail




Hope you like the little history of my setup.
I wont take up any more space....continue as normal.

Bnut

Wow, thanks for sharing. Love the little trailer! How much does it weigh empty??

BTW - don't cut it! Removing the rocker guards helped. Or extend them wheel arch to wheel arch. Just be careful of those rockers on the, well, uh, rocks!

Found some more pics.

Here are the seats that went in.





and installed, the first round I made sliders for the driver seat but it sat too high so i just mounted it in a fixed position. My wife and I can drive it and if anyone else has a true need to drive it they should be able to.







A better detail how I did the rear swing out mount.

just welded a bolt to the bumper and drilled both the gas carrier and tire mount swing over it then I thread on my "wing" nut.

Just a nut with long tabs welded to it.

not as quick as the cam release but if it ever gets loose i have lots of time to fix it before it ever started swinging around behind the truck.





found one of my front disks and hoops too all pretty and new





couple more of the trailer and my paint booth design



Before











during stripping stage. Ignore the hack doing the work.



















Mini paint booth for the small stuff.

Plastic to ceiling, small box fan with Hvac air filter on inlet to catch spray.

I had a respirator too, otherwise it would be deadly.



Wheels and cooler rack



the whole garage became a booth for the lids and main tub.



Done

Loved your whole story! I'm going to want to make a paint booth to reprint an old army jeep trailer I picked up. You did a great job! Peter