www.ColoradoClassicBroncos.com

Hello everyone - I originally bought this jewel for my son as his first vehicle but he didn't find it to his liking which turned out great for me.

The drive train is pretty close to stock.........it is equipped with a carbed 302, a C4 & D20, with 3.54 gears and a limited slip out back.

With help and advice from several great guys I have done a lot of mechanical work to the ol girl. The C4 and D20 were rebuilt by Viper with help by 777mechanic, and me doing the grunt work. I upgraded the brakes to an Astro Van based Hydroboost system and then installed all new axles, bearings, brakes, brake lines, etc.

Zillacon, 76bronco, and I recently installed a Wild Horses 3.5" lift. At the same time I added Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs on the 15" x 8.5" slots.

Future plans include 5.0 EFI (donor from 98 Explorer standing by), a "hidden" winch, and a gear change and ARB lockers. From there I might as well replace the rusted out floor pans and on some fresh paint.





I thought I would add a pic of our other project..............this is my wife's 57 Ford Fairlane 500 2 door hard top. I took the 352 FE & 3 speed out of it and will be putting in a 428 Cobrajet and a toploader 4 speed.

About time to see that great looking rig.....

I'll say it again....my favorite paint job...don't change it (or at least the scheme) !

Matt

Beautiful Bronco. I remember standing and staring at it at the Bear Creek m&g.

Nice rig!! Funny, I just saw that air cleaner in the Summit Racing catalog....I like.

And to resolve your dilemma...go 351W EFI! That's what I plan on doing. Talk to Viperwolf1 (Phil). He did the 5.0L EFI and while it's great...he wishes he went with the 351 now. Maybe we can do it together and get discounts along the way!

Love the "Fall Grass" picture.

Oddly enough , I've been running color schemes through my head for a long time now for my Bronco and I was wondering how colors similiar to that would look in reality.
Very sharp .... Saved the pic as my background now :)

airbur wrote:Nice rig!! Funny, I just saw that air cleaner in the Summit Racing catalog....I like.

I like it too because it is a little different.

However, it rubs on the underside of the hood ever so slightly. This could be solved easily enough by adjusting carb height or machining a bit off the bottom of the air cleaner itself.

Did you submit the Fall Grass Photo to the ClassicBroncos.com Calendar? I just got mine yesterday and was disappointed with the majority of choices. I understand it was done democratically so I am not complaining, but I cannot understand why this was not in the calendar.

Guess the solution is to do a Colorado Classic Broncos Calendar next year and I think we have Mr. October right here

I was inspired by Matt's cool photo of his in front of the barn but I took the photo after the calendar submision deadline, maybe next year ?

Yes, I think we should do a local calendar ! (Why wait til next year?)

A 2012 Calendar would be awesome. Only reason I say wait is because I have a 2011 ClassicBroncos.com Calendar and the timing involved in getting it ready for 2011. Timing is great to start thinking and planning for 2012. Likely someone here has a source for getting these produced.

Getting 12 good pictures from the group may be the easiest project ever. We have already seen a ton of good pics posted here on the Home Page. Add in the fact that lots of guys have photography as a hobby as well - should come together pretty easy. I also want to do a HUGE group photo this summer.

I am voting Jeff for Mr. October!

BTW - I cannot wait to do the family pic next spring with the Bronco like Dan, Jeremy, and others did. If you haven't seen Jeremy's, you should check out CB.com and check it out - looks awesome.

Found some pics from the COS M/G

I have been calling you Mr. October ever since I saw your avatar. Look through your pics and enter some of these pics for the 2011 Calendar!

added pics of my other project to my original post

That car is amazing. I forgot to ask, what did you end up getting as your son's first car in place of the Bronco?

Just caught up!!!!

Wow !

Rox....you are my hero! That car is amazing. When do I get a ride!

Hope to see you next weekend!

Matt

Howdy Matt - believe me, it isn't that amazing right now.

no engine or tranny in it...............just sitting in the garage waiting for renewed interest and available funding.

see you at breakfast

Do you have the EFI installed yet? How's it running?

76fordbronco wrote:Do you have the EFI installed yet? How's it running?

driving it to work tomorrow

pullin the tank and engine over the week end

gonna go slowly............may take all winter depending on funds, etc

A 77 true ford blue bronco decor, makes a great eye catcher. Wow that car is insane!

yeah, gonna update this thread with some previous upgrades, sorry for the redunduncy.

I have been wanting to do this for a long time but just got around to it.

As several others have done, I made some inserts out of 2"x4" rectangular tubing. These go in the end of the frame to strengthen it. The inserts are about 8" long and on one end you have to cut and re-weld it so it will match the countour of the bottom part of the frame.


You also need to make some shims to take up the slack between the sidewalls of the frame and the vertical walls of the insert. I used 3/16"x2" flatbar, drilled a half inch hole, and then welded them to the outside walls of the inserts. These shims keep the sidewall of the frame from collapsing onto the insert when you tighten the hell out of the horizontal mounting bolt.

Then I made a stiffner bar out of 2"x2" heavy wall square tubing. This got welded between the inserts where the frame is notched for access to the original bumper mounting bolts. The inserts already eliminated access to these bolts so I decided that adding this stiffener couldn't hurt.


Then I mounted some chrome tow hooks from mid 90s F250/F350.


One thing I would do differently next time is to weld nuts on the inside floor of the insert so that you could just thread the mounting bolts in.

As it is now, you have to drop the rear mounting bolt for the tow hook down from inside and put the lockwasher and nut on from the bottom.

This is because you have to put the bumper on and drop a carraige bolt all the way down through the bumper, frame, insert..........and out through the bottom.....................which of course eliminates access to the bolt head so you can't tighten it. I got lucky and one is real tight and the other is kinda tight so I will have to keep an eye on it.

I am now ready to pull all my neighbors' 4 door Jeep Rubicons out of the snow banks this winter !

Nice job Jeff, that's another on my list of things to do.

Howdy guys,

As we learned a few things specific to 76/77 model Bronco, I thought I would share results of my TieRod Over conversion using Roughstuff TieRod End components in combination with knuckles off of a 78/79 Bronco.

The tie rod attachment points on the 78/79 knuckle are about 1" lower than the stock knuckles used on 76/77 Broncos. So in theory, the 76/77 knuckles would be better in terms of achieving maximum trail clearance for steering linkage.

Unfortunately, the attachment points on 76/77 are about 1" closer to the wheels preventing use of any of the heavier duty steering linkage components available which is why I elected to use the 78/79 knuckles.

On to the good stuff, since the 76/77 Bronco came stock with a longer track bar bracket, you don't have to use a drop pitman arm or an axle riser bracket to achieve nearly perfect geometry between trac bar and drag link. Mine ended up being within 1 degree of each other.

That's pretty slick, I'll be stealing your design !

Rox Crusher wrote:I have been wanting to do this for a long time but just got around to it.

As several others have done, I made some inserts out of 2"x4" rectangular tubing. These go in the end of the frame to strengthen it. The inserts are about 8" long and on one end you have to cut and re-weld it so it will match the countour of the bottom part of the frame.

bronco 2.JPG

You also need to make some shims to take up the slack between the sidewalls of the frame and the vertical walls of the insert. I used 3/16"x2" flatbar, drilled a half inch hole, and then welded them to the outside walls of the inserts. These shims keep the sidewall of the frame from collapsing onto the insert when you tighten the hell out of the horizontal mounting bolt.

Then I made a stiffner bar out of 2"x2" heavy wall square tubing. This got welded between the inserts where the frame is notched for access to the original bumper mounting bolts. The inserts already eliminated access to these bolts so I decided that adding this stiffener couldn't hurt.

bronco 3.JPG

Then I mounted some chrome tow hooks from mid 90s F250/F350.

bronco 5.JPG

One thing I would do differently next time is to weld nuts on the inside floor of the insert so that you could just thread the mounting bolts in.

As it is now, you have to drop the rear mounting bolt for the tow hook down from inside and put the lockwasher and nut on from the bottom.

This is because you have to put the bumper on and drop a carraige bolt all the way down through the bumper, frame, insert..........and out through the bottom.....................which of course eliminates access to the bolt head so you can't tighten it. I got lucky and one is real tight and the other is kinda tight so I will have to keep an eye on it.

I am now ready to pull all my neighbors' 4 door Jeep Rubicons out of the snow banks this winter !

X2

X3 I need to replace/upgrade my steering setup anyways. Might be time to hunt down a 4x4x2 and do the whole setup at once.

1st time a hose clamp came loose which let the hose dislodge from pick up tube

2nd time I found a bunch of crap in bottom of the tank

This time I found pieces of cork gasket and what appeared to be some Right Stuff was blocking the strainer / sock at the pick up point

I will reinstall tank tomorrow and hope this is the last time

Nice work! Glad it was an somewhat easy fix. (If you call pulling the tank easy).

Rox Crusher wrote:1st time a hose clamp came loose which let the hose dislodge from pick up tube

2nd time I found a bunch of crap in bottom of the tank

This time I found pieces of cork gasket and what appeared to be some Right Stuff was blocking the strainer / sock at the pick up point

I will reinstall tank tomorrow and hope this is the last time

If you sell it, just think of how much fun you'd be missing out on!

I did some reading, Right Stuff isn't gas resistant, silicone sealants aren't, I used Permatex #2.

I still haven't used my trans jack for a transmission, but it was great for lifting my tank in & out.

Gunnibronco wrote:

Rox Crusher wrote:1st time a hose clamp came loose which let the hose dislodge from pick up tube

2nd time I found a bunch of crap in bottom of the tank

This time I found pieces of cork gasket and what appeared to be some Right Stuff was blocking the strainer / sock at the pick up point

I will reinstall tank tomorrow and hope this is the last time

If you sell it, just think of how much fun you'd be missing out on!

I did some reading, Right Stuff isn't gas resistant, silicone sealants aren't, I used Permatex #2.

I still haven't used my trans jack for a transmission, but it was great for lifting my tank in & out.

Yeah, I guess this time it was the Wrong Stuff. It was in the bottom of the tank in gelatin like globs.

I installed a new cork gasket without any sealant this time

Tank back in, new gas added to cleaned tank, runs great again.