I am thrusting myself back into the EB world once again. I owned a 69 when I was in HS and college only to sell it for a more reliable commuter and daily driver Jeep. Now that I am all growed up and have a little cash in the wallet, I am really excited to be the proud owner of the interum named "Blanco Bronco." (A color change is most likely in store.) I bought this beauty about 3 months ago and the brakes were in immediate need of some TLC. The thing pulled hard to the left when braking and so my first official project was a disc brake conversion and PB booster from Toms. In short hindsight, it appears I could've/should've gone with a HB, but did not know of that upgrade at the time. I finished the conversion last weekend and after a few side projects and hiccups, I got her stopping straight and pretty darn good.

Soooo, that leaves me a long list of things I plan to do moving forward:
(in no particular order)
- Power Steering Conversion
- Rear Lockers - they are currently locked all the time and I am not sure if they were welded locked or somehow modified that way...either way, I hate them locked all time.
- New seats, interior re-finish, and stereo
- Exterior body work and sheet metal-- prep for paint and re-paint
- Locate matching wheel and tire for spare
- Heater/blower upgrade
- New trim/exterior accessories
- Extend the current roll bar to cover the front area

I am certainly considering myself a newbie when it comes to knowing how to do a lot of this stuff and am looking for any help and suggestions. I would like for my next project to be the interior/exterior body work, sheet metal, and paint prep. I do not know how to weld but would love to maybe get a tech day together and learn as well as get the sheet metal work accomplished on my rig (any takers? I make a pretty mean homemade pizza!)


-Skip

Great looking truck, Skip. Happy to have you aboard.

Looks like your inner fenders might have a touch of the mange that so commonly attacks us.

Some work was done to that motor recently. Prior to you buying?

Still rocking the 3 speed in there?

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Mange? YES!! and it has spread thus my desire to get that taken care of first. That is why I am desperately needing to get the welding/sheet metal done so I can start the sanding and prepping for paint process.

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Both sides are relatively the same-- rockers, floor boards, as well as the inner fenders. Also, the driver door needs some serious work. You should be able to see in this picture the inside where the door hinge mounts is completely held together by the PO's duct tape method...

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As for the engine work you mention-- I have no clue, I am very novice with engine stuff but this project is where I start to learn, right? I can say that it is still the 3 spd (which I like) and has been moved to a floor shifter.

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Couple things I left off of my earlier TO DO LIST: New wiring and a 23 gallon main rear tank upgrade. It currently only has one tank and is the small one-- not gonna work once I hit the trails!



And finally-- the rear end. Can anyone help my identify it?

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Lol, mange. Nice rig. I'm Radio Flyer over on ACB, nailed the model # on your winch for you. Welcome!

Missed your question about which rear end you have on the first read-through. Measure the diameter of your brake drums. If they're 11"x2 1/4" wide (brake pad width, not drum width, you've got a 76-77 big bearing rear end. If they're 11"x1 3/4" wide you have one of the 66-75 big bearing rears. With 10" drums you you probably have a small bearing rear, but could have the weird hybrid 74-75 "medium duty" rears that have the larger bearings but 10" drums. You can also measure the spacing of the flange bolts to tell. Post up those measurements and I can probably tell you which one you have. Also, are you planning to tackle your bodywork yourself?

I will measure Sunday-- heading up to the mountains for the weekend to get the first ski day in for the season.

As for body work-- I have two issues. 1. Never done it before. 2. I have a one-car garage I am working out of (has small sidebays that give me some space.) I would not mind doing body work myself, would especially be interested in doing it if there were some members that would be interested in helping with some of the welding. Regardless, I plan to sand and prep for paint on my own. I noticed your profile pic involves some welding masks-- are you easily persuaded with frosty bevs and pizza?!!

-Skip

Have fun skiing! Body work isn't too hard if you're not seeking perfection. I'm a fan of both frosty beverages and pizza. I'd be happy to help you with your rig, (mostly) finished up a major repair job on mine earlier this year. I'm no pro, but I'm not as clueless as I used to be and the repairs yours needed aren't that hard. Pics of what I did on mine are most of the way down my build thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3159. Your small garage shouldn't be an issue. Landshark's might be smaller than his Bronco and he's about to have one of the nicest rigs in the club.

I've got a welder, helmets, etc. that I can bring over. It's a great investment if you're building a trail truck. I'm planning to fab my own winch bumper sometime this winter and am also going to make some additions to my roll cage. The welding part of the job is easy once you mostly get the hang of it. Burning in the spot welds is easy, stitching takes a little more practice. I'm happy to teach you what I know. If you're thinking about learning, I've been looking into taking a welding course somewhere locally and would love company. Not sure about the 18th. I'm hosting the Hydroboost tech day on the 10th and my wife gets cranky if I stick her with the kids for full days on consecutive weekends. Probably the best place to start is for me to come over for an hour or two and we can go over what needs doing. I can also show you the basics of what you need to do to prep things for the install. We can talk about sheet metal vs. prefab pieces at that point. Sheet metal may be fine for the inner fenders and inner rockers, but you'll want to order proper rocker panels and floorboards. Not of what you're doing is particularly complex, although lining up the rockers is sort of a PITA. Go pick up a spring loaded center punch and a spot weld drill bit from Harbor Freight and you'll be able to get started. If you don't have one already, you'll need an angle grinder, some cutoff wheels, some sanding discs and a wire wheel as well. Harbor freight is fine for those as well, although I've had bad luck with their sanding discs. You may also want to think about a fire extinguisher for the garage, a good quality respirator and a face shield. Not sure of your metal working/fab experience, so sorry if those seem sort of obvious.

[quote="Justin"]If you're thinking about learning, I've been looking into taking a welding course somewhere locally and would love company. quote]

Keep me posted on what you find. I have looked at a couple online as well. It looks like they vary a little on skill level you start with and skill level you are desiring to get to. Also, what are the different types (MIG, TIG) and which do you use on SS or is better for auto application?

Sunday may work, let me touch base with the social director and get back to you. Otherwise most weekday evenings work fine for me. You're looking at a somewhat lengthy project-mine took a couple of months of intermittent work, but it's all doable by a novice and I was picking away at mine a few hours at a time. I had no idea at all what I was doing when I started and learned lots. Many people around here can help, and someone can generally answer any question you've got. I can definitely get you pointed in the right direction and am happy to lend both hands and tools. I'll add a set of body hammers to my suggested set of tools. Again, Harbor Freight, something like $20.

Re: the welding class, I'm looking at a course spanning several sessions. You can do just about anything that a Bronco would need with MIG, so I'm shooting for a basic MIG certificate. Mostly I want to be able to comfortably do stuff that has safety implications (cages, suspension). I'll do a little more digging and let you know what I find out. What part of Denver are you in?

Mig is the best to learn for all around stuff. TIG is great, but fairly specialized.

You situation and goals are almost identical to mine. Eerie. Frankly, if you work from home I may be able to get together during the day as well, as my work life is really variable.

Your plan is pretty realistic, so it sounds doable. Expect that it'll take twice as long as you think, and that halfway through it you'll feel twice as dumb as you might now. On the up side, you'll get to buy twice as many tools as you thought you would, so there are perks. I'll be in touch.

I'll second that. I ended up saving a ton of money by buying this:

http://www.weldingmart.com/sp-140t-mig- ... recon.html

Combined with a $100 Miller welding mask (HF ones are fine, I just had some ebay credit), a HF welding cart and a tank from a club member (good deals can be had on craigslist as well) and I had a good MIG setup for less than $700. It was a major chunk of change to spend, but I got a great setup that I use more than I thought I would. I keep getting random fab ideas and just going down to the garage and making them happen since now I've got the tools to do it. A good example is the antenna mount I made about 1/4 of the way down this page:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1030&p=42578&hilit=CB+antenna#p42578

Lots of good used setups available on Craigslist as well.

Also, I was thinking about your rocker panels, and now may be a really good time to do something like this:

http://www.locobronco.com/index.php?top ... B%2Furl%5D

Riley's rockers are really cool, but you can do the same for about 1/3 the cost with some 2x6 or 2x4 steel tube. It may actually wind up costing less than the proper parts to put new rockers in. Great upgrade for wheeling if you're not dead set on keeping the factory body lines. I'm planning on doing mine at some point this winter. Hmmm, might be another good tech day.

I tend to agree with getting my own welding machine if I am actually going to take the time to learn (especially if I end up investing in a class). Not to mention, who knows if I will get the bug and end up with another project vehicle down the road... seems like it's a pretty easy sickness to catch. I just did a quick search on Craigslist... what do you guys think of this?

http://denver.craigslist.org/tld/3313595548.html

As for the rocker panels. I am not opposed to the idea you mentioned. If I were to do something like that, I would probably try to fab some sort of a semi-hidden nerf bar to attach that sticks out maybe a couple inches at most to offer a little added protection as well as a pseudo-step for the midgets!

Most of us are self-taught or learned from friends. It isn't that hard to get a basic weld down. Anything structural takes a little more expertise, but that's where education and classes come in. I wouldn't go with that welder. It doesn't have the power of a 140. I've got a 140 and have thought about getting the garage wired for 220v so that I can step up to a 180. The 125 maxes out at 1/4" steel if you do multiple passes, where the 140 will do 3/16 in a single pass. Multi-pass welding increases the risks of contamination, which can weaken the weld and 3/16 is a common thickness for things like bumpers and sliders.

2x6 tube for sliders will stick out 1.5"-2", which should do what you're looking for. See the pic in the second post:

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showth ... p?t=197798

No worries. I suspect either setup is equally good. I like the having the additional metal to weld to with the rockers folded in, but both setups are proven and work well. Not sure which way I'll go when the time comes. You won't regret a welder purchase, and you can buy one, then run flux core wire till you get a gas bottle. On a 140, anything on the larger end of what the welder requires will mean you're running flux wire anyway. Take a look at some of the Hobart and Miller welders in addition to the Lincolns. Both are good, Hobart will tend to be less expensive. The largest 110v welder that either makes will be a good entry level welder. Avoid off brands or the HF ones. Harder to get parts for, and sometimes tougher to lay down a good bead with. PM me your email and I can send you some welding books.

I have a Hobart Handler 125. You want one that can run on gas. Some are flux core wire only and you'll want to upgrade to gas someday. I like my welder. It's done a lot of what I have needed to do. But its nice to have friends who have bigger 220v machines to do the major stuff. There was lots of discussions on here about welders recently, but I think it got more into a brand name war than anything.

Either way, I think they are a worthy investment. So nice to be able to fab up your own stuff.

Also look at an Eastwood welder. It's a rebadged Lincoln without the cost. I have the 185 and it works great.

Ok-- Hobart 140 looks to be about $500 http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200306073


Eastwood 135 is $300 http://www.eastwood.com/mig-welder-110v ... utput.html
-- got great reviews
-- ZOSO-- did not see any 185's (the 175 was 220V)

Miller Welders are way too expensive for what I am looking to spend

Lincoln 140 is $620 http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200405530
-- This one seems to be spool capable -- Is this something that is commonly used or I will want?


Sounds like everyone has the opinion based off of brand or maybe what you use, but I would love any feedback before I make a decision to purchase one.

The Millers are nice but they're proud of them. Hobarts are good welders (made by Miller, I think). Not familiar with the Eastwoods, but I trust Zoso's judgement. The 135 looks like slightly lower spec than the Lincoln 140, but that's a good deal. A spool is used for welding aluminum, not something you're likely to need. A couple of guys in the club (me included) went with refurb Lincolns that have worked well so far. Mine didn't look like it had ever been used.

I just recently bought a Hobart handler 210 MVP and love it, it can be run on 110 or 220, it is on northern tool for $849.99, I bought a floor model from Murdoch's discounted for $719, not sure about the Eastwood welders, I will only buy Lincoln, Miller, and Hobart myself