Yes thats right.. bought not built - thought it was appropriate since most of what I wanted in an off-road bronco was already installed on my recent addition to the stable :lol: Anyway this will be my build/project thread.

I purchased this 1969 out of New Mexico and with the love and care that every bronco gets every day we hauled it back to Denver. It has less than 600 miles on a frame off rebuild.

The previous owner didn't skimp on much when he put this one together however it does need some TLC and refinement to really make it a spectacular ride.

I have some short term goals:

Driveline vibration, there is a jack hammer type vibration that gets bad at 55 mph and up, but you can feel it at lower speeds. I am going to pull the rear driveshaft and get it rebuilt and balanced then check the pinon angles... hopefully that will fix it.

Leak around the windshield hinge. The PO replaced the hinge and I think because he replaced so many panels the Bronco is even less square than usual and the rubber seal under the hinge isn't doing its job.

Passenger door fitment and fender fitment. Again so many panels were replaced things are a bit out of wack. Iam thinking that I might be able to push the front door piller forward with a bottle jack or highlift and improve things.. everything from the passenger side door to the front grill is a bit off and I think this would help a few things get in line.

Body lift- because of the big block the PO had to add 3" of body lift. I am going to try and remove 1" of it... I think thats doable, might have to grind some things and alter a bracket or two but I think its reasonable.

Wiring - the PO didn't' have much time to refine his wiring and the inside needs a bit of help to get some switches in reach of the driver. My ADD will help me get things in order under the dash and under the hood...

Anyway enough yapping, here are some pics and the overview of what has already been done!

Engine:

Ford 400 bored out to 406. Machine work done by Tim Meyer out of MN.
KB pistons machined by Tim. (9:1 CR)
Aussie 302 heads built by Tim.
Comp cams 265DEH cam.
Stock exhaust manifolds into home-built 2 into 1 exhaust.
Custom single plane intake manifold machined for MPFI.
Holley Commander Mult-port Fuel Injection system.
Mallory ignition and dizzy.

Transmission/Transfer Case/Drivetrain:

New Centerforce Dual Friction Clutch.
Rebuilt NP435
Wild Horses Gear Banger
Rebuilt Dana 20
Wild Horses Extreme Duty output shaft
New Wild Horses Extreme Duty front driveshaft.
New u-joints and rebuilt CV joint on rear driveshaft.

Front End:

Freshly rebuilt Dana 44 off of a '76 w/Disc brakes
New rotors.
New spindles.
Yukon Gears (4.56).
Yukon Axles.
Yukon Super Joints.
ARB air locker.
WARN premium hubs.
(with the exception of the housing an knuckle castings, everything
is new).

Rear End:

Heavy duty rear end housing from Currie.
Currie 31-spline performance axle package.
Explorer disc brake conversion.
Yukon gears (4.56)
Nodular diff. housing.
Daytona Pinion support.
1330 Pinion Flange.
Wild horses torque tamer.
ARB Air locker.
EVERYTHING is new in the rear end.

Suspension:

James Duff 3.5" lift coils and 11-pack leafs.
Bilstein 7100 series front shocks
Bilstein 5100 series rear shocks
All new bushings everywhere.

Steering:

Delphi canned ham-style PS pump
4X4X2 steering box w/frame reinforcement from BCB
TRE steering linkage from Complete Offroad
Collapsible steering shaft from BCB

Brakes:

As noted above, this thing has discs on all four corners.
Reman'd hydroboost unit from an Astro van
Reman'd master cylinder from a late 70s Vette.
All new brake lines.
Stainless steel flexible ends.

Fuel delivery:

New BCB 24 gallon tank
190 liter/hr internal fuel pump from Auto Perf. Engineering
BCB steel lines
Holley pressure regulator

Body:

New Floor pans
New door posts
New passenger striker post
New quarter panels
(basically, if there were rust issues, they were fixed.)
Wild Horses Deluxe Pro-Flow hood with hood shocks.

Interior:

The entire interior has been sprayed with Line-X, including over the bedrails.
Trailmaxx pro II front seats.
Fold and tumble Besttop rear seat.
Corbeau retractable harnesses in the front.
Corbeau detachable harnesses in the rear.
Family cage - based on Xtreme Custom Fab's "tall" kit.
Removable Grant steering wheel.
The hardtop has also been sprayed in and out with Line-X.
Shock conversion on liftgate.
Locking center console with stereo slot.
Sliding rear windows.
Upgraded chebby heater blower motor.
New firewall insulation from Wild Horses

Electrical:

New Centech wiring harness.
Euro-Halogen headlight conversion.
New Starter.
New Mallory Ignition.
New Mallory Dizzy.

Exterior:

Carquest implement enamel paint over POR-15/POR Tie-Coat base.
Custom front bumper with recessed winch mount.
Custom rear bumper with swing-away spare tire carrier and cooler rack.
Custom rock skis (also coated with Line-X)
New weatherstripping all the way around (except the wing windows).
New windshield and door glass.
New sliding rear windows.
New WH Gorilla Warflares.

Wheels and Tires:

New 35"X12.50" BFG KM2's on 15" on new 15"X8" Rock Crawler Steelies

Other:

New Smittybilt XRC8 winch.
New Viair constant-duty onboard air system.

Looks nice man, so are you selling the full size and making this the wheeler?

Nice, I hope I get to see it in person someday.

I'd love to know what kind of HP/TQ numbers it will do when tuned. Good luck.

Ya iam looking around for a Dyno place that will help me tune it.. I think its running a bit rich and its not tuned for WOT or cold starts... i think its running ok now.. but could be running better...

My wife and I plan to be in CB July 4th weekend.. we usually camp a day or two before we get to CB so will give you a heads up, will be taking the bronco for sure.

Congrats! That's a sweet ride. I think ZOSO knows a guy who has a dyno and is familiar with Ford tuning, you might PM him.

Chris stopped by with his new rig last night and it is sweet, tons of top notch upgrades, he had that new toy twinkle in his eye.

Yes Chris I know the best ford tuner around. However Im not sure he knows that system. You can give him a call. His shop is down by Rox's house. His number is 303-359-5029. Shop is RWR motorsports. ask for Rob. He is a busy guy. I was thinking about taking a trip down there this weekend if the weather is nice(doubtful). If not I do a little tuning and could be willing to work with you on it.

subscribed!

Your FSB is one of the sweetest ones I have seen and I know you'll miss it, but I think you are making the right decision.

Took the rear driveshaft into frontrange driveline and they spun it and found it was bent and out of balance.. put it back in and the high speed vibration is gone.

Now if the NP435 didn't drive like a box of hammers we would be golden ;)

I think I will be laying down sound/thermal deadening sooner rather than later, instead of carpet I'm going to use Vinyl/rubber covering over the thermal stuff.. that should quiet things down. But I have to put things aside for a few days and stuff the 94 in the garage to get it ready to sell.

Nice to have the vibration solved, still going to check your pinion angle?

Took the top off and drove it for a while

Chris, just needs some lift-off hinges for the trail days!!

Jeff's Bronco Graveyard sells a rebuild kit for $20.00.

they were already rebuilt. Rather have the lift offs to pull the doors from time to time anyway.

I picked up a few parts at swap meet (thanks Phil and Corey) to figure out a vent system for project big red. Also with the help of Rob I took the Bronco down to a Ford Dyno/tuner and had him take a ride to go over the current setup and get an idea of what needed to be done to finish up tuning. All in all the PO did an excellent job of tuning the 406 setup and the tuner suggested just a few tweaks here and there. I will play with the tuning software over the summer and get it dialed in.

I added a thick piece of rubber windshield weatherstripping so the hinge should be sealed, however because of the added thickness the hinge bulges on the top and bottom and will need to be injected with some seam sealer to keep the interior dry, the rig will be seeing some weather this summer/winter.

As for the interior I'm going to tidy up the centech wiring, run the wiring for the console stereo and rear speakers, then lay down thermal/sound deadening with a Vinyl flooring to finish off the floor.

I'm also entertaining the thought of switching to a Hydraulic clutch with slave setup instead of the mechanical linkage, doing a bit of research but might go with a wildwood setup. It would probably be a good idea to do this before I put the floor in so might happen rather quickly...

Anyway lots of plans, one thing at a time!

Thinking of cost & time, not sure about compatibility. Zf from a pull & pay is around $80 complete w/ my mil discount and a core to give them (think 3 spd), clutch master should be around 15, so you could roll out for less than a $100.

Compatibility will not be an issue. The 400 shares the same bellhousing pattern as the 460, as I'm sure you already guessed. And the "big block" ZF's seem to be a bit more available at the yards than their Windsor brothers. This was actually a set up I was considering for X.

for sure, after driving it a few hours this weekend I just drive too many highway miles to not have OD.. so maybe pull and rebuild one over the summer.

I'm in complete agreement, I can't wait to get rid of the NP and upgrade to the ZF. OD is the best of both worlds low 1st gear & low axle gears, and low high way rpms.

Seems like your gears/tires will go well with a ZF. I'll bet that 400 has some torque even at 2100 rpm @ 65 mph.

Having the chance to drive this rig saturday It runs and drives great. Now just to get it to run a little cooler and you'd be set.

started rerunning wires and running new ones.. cleaning up the PO rats nest. Found a few wires already rubbing through including the main coil wire from the distributor.. so good thing I tore into it.



also found out I may not be able to take 1" out of the body lift.. engine is just too tight to the firewall. The passenger side is just too close to the valve cover. I'm afraid if the engine moves at all it will contact the firewall and cause vibrations.. or more of them... the driver side is close too but I can cut out part of the brake booster bracket if i had too.





I'm also relocating the onboard air system, working on moving the air tank to the frame. At least the body lift will make it easier to tuck the air tank up under there.

Well I made substantial progress this weekend getting ready for Moab. I worked on sealing up the front cowl, windshield and seams with seam sealer to make the truck more water tight (if there is such a thing).

Went junkyard diving on saturday morning and picked up some nifty windshield sprayers, collant and wiper container, jeep cherokee wipers, 2 sweet power steering coolers and a charcoal canister with a ton of tubing and softlines...

Rewired the engine bay adding new circuits and wiring for accessories, radio, amp and lights... re-loomed and re-ran allot of the wiring under the hood in order to consolidate and clean things up to make it easier to work on and more ascetically pleasing ;)

Moved the ARB lines and re-ran all the wiring for the compressor and tank. I'm going to move the tank beneath the truck to make more room under the hood.

All in all just allot of re-wiring and clean up, looks pretty good so far finishing up the inside wiring this week and then I move onto the underbody to make sure everything is ready for the trail!

I am sorry I will be missing it's trail debut!