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New guy old builder album




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Broncobra pics

Thanks Rick I have been spending some time cleaning up up small details, nothing big just interiors and paint but it does show up, I have hesitated in posting photos because of the the poor photo quality, but what the hey?? I have pretty much went dark except for the wheels and bars...I like the effect.

Don't know why my photos are showing an elongated effect, makes the vehicle appear to have a 120 inch wheelbase (not a bad concept) and it makes the truck look odd...out of proportion and entirely different from the ones I have posted on my album page and on Car Domain....help please!
 

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Interior

Just finished the interior insulation ...aluminized stuff I've had laying around for years and topping it off with 3/16 inch thick bed liner material that I used sheet metal screws to keep it from moving around. Drove it around a bit late yesterday afternoon and it was a very mild 102 degrees when I left. I hadn't driven much since my river run and I had changed out the underdrive pulley with a standard drive March aluminum pulley and I was pleased that the temp gauge stayed under 205 degrees while idling for extended periods as I did some chores and stayed well under 200 while moving along at 15 to 20 MPH.

I'm not going to tell you that the all black interior was nice & cool but compared to before the installation of insulation and floor matting, it was quite bearable. It also looks better and should be extremely easy to clean up.
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Pair of gauges dangling in the background were getting a bulb replacement & are not in their permanent location which has been reserved for them in the dash.


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Boss 302 engine

Thought I'd list some of the major points on the 1970 Boss 302engine that I chose to power my Broncobra roadster...first off it did not have a good set of heads so I chose to stay with Iron heads manufactured by World & then slightly modified them for my purposes..mostly just cleanup and matching to the intake and exhaust manifold, opened up the combustion chamber a bit the heads have 2.02 inch intakes and 1.60 exhaust valves which are Moroso, With the exception of valves, I used Comp cam components in the valve train ...rockers, lifters & push rods, they couple up with a Comp cam flat tappet hyd. with .540 lift and 240 degrees duration & driven by a Comp cam dual roller timing chain & sprocket. James duff long tube headers, Holley 650 cfm single inlet carb fed by an Edelbrock fuel pump & an Edelbrock Torker 2 aluminum intake manifold.
Rotating assemblies by Ford Racing...forged crank and rods, all assembly bolts and pins are also Ford Racing, Speed Pro 11:1 flat top forged aluminum pistons were also used.
The little Boss engine has four bolt mains and the block is heck for stout and hard to find as is the Mexican built block. Block was professionally checked for cracking etc. then align bored and a clean up cut was made on the deck, all threads were chased, cleanup of 30 thousandths was made in prep for the Speedpros & and the block steam cleaned before assembly, rotating assemblies were dynamically balanced and print assembled using Speedpro rings, copper head & exhaust manifold gaskets. Ford racing supplied the reverse rotation high output water pump and the oil pump, dual remote oil filters were also added for insurance, 130 amp billet aluminum alternator was also used. A Griffin radiator was used for cooling. Lot of things I didn't list but it was a labor of love and difficult to explain. I am quite fond of the small block Fords and have used them in many of my builds for myself and others...I won't be putting one in a Chevy or vice versa a Chevy in a Ford although that is standard proceedure in street rods I won't do it!
Bottom line is that building one like this isn't necessary in order to have a way sweet ride and it sure isn't inexpensive, cut one corner or make one mistake and all your time and $$ is gone in one bang...do it right and it may still blow up eventually, such is true sadly enough but one could buy 9 or 10 good rebuilt short blocks for what this one has cost...I just wanted to do one my way and that unfortunately is expensive.
 
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Boss 302

Some motor shots on the stand and installed.
(lost photos)
Light bar was built to hold an extra two HC Hilites, but also tilt backwards in order to clear the overhead doors on my shop and garages. When folded down it would be aiming straight back and would function as a million candle power work light! Three switches control the lamps so as to use 1,2,3 or all 5 lights at one time, which might melt the spare tire! I got busy and didn't finish the hinge and latch, but will get on it this week.
 
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Sport door fabrication

Metal caps are shown in these photos for the Sport roadster door I designed for the Broncobra project. The doors are first gutted of all hardware and glass, then cut using a sawsall to the desired contour. The door cavity is then filled with foam & glassed over.

Cardboard templates are then made in two sections, the inside metal plates are then cut out using the paper templates as a guide. The photo shows the finished plates on the shop floor. I use 14 gauge steel plate for strength. These were cut with plasma but a 4" angle grinder or Sawsall will work well also. These 2 plates could be cut out as one piece but I find fit up to be easier with the two sections.


Next the templates for the step/door enclosure top are cut out of cardboard and these MUST be made in two sections in order to final fit the door contours. Templates are shown below...all for now on that part of the fabrication.
 

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Door plates

Inside edge door plates cut for sport door
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Franklins and Grants

That's just so bad a$$ looking.

Thanks for the Prop Rookieshooter and the $$ are appropriate a$ I am also about to run not only out of this years Bronco money but 2012's also, guess we could just have the treasury dept. print us up a few more bucks to play with as a part of our stimulus package and send it quick! lol
 






Scripture

wow I need that 302 in my Sport!!!!! AWESOME

Your quote about the non stock chariot tells it all...just watched Dana Browns documentary movie about the Score / Tecate Baja 1000 & am so jazzed...I really think you "deserve" to have your choice of massive power in your Sport! 302 or 5 liter ...how 'bout a 4.6 Terminator? Hope the good Lord gives me time to build a few more or at least finish what I'm working on and hope your successful in all you set your mind to do.
 






Sport seat frame

Got busy this morning and pulled the passenger side seat and the seat frame I made to mount the slider & seat to the contoured floor pan of the B2. I took it out to give me some working room to finish the passenger side door cutout. This seemingly simple device was not so simple to fab up. Adding to the difficulty was that the passenger side was not a mirror image of the drivers side. I also wanted some additional seat height built in. I think the photos are pretty self explanatory. Once I decided on height of the frame I mocked up a frame and added spacers underneath until I was level & measured twice then built once.
 

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Door cutout cap fabrication

Okay back to the door cap, decided to do it the slow way and use an angle grinder instead of a plasma torch, just to show that you don't have to have a lot of fancy exuipment to do some pretty interesting things with metal. I'm using 14 ga. steel which is pretty thick and strong to boot...easy to weld without burn through, even for the novice welder. Access to a small amp hobby welder is quite satisfactory for sheet metal work. I used a 4" angle grinder, cut off blades & large grind stones mounted on the grinder. 3/8" electric drill & my hands and thigh to shape the contours (bend the plate) some small drill bits and either pop rivets or self tapping screws. Thats it old school poor boy fab and practically every item made of sheet metal on my Broncobra could have been fabbed using only the items listed but a sawsall and bi metal blades and a chop saw would be nice to have available. C clamps & a strong metal work bench or a section of I beam attached solidly to an elevated frame work plus a strong piece of angle iron makes a nice poor boy metal brake, for bending sections of sheet metal, but you can easily score sheet metal with the angle grinder and bend by hand (or with vise grips sheet metal tool) to the correct angle. I have a pretty well equipped shop but I still enjoy sometimes doing it like I started out at 14 years of age and couldn't afford to pass gas let alone buy any (at .25 cents a gallon) I'm having fun, saving money & building rides that don't look like they were built by Mattel toy co. and don't come with a mortgage attached. Hope my doing it the old way encourages someone to just build something...don't wait till you hit the lotto just do it!

First three photos show steel that was marked using the cardboard templates. Cut out side the lines to give a margin for error. Other pics show what was left of a good cut off blade after cutting just one of the two pieces. Last photo shows plates before trimming and cleanup of the metal burrs & sharp edges.
 

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Yeah its pretty much angle grinder and welder in my garage, i have a sawzall but i honestley dont use it much. My buddy eric told me you can build anything with a grinder and a welder haha, maybe add a tube bender into that
 






Old school metal fab

Adding the first two plates to the interior and contouring, bending, the flat sheet that I just cut out...take a tape measure & take a measurement of either the forward or rear part of the door & transfer that to the flat sheet & mark, I use a black magic marker, this gives the "approximate" center of the "bend" I placed the finish side down and pressed against the lower part of my thigh & grip the metal as close to my leg as possible & press down to start the radius of the bend, going slowly & checking progress as you continue the bend until your contours line up. Then repeat the process on the rear piece.

When working with "sheet" always wear leather gloves...it cuts like a razor, even the relatively thick 14 ga. after it has been cut and deburred will have spots that will slice a bare hand. Auto makers style their bodies and rely heavily on countour to get the look that will sell product. If you change or add to their work it is advisable to note all contours and plan ahead in order to follow their style.

These photos show my progress on the passenger side door cap & some shots of the drivers side to show what I am trying to match. I am guessing that I have about 3 hours of time up to this point on the passenger side work. I didn't rush, but I do have 50 years of metal working experience and I built the drivers door and the rear gate caps using the same techniques and plan. I could have easily done the same work in half the time using all the equipment I have available but the end result will be just as good without utilizing thousands of $$ in equipment.
 

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Yeah its pretty much angle grinder and welder in my garage, i have a sawzall but i honestley dont use it much. My buddy eric told me you can build anything with a grinder and a welder haha, maybe add a tube bender into that

Your friend is on to truth, too many people dream about a build and thats good but they buy into what the magazines and the car shows have to sell and really start to beleive that they can't start building until they have bought all the goodies that are being marketed. No garage, dirt floor, use the drive...no drive use the parking lot, too cold...man up, get er done. Your getting a lot accomplished Jon....without a big buck garage, that's inspiring and when ya get back on the doubler let me know if I can help like I said.
 






Your friend is on to truth, too many people dream about a build and thats good but they buy into what the magazines and the car shows have to sell and really start to believe that they can't start building until they have bought all the goodies that are being marketed. No garage, dirt floor, use the drive...no drive use the parking lot, too cold...man up, get er done. Your getting a lot accomplished Jon....without a big buck garage, that's inspiring and when ya get back on the doubler let me know if I can help like I said.

man your not kidding either, I tell people all the time that you don't have to be a millionaire to have a cool 4wd, just some imagination and a few basic tools, Ive laid on gravel and or snowdrifts changing driveshafts or whatever, get out and build something. that's why Ive almost given up watching xtreme 4x4, they put an arb air locker in their budget Cherokee!? what the heck is that crap, that arb and its air source represents the purchase price of my engine, trans, both axles and a good portion of the parts ive bought for my 3 link. blows my mind how people are and how they think.
 






Your doing it and that's proof enough, but when extra $$ are available & not needed to pay the bills etc. not a thing wrong with buying a rad locker or that sweeet Atlas "thunder" case...I don't need one for my purposes but dang their fine!
 
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Step plates

Had a short day in the shop so decided to build step plates for the door caps. I had some scrap 3/16" aluminum diamond plate & decided to fab the step plates on the door cut out caps. Because time was short I cheated and used the mill etc. These will be mounted either with screws or pop rivets to the finished caps. Will paint 'em black of course Took a couple of hours been thinking about doing this for several weeks and couldn't find my 'round to it, that I needed to do it. lol
 

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Wind screen

I've toyed with the idea of a fold down wind screen on the B2 for a couple of years...saw one on a B2 in Arizona some years back and it was nicely done on the first B2 roadster I had ever seen...latter saw it in a magazine & it peaked my interest. It utilized a Jeep frame, but fabbing a custom frame wouldn't be that difficult...looked sick!
Over the last couple weeks I have collected several rocks all of which struck the bottom 5 or so inches of the glass. Yep cracked it every mother's son! x**Z Well I got to thinking about my early Bronco & various Jeeps that have passed through both my own and my sons hands and that flat wind screen collects cracks even worse than the original Suburban Chevy. Fold downs are cool but the flat screen sucks!
The B2 wind shield design has enough angle and contour to deflect most rocks without chipping or cracking with the exception of those occasional low sinker trajectories...beleive I'll keep the B2 screen and just fab an angled metal shield that will cover the vented windshield cowl and the stock wipers (which I really don't like the looks of anyway) and give those sinking rocks an additional glancing angle upward.

Angle of 30 to 35 degrees looks as if it will work, cover full width of the cowl & still clear the wipers. Hood will clear scoop when lifted, make it a bolt on in order to access wiper arm removal and windshield removal (bit of a negative outlook don't you think?)

Can't always be the lead dog in the desert as slow traffic begs to be passed and then theres always somebody crazier than me that over takes & sprays rock and gravel. So I got my tape out and measured and then cut a preliminary cardboard template, painted it black and took a look, shouldn't be that difficult has the possibility of looking ok also.
 

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GOD!

I love reading this thread!



keep up the good work!
 






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