'86 Bronco II Eddie Bauer Restoration....

[mjones97]

I hit a junk yard up Saturday looking for my buddies '89 a new bumper. We found an '85 with a nice brush guard on it so I got it for $30. It needed cleaning up and paint, but that was easy. Luckly the bolts holdign it on broke lose without a problem. It was a tight fit under the BII to get the bolts off since it had no wheels and was sitting on the ground.

Before Cleaning:

After Cleaning (wire wheel on angle grinder):

Back Side painted: (1 can of rust-o-leum)

Front Side painted: (1 more can of rust-o-leum)

I hope to have it installed in a couple days...

 

[mjones97]

Nice find on a B2 with that little rust. Looking good. You might want to drop the gas tank and check for rust. Mine was paper thin even though the body hardly had any rust.
Most of the rust was between the tank supports and tank. I replaced with a new tank and sending unit.

yea i already checked there too.....clean as a wistle!

 

[mjones97]

I had the front end aligned today. It was surprising how close I had it just by sighten it.

I also got my brush guard installed. Below is those pictures. Before anyone ask, I am NOT going to be running lights on it for right now. I am going to install my blue LED's on it sometime here soon. I am still deciding if I like it or not; either way, it will stay on there till after the Dunes trip so I will have something to attach my flag to.

 

[mjones97]

I got the rear done for now. I installed Ranger factory lift blocks I got from Zach (zabeard). They were easy. You wouldn't know it, but the front is only 1/2" higher than the rear!

When I started today:

During:

After:

 

[mjones97]

This is my new switch panel. Thought it turned out quite nice. This is for my "new" items (those will find out later). These pictures also show the stock warning lights. One for each exterior light, low fuel, and low washer fluid.

And some pictures of my new electrical console. This will house a 12 circuit fuse panel. I am going to finish wiring it tomorrow.

And this is some random shots of my interior....

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

looks nice keep up the good work

 

[Sbyrne97]

Nice

Dude looks nice i didn't know bronco II had that kinda of center console, i like the brush guard btw it matches the tires and the roof rack completeing the truck in my opinon

 

[mjones97]

Well I got my new light bar installed today. Thanks to Fusion for swapping me lights. I have been looking for one of these lights bars for about 7 years. Fusion had one brand new that he sold to me. These were discontinued in the mid '90s. I love these things.

It has 8 55w lights in the front, 4 55w lights in the rear, and 1 55w light on each side.

I also upgraded my alternator to run this light bar to a 200A PowerMaster alternator. I had to make a custom upper bracket for it to fit correctly. I will post pictures of it tomorrow.

Hopefully I will have light up shots of the light bar tomorrow night!


Before Lightbar:

After!

 

[mjones97]

I got my spare tire carrier and spare tire mounted last night. Here are those pictures:

Here is my new PowerMaster 200A alternator. The testing tag on this says it makes 140A at 1,200 rpm and 200A at 4,000 rpm. It powers ALL the lights without question. As you can see in the pictures, I had to make an upper bracket extention. The case is larger so the mounting ear was moved to the top. I ran 2AWG power wire to the battery side of the starter soleinoid. At idel she produces 14.65v.

I got the relay's and the wiring done for the light bar. This center console makes a nice little electrical box. I supplied the aux fuse block with a 150A circuit breaker.

I got the TrailBlazer wiring into the cab the best way I knew how without cutting a hold in the cab. It doesn't look bad IMO.

Here is some random pictures I took after I was done today. This was in the side yard of my house.

This is the cover that came with all the TrailBlazer light bars. I think it looks good on and off. I will probably leave it off until I go to a show.

I will post up some pictures later tonight or tomorrow with the lights on at night.

 

[mjones97]

Here is the night pictures of the light bar. The first one is with flash on. The second 2 are without. My camera sucks at night pictures.

Here is the 2 video's I have. I need to replace the belts before I make a complete walk around video. Hopefully tomorrow night.

Front:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63PDuliD-g

Rear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeLBiZ1Nfag


This thing shines its lights just above my high beams. I am going to adjust them down slightly when it stops raining.

 

[410Fortune]

Looks great! Just FYI on the bolts in your Superrunner steering, the ones on the pivot arm (bushings) you should put the bolt going DOWN into the bushings so the nut is on bottom... that way if it ever comes loose the bolt wont fall out leaving you without steering...

 

[mjones97]

Looks great! Just FYI on the bolts in your Superrunner steering, the ones on the pivot arm (bushings) you should put the bolt going DOWN into the bushings so th enut is on top... that way if it ever comes loose the bolt wont fall out leaving you without steering...

Yea I had planned on changing that. I was waiting to see if the sway bar was staying or not. Now I just haven't had the chance to change it

 

[mjones97]

Well last night I had a little scare. I was driving from my house to my fiance's house (about 1 mile) and the truck just up and quit running. There was no warning, no lights, no nothing. The tach was rolled all the way over to max RPM. I was almost to my fiance house. I pulled the truck into the elementary school parking lot and called my step-dad. He brought his truck and we chained the BII by the brush guard to pull it home since I haven't got any tow hooks on the front yet. The brush guard took a couple good hits from chain slack and it held up extremely well.

I took off work today since traffic in Louisville is crazy on Oaks Day (day before the Kentucky Derby) and all the other office staff were taking off to go to Oaks. I got up early to work on it this morning since it was susposed to start raining around 2pm today and my drivers window was down (power windows). I figured it out in no time. It was a supply wire off the starter solenoid had broke; age finally got to it. I replaced it and everything works wonderful again.

I figured I would finish up waxing the beast and do a few minor little other things to her. Here are a few pictures from today.


Passanger side Eddie Bauer emblem was gone so I replaced it.

Both V6 emblems were gone off the truck when I got it. I bought one off eBay that was a new old stock emblem. I figured I would put it on and find another one.

And here is a few walk around pictures after I got done waxing it. Meguirs 3 step wax (Clean, Polish, Wax) is amazing stuff. The paint was really faded before I used this stuff. It looks almost good as new now. Has a very deep shine.

Needless to say it started raining as soon as I got done.



Here is a little comparison as to what the BII looked like when I got it a month ago and what it looks like now. Hard to believe it is the same vehicle.

Then:

Now:

 

[mjones97]

Figure I should update this. I picked up an Explorer 8.8 with 4.56 gears after my trip to Silver Lake Sand Dunes the first of June.

Well I figure I should update this.

About a month ago I got the rear end installed with Explorer leaf springs. I love the 4.56 gears! Here are some pictures of the rear end install:
I got poly bushings because I couldn't find rubber ones anywhere for an Explorer.

With the poly bushings, you have to remove the factory metal sleeve.

Saturday mornings work...

New James Duff brake lineshyeah:

New u-joint flange...

Yesterday after work I got her on the ground and driving...The u-bolts are 5/8" diameter rod because the shop didn't have any 1/2" rods. I had to drill out the spring plates to accept the bigger u-bolt. When I drilled them out, they were not the right spacing, so I had to turn them 90* from what they are susposed to be. I will be ordering a set soon.

She is setting pretty level now. I love the ride and the driving with the 4.56 gears and 31's

My rear end right now sticks out about 3/4"-1" more than the front with the Explorer 8.8 installed. By the end of next month I will have a Ranger Dana 35 up front, so that will help.

The ride/drive without the sway bars isn't as bad as everyone says it is. I like it without them.




Last week I started cleaning up my Dana 35 for the swap. Here are some pictures of the clean up:

What they looked like before:

After wire wheel:

After some paint:

I got the Dana 28 out by myself in about an hour. Here it is laying out in the yard. It is going in my buddies '89 2wd Bronco II in a couple weeks.

Driver side beam bolted in with the "new to me" Skyjacker Class II brackets.

Passanger side beam installed. You can see the Class II driver side beam in this picture.

How I left it today.

New brake rotors, wheel bearings, and brake pads. I picked up a set of almost new Warn hubs off eBay for $30 shipped! Here is a couple pictures:

I got the Dana 35 under her on Thursday. I love the Skyjacker 6" coils. I picked up a set of F-250 2wd coil spring retainers so the upper part of the spring wouldn't pop out under extreme flex. I need to get a set of longer brake lines for the front. Here is a couple pictures:
New to me Skyjacker 6" coil spring:

I picked up a set of F-250 2wd upper coil spring retainers to hold the springs in under extreme droop:

Skyjacker Class II bracket:

Whole axle in (minus the diff):

This is how it sits as of today (8-17-08).
I am back to riding Cali again. I need to find a set of 4" lift blocks for the rear for a temp fix. I am going to order a set of Alcan springs to lift it 4" in the rear.

 

[mjones97]

I got me a set of Explorer sun visors to replace the flappy stock ones. They are real nice. I need to find a power source to hook up the lighted mirror.

I also painted the stock stainless door seals. They were dirty beyond cleaning so I sanded them a bit and painted them black. They look much better than the raw stainless IMO.

I also took off the light bar. I sold it to a guy who is like a TrailBlazer broker (www.ronbarthelt.com/trailblazer_lightbar.html). I took it off today. I can't decide if I want to get some KC's to put up there or leave it off.

 

[mjones97]

I finally got my James duff dual shock hoops installed. I need to measure for longer shocks, so for now the shocks will stay in their stock location. I hope to measure tomorrow and order on Monday.

This is my dad cutting off the flange on the coils bucket (this is temporary until I can get a set of '79 F-150 coil buckets to install).

FIRE!!!!

After cut:

Hoop Installed (Like I said, I need longer shocks):

I did a little flexing before we started on the shock hoops. I like how the rear flexes, but the front still needs some more. Currently it has the 6" Skyjacker RBV coils in the front. I am going to save some money and get a pair of '79 F-150 coil buckets and a set of EB coils.

 

[mjones97]

I got my dual shocks installed last night. I had to order them based on length since the shock hoop is considerably longer than the stock mount. They are '96 F-150 w/ 6" lift shocks. I like these because the bodies are about 1/4" narrower in diameter than the stock shocks; since the front mount is close to the spring, stock diameter shocks wouldn't have fit.

 

[mjones97]

Did a little more flexing yesterday (9-16-08) after cleaning up some downed trees from Ike in the in-laws yard. This was in the front of my fiance's grandparents house. I wanted to see if it would be any different with the dual shocks; I think it did better.

I also installed a set of BellTech 6400 shackles today (9-17-08) to level my rear end out today. It was about a 45 minute job, and that included getting out and putting up the tools. I didn't need power tools, so no electric was nice (glad the electric finally came on so I could post up some pictures). I need to change my pinion angle now to accommodate for the shackles.

 

[410Fortune]

WOW nice work
Be careful driving around with no front diff!!! You can easily bend your drivers side beam
I would bolt one in there even if its not functional

truck looks amazing in a short time

Did you build those spring perches on the explorer axle?
You could likely replace your 2" blocks with some tappered 2" blocks and then run a shim underneath to correct your pinion angle... this would get you bye until you can get the alcan springs.

Very nice truck!!

You are the first person I have seen put shackles on a BII, do the shackles hit the bumper?????????????????????????????

I need shackles me thinks, I may be able to ditch my 2" block and go with shackles instead. I am running Skyjacker 4" leafs....worn out but they ride and flex awesome!

I have not had sway bars for years, it drives better without them IMO


again nice work

 

[mjones97]

WOW nice work
Be careful driving around with no front diff!!! You can easily bend your drivers side beam
I would bolt one in there even if its not functional

Thanks for the heads up, I was told it wouldn't hurt anything. I will bolt in my empty case tomorrow after work.

truck looks amazing in a short time

Thanks!

Did you build those spring perches on the explorer axle?

No, the person I got the Explorer axle from got them from Ballistic Fab (www.ballisticfabrication.com). He had this axle in Ranger before upgrading to a Dana 60 rear. I just relocated them for the Bronco II.

You could likely replace your 2" blocks with some tappered 2" blocks and then run a shim underneath to correct your pinion angle... this would get you bye until you can get the alcan springs.

I have had a horrible time finding a tapered 2" block for cheap. Reworking the spring perches would be easier since it is already on the truck, just grind and re-weld.

You are the first person I have seen put shackles on a BII, do the shackles hit the bumper?????????????????????????????

I haven't flexed it out yet, but I don't think they will hit the bumper. The only time they MIGHT is when the spring is compressed up and then it might serve as a bump stop.

I need shackles me thinks, I may be able to ditch my 2" block and go with shackles instead. I am running Skyjacker 4" leafs....worn out but they ride and flex awesome!

I want some Skyjacker 6" springs so I can go back to my stock shackle and no block

I have not had sway bars for years, it drives better without them IMO

Yes it does drive better without them. It is amazingly better without them and the dual shocks up front. It is smooth and turns amazing.



I would love to get a set of Alcan's, but for now this will have to do as it rides amazingly better since I put the shackle on it. Before it was rough and bounced but flexed well, now it is smooth and doesn't bounce; hopefully it flexes well with the shackle.