James' Bronco 2 project

[jbooth]

so i bought this bronco 2 for $250, from a my dads cousin. the truck was bone stock. body wise was in good shape, all it needed was a good cleaning. the motor isnt running that well. it had a tune up before i picked it up, but its still running that way. heres a picture of when i got it.

i got some 33in bfgoodrich all terrains from a friend. and i had 3 summit racing 84 wheels that were the right bolt pattern. had to order one more from summit but that all saved me a good chunk of change. tore off all the mud flaps and the running boards. and started on my 2in. body lift

it still wasnt high enough for the 33's. i knew that was going to be the case so i ordered a 4in. suspenison lift from rough country.

started putting that on. took the longest time doing the front suspension lift because of fords solid rivits. especially being in the awkwardest spots. but finally got it all hooked. did an alignment took it out. did well in the mud but the motor is too weak!!

bought a 9000lb winch for it. building the winch plate and my custom front bumper. i know the winch is a lil over kill but couldnt go wrong with the price.

plans are a 4 link front and rear and make the wheel base a good bit longer, not sure on what i want for the length. doing full width dana 44 and dana 60 or 9in. rear. snorkel. jus going to rebuild the 2.9 and put 4.10s or 4.56s in the rears and at most put it on 38's.

 

[janderson4010]

there are a lot of things about your plans that I like, the fact that you are talking 4 link front instead of radius arms is cool, keep in mind that things under these get tight pretty quick. I would go with the 9", you can use the same bolt pattern and I really don't see a lot of strenght gain for a stock 60 over a 9 inch, as a rear anyway, bk most 60s are going to be 30 spline. I see you got the HF badlands winch, ive been thinking about buying that same one, its between that and the smittybilt xrc8, about the same price. so is this more of a mudder or are you going to do a bunch of crawling? bk for mud that 2.9 isn't near enough engine, I hated mine. swapped to a 4.0 and ill never look back, but if your going to do a lot of crawling and you go low in your diffs it should be fine. I would really consider going to 5.13's or lower if possible, 38's are a big tire for that poor 2.9. cool build im susbscribed.

 

[jbooth]

thank you for the advice on the 9". my one question was is a full width 9" the same width as a dana 44 full? a buddy of mine is giving me a complete dana 44 to powder coat some stuff for his jeep, so its kind of a win for me, i think? i know the 4 link is going to be a little tricky especially since how small these trucks are. i work at a fabrication shop as a welder and a finisher. so i know how to build the 4 link and also make it look clean lol. im building this truck for both mudding and crawling. but since i live in dirty flat jersey theres nothin really that nice to crawl on so its mostly going to be for mudding. the dana has either 373 or 411 in it so as of right now im sticking with 33's or 35's. the engine on the other hand ive been looking into the 4.0. my dad has a 305 since going to be a beater truck i wasnt really going to care wat motor was in it aslong as it had the power to move the thing nicely. but i dont want to put a gm motor into a ford truck. so back to square one im either trying to find a 4.0 with a upgraded c4 trans, 302 or 351 with the c6. but around here they are hard to come by, for the right price anyway.

 

[janderson4010]

DDepends on what the 44 came out of, if its a ford pickup then yes it will be very similar in width, probably exactly the same. You may want to look at a 3link for for this truck bk i dont think u will have the room to triangulate you upper 2 bars. I guess it also depends how much lift u are going to have too though.

 

[rookieshooter]

Welcome.
You only get one chance to make a first impression and I like this one.
Took me awhile to see your Bronco at first, cause I was looking at the milling machine, Lincoln welder, Porter cable band saw and what looks to be a floor mounted band saw.
Where's the tubing bender, where's the tubing bender?

On the front 4 link how about an insight on type of materials and plans your going to use?
Like the idea of the extended wheel base. That was one of the best mods I did on mine as making it trail worthy.

I used to shoot at the Pinehurst Gun club in NJ for years when they held the big shoots there. I notice the ground around that area were mostly sand with pines. Is this the same type terrain you have also? Are there trails in Jersey that have some rocks and hills to test out those mods your going to do?

Also glad to see some one your age getting so involved in this. Does your dad get into this stuff?

 

[jbooth]

janderson4010 i was also looking at that myself. im not trying to make this into a monster just a play toy for mud and skme crawling. im still trying to think of different ways to set up a 4 link but nothings really popping right now. im not sure what the 44 is out of yet, id have to get a hold of my buddy to find out. im pretty sure it is out of a for though. the highest im going with the truck is to fit 38s nothing bigger. cant afford to roll thee truck. lol

 

[janderson4010]

if you take a look at my build thread there are some pretty good pics of the 3 link I set up in mine, to triangulate your upper links you would need to do some serious frame and engine crossmember surgery. I had to cut up into the frame quite a bit. then there is the problem of figuring out good suspension geometry, not like it hasn't been done but its going to be a lot of work. there are some pretty good link setups on the front of RBVs in the ford section of pirate4x4.com as well might be a place to look, I don't like pirate to much myself, full of know it alls and assholes.

 

[jbooth]

rookieshooter. that is a floor mount bandsaw you see in the photos. there is 2 pipe benders, the hydraulic pump kind and a manual kind. theres also a 55ton press, a few drill presses and many other neat tools lol

plans for the 4 link or 3 link. which ever i do get some drawlings up for im going to use 2in.x1/4in. wall round chromoly. im not sure what im going to use exactly for the misc stuff but im going to do some research on different companies.

where is the gun range you used to shoot at located? because that sounds like the pine barings which are right around the corner from my house. but around here there really isnt much, at all. we have nice mud pits and everything but very few places to go crawl at. my buddy is big into crawling, he actually just did a dana 60 front and rear in his jeep. ive seen the pics of him flexing and its pretty impresive. thats what im shooting for on my b2 but it will be a lot of fab work being done.

and thank you. this is my first actual lift on any truck ive had, which im kind of rushing into things but its all really interesting, lifting theres so many ways you can go with it, it all amazes me to see all the different builds. i use to be big into lowering and bagging trucks, which i still am. but that gets plain and boring after a while especially since everybody is mostly doing the same things to their lowered trucks anymore.

my dad always backs me with any project i have, no matter what it is. he's a big help in any of them. advice wise anyway, he lets me do the spending of my own. he just stops me when he thinks im going to waste my money on things lol. other than that he really likes this build. he jus wants me to get it done and on the road so i can take him out in it.
he told me his favorite build i did was one from last year. i built a two seater golfcart into a 6-8 seater and lifted it to fit 44's with a 48v electric fork lift motor to move the monster. thats not fully done jus waiting on some tires. lol

 

[janderson4010]

my old man always gives me crazy farmer hack job advice haha, and he won't give me any of the good parts he has laying around lol. I guess he just has his own style lol.

did you find out what the d44 is out of?

 

[jbooth]

no, ive been trying to get ahold of the kid but no answer yet.

and i figured that im just going to do a 3 link. i just can figure out a good 4 link for it especially with not having much room under the truck. so im going to do something similar to yours.

 

[janderson4010]

yeah if your going to do that learn from my mistakes, pm me when you get ready to rock and roll.

 

[jbooth]

will do man. jus waiting on a some extra cash and the axle. could you pm me what you used to do the 3 link? and what coils would u recomend to do maybe 6 in. suspension lift.

 

[jbooth]

just picked up some vaspar low gloss black tractor paint and hardner for the rig. only costed me 50$ and from what i know this paint is really durable. so jus waiting on some nice weather and the trucks going to be black. lol

 

[rookieshooter]

just picked up some vaspar low gloss black tractor paint and hardner for the rig. only costed me 50$ and from what i know this paint is really durable. so jus waiting on some nice weather and the trucks going to be black. lol

 

[janderson4010]

James I didn't realize you were over 60...

 

[rookieshooter]

James I didn't realize you were over 60...

He's not over 60 but sure is mature for his age, i mean...cough, cough. What I mean is he knows not to paint it white.

 

[janderson4010]

James what happened did you blow this thing up? haven't heard from you in awhile.

 

[jbooth]

lol its still running, jus ran into some big financial problems and havent really had anytime to work on the rig. hopefully in the next few weeks i can take it out and start getting back to work.

about the paint i was just going to spray it with rhino liner but my dad recommended vaspars paint, it was cheaper so i went with it lol

 

[jbooth]

got a efi 302 and aod tranny for 200$ startin the swap this weekend !

 

[jbooth]

got a efi 302 and aod tranny for 200$ startin the swap this weekend !