I thought I would put a build thread on here to show what I have done to my truck and to keep track of where I've come from.
I'll start at the begining. I have been an RBV fan for a long time. Was always going to build a Bronco II but never had the cash. When I finally did have some spare monies sitting around, I realized I better build a rig I can take the whole family camping in... and still have fun wheeling so I set out to find a 1st Gen Explorer. Promised my wife it would have leather...
Found it for $1500 with 170,00kms on it (about 105,000 miles). It was in great shape and had leather and air...
Here she was the day I brought her home.
First things first, threw some 31's on black steelies on it so it looked less lame till I could gather more parts.
Then I started shopping. Found a 5.5" Superlift and some 35" Coopers for a great deal so I picked them up. Ordered up some 4.88's, new shocks and a few other parts and went to work.
Also managed to find a rear 8.8 from a '96 for FREE...so I put that in at the same time... disc brakes for me!
Welded on the new leaf mounts
Cleaned stuff up and gave the areas I could a fresh coat of paint
Also pulled the black grill and bezels off my '90 Bronco II
Screwed on some fender flares, painted the diffs, and this is what it looked like when all was said and done.
Took it out wheeling a bit and found out what rubbed... so I decided to trim the fenders.
Still gotta screw the flare back on...
Then I decided to give my stock bumper a make over ala FROADER
Then I saw the broken treadmill lying outside on the ground and decided to add some "temporary" tube to my now chopped front bumper...
From this
To this
To this
Not much for super strength or functionality, but it looks pretty good IMHO. It's 2" x .080 wall tube. It's just temporary unitl I get my real bumper built...which could be a while.
So far all this has elapsed over about a year. More to come in the future. I'll try to keep this updated as I move along.
I'll start at the begining. I have been an RBV fan for a long time. Was always going to build a Bronco II but never had the cash. When I finally did have some spare monies sitting around, I realized I better build a rig I can take the whole family camping in... and still have fun wheeling so I set out to find a 1st Gen Explorer. Promised my wife it would have leather...
Found it for $1500 with 170,00kms on it (about 105,000 miles). It was in great shape and had leather and air...
Here she was the day I brought her home.
First things first, threw some 31's on black steelies on it so it looked less lame till I could gather more parts.
Then I started shopping. Found a 5.5" Superlift and some 35" Coopers for a great deal so I picked them up. Ordered up some 4.88's, new shocks and a few other parts and went to work.
Also managed to find a rear 8.8 from a '96 for FREE...so I put that in at the same time... disc brakes for me!
Welded on the new leaf mounts
Cleaned stuff up and gave the areas I could a fresh coat of paint
Also pulled the black grill and bezels off my '90 Bronco II
Screwed on some fender flares, painted the diffs, and this is what it looked like when all was said and done.
Took it out wheeling a bit and found out what rubbed... so I decided to trim the fenders.
Still gotta screw the flare back on...
Then I decided to give my stock bumper a make over ala FROADER
Then I saw the broken treadmill lying outside on the ground and decided to add some "temporary" tube to my now chopped front bumper...
From this
To this
To this
Not much for super strength or functionality, but it looks pretty good IMHO. It's 2" x .080 wall tube. It's just temporary unitl I get my real bumper built...which could be a while.
So far all this has elapsed over about a year. More to come in the future. I'll try to keep this updated as I move along.
