Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

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sydude
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Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

Hey guys - I'm copying over my thread from FSB, which started in September of this year.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009


I've owned my 1992 Bronco 5.0 XLT since it was new. I had it when I first lived in Long Island, then in the heart of NYC during my bachelor days, and now for the past ten years in upper Westchester with the family. It's led a mostly charmed life, romping on beaches in the Hamptons, driving over sidewalks and snowbanks in the city while avoiding the yellow dunes of death (taxis), and making the occasional trip to the trails.

While it has generally served me well and faithfully (it's been getting fatter, smellier, slower and rustier), I've always had a thing for prerunner style trucks, so I decided that I would give the old Beast another lease on life, and make her look young and run fast again, just like a good truck should.

Upgrades Planned/in Progress:

Chassis
  • Deaver 4" leaf springs in the back to replace the 4" BDS Lift Blocks
  • Camburg shackles to replace the OEM shackles in the rear
  • Deaver 5.5" coil spring in the front to replace the BDS 4" coils
  • Bilstein 5150 Shocks front and rear
  • Gears changed from stock 3.55's to 4.88's
  • Rear disc-brake conversion
  • New 35x12.50R15 tires to replace existing 33's
  • Almost all new hardware, fasteners and lines to be stainless steel
  • New PLASTIC tank (no more rust!) - if you want my old one (inside is perfect) you can have it!
Engine
  • GT-40X Heads Ported, Polished & Comp Valve Job
  • Ford Racing Double Roller Timing Chain
  • Stainless Steel ARP Head Bolts
  • Ford Racing Windage Tray
  • Ford Racing Motorsport Valve Covers
  • New Silicone Hose kit from Goodyear (blue!)
  • A WORKING Smog Pump (the old one was seized, and I never knew it)
  • New 18" Aluminum Mechanical Fan
  • New stainless braided vacuum hoses, etc..
And everything that's been broken or can't be refreshed in a solid manner is being replaced with new.

Here are a couple of pics of the old Beast in her original unmodified state:

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Here are a few after I put in a 4" BDS lift, Warn winch/bumper and 33" Wheels & Tires (in 2002)

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please excuse/ignore my FAT EX-brother in law...

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And now, here's are pictures of the truck just before I started her transformation (those are the kid's name on the fenders/quarters temporarily - they got a big kick out me spraying them on):

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At this point in time (September 22, 2009) the truck is fully disassembled into 10,000 pieces and most of those parts have been either refreshed/repainted or have been replaced with new pieces or upgrades, and it's almost ready to put back together. I've taken pictures of everything along the way, and I'll add posts with each major step.

Sy
Last edited by sydude on Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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sydude
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

As you'll see in the pictures, everything under the body was covered in surface rust. At the beginning of the restoration (late July 2009?), I had decided to wire brush and/or sand everything I could get to without taking the body off, and paint it all with a good 2 part epoxy paint.

You'll also see some of the prior completed work:

1. Interior/cab floor rust repaired and rhino lined by body shop.
2. I hand-sanded and polished the aluminum wheels which had become insanely oxidized (see last couple of pics in the first post).
3. New Prerunner bumpers (with light bars and winch mount) fabbed by McNeil Racing, and subsequently powdercoated a color that came out like s**t. Not sure what to change them to..
4. Fiberglass fenders and quarters by McNeil Racing, semi-final mounted and unfinished.
5. New vinyl Corbeau Moab seats in the front. To save $180 on new seat brackets, I spent hours and hours restoring the old brackets and modifying them to be able to mount the new seats. It wasn't worth it. :banghead
6. Restored and re-covered rear seat using Corbeau matching vinyl.

The rusty subframes behind where the front fenders would usually be are the fabbed up frames to support the accessories and brackets that the steel fenders would normally hold. That rust is from less than a year of sitting in New York weather, the result of having not painted the metal :banghead .

So right at the beginning of this August (2009) I started the work by myself, and a couple of my guys that occasionally helped:

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sydude
Posts: 282
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:53 am
Bronco Info: 1992 Restored Bronco w/Built 302x, All Glass, Full Cage, Bilstein 9100's & Deavers
Location: Westchester, NY
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

SOOOO, after having stripped all of that stuff down, and having spent hours and hours de-greasing, wire brushing and sanding the frame and suspension, etc... I realized that we were doing a half-as*ed job! There was just no way to get to all of the rust (I HATE RUST) efficiently or effectively, and if I wanted to do the job right the frame had to come off and everything had to get sandblasted.

So off came the body..

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User avatar
sydude
Posts: 282
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:53 am
Bronco Info: 1992 Restored Bronco w/Built 302x, All Glass, Full Cage, Bilstein 9100's & Deavers
Location: Westchester, NY
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

BTW - when it's done, the truck is being painted a dark metallic gray (virtually black), with a slight red tint. I already bought the paint ($$$$!!! Holy crap!) with the intention of painting myself, but I've since thrown that idea out the window..

Next stages of work (will post the pictures later today):

1. Pulling the engine (complete)
2. Pulling all suspension (complete)
3. Sandblasting the frame (complete)
4. Painting the frame (complete)
5. Painting the suspension (in progress)
6. Upgrading/painting the engine/tranny (in progress)
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sydude
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

In this stage, we pulled the engine and the suspension, and put the frame and all components that needed to be sandblasted on the trailer:

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User avatar
sydude
Posts: 282
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:53 am
Bronco Info: 1992 Restored Bronco w/Built 302x, All Glass, Full Cage, Bilstein 9100's & Deavers
Location: Westchester, NY
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

Sandblasting didn't go as well as I hoped, as everything flash-rusted within a couple of hours of blasting. :madder That's New York for ya. Hopefully the quality of the paint (DuPont Corlar 2-Part Industrial Epoxy - Data Sheet PDF here) will keep it at bay for a long time. Also, amazing to see how aggressively the rust ate away at the steel and left pits, which I'm not smoothing.

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I decided to hand-sand one of the radius arms, and give the other to the sand-blaster to see what the end result would be. Here's the one I sanded:

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sydude
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

Ok, so I've put a few solid days of work on the truck since my last update. You'll notice there's been a change of venue - my good friends over at EVB (Extreme Vehicle Builders) over in Danbury, CT are helping me finish the job up right. They've got the experience and the equipment, both of which I am sorely lacking.

Here we go:

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The plan is to finish up the front diff and the front suspension and brakes tomorrow, and then do the welding in of the 6 frame savers for the rotted out body mounts and all of the plumbing and wiring harness work on Friday. Then it should be time to drop the motor back in (which I've been consistently working on and taking photos of) and put the body on sometime early next week.
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sydude
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

thanks again for the compliments!

Okee dokee, here we go with the next set of photos on the resto - this first post is a single photo history on the engine resto (pretty much complete), and the next one will be the work on the car up to about two weeks ago (engine to tranny,chassis to frame mating, etc.).

Engine restoration & upgrade:

Transmission & engine block prep & paint

(Here's a BEFORE image of the engine & tranny)

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And now the work:

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The rest of the motor

Everything was steam cleaned/bead blasted by the machine shop. Cylinder heads were ported, polished and given a 5 angle competition valve job. I put in a Ford Racing double roller timing chain with 4 degrees of advanced cam timing, and also a Ford Racing windage tray. New Ford Racing valve covers, and a cool vertical ignition wire management bracket set that I bought from Summit. Pretty much everything else was original, just refinished.

The heads and the headers (also bead blasted) with Clear Coat VHT Header Paint. Everything else was wired/sanded down and then painted with either black or cast aluminum engine paint. I painted the old rusty chrome fuel rail and the old dipstick with Red MetalCast paint by duplicolor.

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Some fun pictures of a Lamborghini off-shore boat racing engine in the shop, ready to be worked on (it's massive!):

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sydude
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Here are the first of two sets of images for the work on rest of the truck till up to about two weeks ago.

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This section of steel at the very back of the truck (under body mount position #5) is too corroded to save correctly, and will be replaced in the near future. At this point, I just cleaned it up and prepped it with rusty metal primer before painting. My plan is the cut the whole section out, and replace it with aluminized metal in the same configuration.

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sydude
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Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:53 am
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

Set two of two:


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Nick
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by Nick »

Wow Sy! I don't know that i'd have the nads to to do what you did. Very cool resto!
"If at first you don't succeed, it may be cheaper to buy it."
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tcm glx
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by tcm glx »

Agree with Nick (not on his nads comment) on the awesome restoraton comment!!
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by bajascott »

alot of work.....looks great!!
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SteveG
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by SteveG »

That's insane Sydude. It's funny how different our (West Coast) 15 plus year old trucks are compared to yours. The term "restoration" doesn't usually apply in these parts until a car is almost 30 years old.
Sho nuff,
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by Drilim »

That's one hell of an undertaking. Looks like its coming out fantastic.
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sydude
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

Thank you very much, guys, I really really appreciate it. The truck is now mechanically finished, and I drove it home to finish the body work. I'll post pics as soon as I can.
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by Squarehead »

Pretty damn badass! I run Deaver J40s with Bilstein 5150s as well. I'd suggest some Camburg shackles--they really help with travel and ride quality, plus they don't cost all that much.
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sydude
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Bronco Info: 1992 Restored Bronco w/Built 302x, All Glass, Full Cage, Bilstein 9100's & Deavers
Location: Westchester, NY
Contact:

Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

Squarehead wrote:Pretty damn badass! I run Deaver J40s with Bilstein 5150s as well. I'd suggest some Camburg shackles--they really help with travel and ride quality, plus they don't cost all that much.
Got 'em! They should be visible in the pictures above.

She's 100% finished mechanically, and she's finally home. I've started driving her around on nice days (I still have no inner fenders, and I can't bear getting my beautiful new engine and bay all dirty yet!) In a nutshell, the motor is a SCREAMER now, and the suspension is super plush. Much more to come shortly.
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by yogib »

Wow I wish I had half the ambition as you.LOL.Nice work.I didnt get a chance to read through every detail but skimmed and saw some stuff that I really liked for mine.? what front rotors you running? what rear brake setup? Im not sold on my Exploder rear disc setup. And did you leave your bottom end stock on the 351w and just put the ALM. heads on it.Curious what a difference that made.What size injectors you running.Ive got a set of ALM. 210cc in. runnered heads sitting in the closet for mine but wanted to keep for 408w stroker.But unsure.may throw them on the stock bottom end.
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sydude
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Re: Sydude's '92 Frame-off Restoration / Prerunner Build

Post by sydude »

yogib wrote:Wow I wish I had half the ambition as you.LOL.Nice work.I didnt get a chance to read through every detail but skimmed and saw some stuff that I really liked for mine.? what front rotors you running? what rear brake setup? Im not sold on my Exploder rear disc setup. And did you leave your bottom end stock on the 351w and just put the ALM. heads on it.Curious what a difference that made.What size injectors you running.Ive got a set of ALM. 210cc in. runnered heads sitting in the closet for mine but wanted to keep for 408w stroker.But unsure.may throw them on the stock bottom end.
You wouldn't think so, but the front discs are stock and are the same crappy rusted ones that were on the truck for the past god knows how many years. I sanded them down, and shot them with aluminum caliper paint. They had good thickness left, so being the cheap bastard that I am I kept them.

The rear brakes are from Streetrod Manufacturing:

http://www.tsmmfg.com/2530.htm

My motor is actually a Ford Racing 302ci 340hp crate motor that I bought a bunch of years ago, which I just took apart and tweaked. I think it has pretty standard cast bottom end components, with a roller E303 cam and windage tray. The heads are GT40X aluminum heads that I had ported, polished and a did a 5 angle valve job on. In regards to the change in performance, I can tell you that my motor now absolutely SCREAMS. Part of it is due to the fact that I put in 4.88 gears, which keeps the motor out of the low rpm range. My machine shop said the work he did on the heads alone was worth around 35hp - put that on top of the gains you'll get from a good set of already high flow heads and you will be making a lot of power, regardless of what you have on the bottom end. I would think the most crucial other element would be your cam, though.
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