GoFastBroncos.com

The former little old lady's car turned off-road toy....

So I bought this truck off a little old lady (literally). She bought it new, drove it for about 20 years and put just over 100,000 miles. Mechanically it was very well maintained. Cosmetically, it was METICULOUSLY maintained. The interior was insanely clean when I bought it. When I picked it up the lady had to remove the blankets covering the rear seat and cargo area. She also showed me where she used to park it in the garage on carpet and covered... yeah, that nonsense came to an end when I bought it. Since then, the only time it has spent indoors is when it's being worked on.

Stupidly, I didn't take any pictures of the exterior when I bough it.

This is the earliest picture I have of it.




Of course it was stock height when I got it. It also had the original steel wheels, hub caps, 31" tires, a bitchin' blue bug deflector and aluminum running boards... too cool!

The stock hub caps (not on the original wheels).




The unmolested interior... The first few times I drove it I felt like I should take my shoes off before getting in.







The stain in he following picture was all me... I left a leaky shock back there and it left a great oil stain. I have since scrubbed and steam cleaned that bastard out.

The goal for this truck was is to have a reliable daily driver that I could drive to work daily, prerun race courses, chase and pit for friends and just plain drive the hell out of without breaking. Before the Bronco I had owned a 2wd Ranger and a 4wd Explorer that I used Autofab suspension parts on, so the choice of fabricator was easy for me. Autofab had never let me down in the past and I had no doubt they would take care of me with this ride.

The original parts list included:

Front

• Axle-housings modified for 4" of lift-Autofab
  4" lift coils-don't know what brand the first set was... bought from Autofab
  Fully fabricated coil-buckets with ride-height adjusters (ordered with no shock mounts)-Autofab
  Front differential skid plate-Autofab
  Extended radius arms with heim joints-Autofab
  Longer brake hoses-Earls
  Limit straps-Autofab
  2.5"x14" Fox shocks-Kartek

Rear

• Long travel leaf springs-Autofab
  read differential (9") skid plate-Autofab
  2-link kit-Autofab
  2.5"x12" Swayaway shocks-used

The Fox Shocks were actually purchased for another project that I ended up scrapping prior to building up the Bronco. The Swayaways were used in the rear because they're collapsed length (19.05") allows you to keep them under the floor while still using the stock lower mount.

I originally installed the front end with the stock quad-shock coil-buckets and mounted one shock in front of the coil. I welded a temporary tab onto the front of the axle-housing for this.

I don't have a very good picture of this, you get the idea....




I ended up driving the truck like this for a few weeks. I didn't take it off-road, but it had great road-manners. I drove it from the Central Coast to Southern California a couple times and was very happy with the ride and handling.

The new goodies installed:





Above you can see the upper shock mount structure which I built (hacked) myself. I broke the first, built a second with lessons learned, added lots of gusseting and bracing, broke that one too and just happened to come across a used Autofab mount which has had one problem.

Steve

What sized tires and wheels are you running?

They're 33" tires on O.E. Alcoa wheels 15"x7.5".

Have you gotten any closer to getting your giant shocks on there?

Nah. I'm pretty much completely bored with working on it. Anyone wanna buy a Bronco?

SteveG wrote:Nah. I'm pretty much completely bored with working on it. Anyone wanna buy a Bronco?

Going to do an Explorer? or maybe just buy a third gen Prius?

SteveG wrote:Nah. I'm pretty much completely bored with working on it. Anyone wanna buy a Bronco?

$800 and I'll come get it tomorrow.

900,i'll be there tonight...

If were bidding I'll pay $901 and be there Memorial weekend.

Haha! Keep throwing numbers out. You'd probably get it for a lot less than you'd think... since that would mean I don't have to work on it!

And yes, Philo, I'm still considering building an Explorer. Looking back I wish I had finished my D44 TTB Explorer that I started and mostly built before Autofab produced a bolt-on kit.

Oh, and the Prius... I can't afford economy like that.

SteveG wrote:Haha! Keep throwing numbers out. You'd probably get it for a lot less than you'd think... since that would mean I don't have to work on it!

And yes, Philo, I'm still considering building an Explorer. Looking back I wish I had finished my D44 TTB Explorer that I started and mostly built before Autofab produced a bolt-on kit.

Steve, is this the Green Explorer you always show a picture of? I didnt know you did a D44 on that bady boy!! That is freakin cool!


I remember reading about the Yellow Ranger that Autofab did in a magazine, and love the build!!

philofab wrote:If were bidding I'll pay $901 and be there Memorial weekend.

$901.50 and I'll buy you spare tires for the bike and watch the beans at the first annual GFB huckfest...er, ummm....get together.

tcm glx wrote:Steve, is this the Green Explorer you always show a picture of? I didnt know you did a D44 on that bady boy!! That is freakin cool!

Well it didn't have a D44 under it while I drove it.

The green Explorer had an Autofab D35 front end (which I loved). I sold it to my Brother and bought it back after he laid it on its side, sold the suspension and started putting a D44 front end under it. I got the lower part basically done then decided to change the beam pivots just enough that the radius arms I had built wouldn't work so I threw them in the trash. Shortly after we moved from LA Quinta back to the central coast so I parted the Explorer out and kept all the suspension parts and conversion parts I had acquired (LOTS of parts!).

Then I came across the Bronco and sold my other Explorer and all the D44 conversion parts (including front and rear glass and a full width rear axle) to my brother and he's been sitting on the parts for about four years.

There was a built Explorer at Rage at the River with a full width 9", Dana 44 TTB, and 302. It was in the parking lot of In-N-Out and had Utah plates... thing was amazing. Wish I pictures of it.

SteveG wrote:

tcm glx wrote:Steve, is this the Green Explorer you always show a picture of? I didnt know you did a D44 on that bady boy!! That is freakin cool!

Well it didn't have a D44 under it while I drove it.

The green Explorer had an Autofab D35 front end (which I loved). I sold it to my Brother and bought it back after he laid it on its side, sold the suspension and started putting a D44 front end under it. I got the lower part basically done then decided to change the beam pivots just enough that the radius arms I had built wouldn't work so I threw them in the trash. Shortly after we moved from LA Quinta back to the central coast so I parted the Explorer out and kept all the suspension parts and conversion parts I had acquired (LOTS of parts!).

Then I came across the Bronco and sold my other Explorer and all the D44 conversion parts (including front and rear glass and a full width rear axle) to my brother and he's been sitting on the parts for about four years.

Thats pretty cool. So the parts are still there... lurking, watching you... saying, " do it, do it, do it!"

First quarter update, 2010.

The Bronco has moved less than 2 miles in the last six months. Not much more in the last year. I have started it periodically to let it warm up and run the A/C, though.

On to the good stuff. The less than two miles got it home so I can work on it when I want and not have to worry about freeing up the shop for paying customers.

Brian is making me look bad, so I to I had to get to work! The goal for tonight was to get the Bronco IN the garage instead of in front of it. I picked up some momentum and even got a wheel, coil and coil-bucket off of it... DANG! I even Vise-Gripped the new coil-bucket and hung a shock on it! KABLAM!

That's enough for now. See you next quarter!

It's about time!