GoFastBroncos.com

Well, I was reluctant to start a thread until I was able to get back working on it, but I was bored at work and am getting to the point where I am having more and more questions. So here we go...
I live in the Chicago suburbs so I'm kind of out here by myself. I go to the Silver Lake sand dunes in Michigan 2-4 times a year usually riding quads, dirt bikes, jeeps, and trucks (just sold my Ford Raptor). I built a 1978 CJ7 starting in 2008 and finished it in around 2012. It was build just for the dunes for my wife and I. BUT, by time I finished it, we grew to a family of 4. The jeep was just too small for us so I started looking for a FSB. I found this one near by that was originally from California so it didn't have too much rust for a Midwest truck. Unfortunatly, I lost the jeep in a garage fire last year. This kind of jump started the plans to build the Bronco. It wasn't a bid deal since I had a 2011 Ford Raptor to use in the mean time. Well, we also sold our house and move 10 months ago. This was all good,but the new house only had a 1 1/2 car garage that the Bronco wouldn't fit into. SO, I recently sold the Raptor to build a 28'x40' garage in my back yard. Right now i'm in the process of finishing the garage so I can get back onto the Bronco. I'm building the garage myself, so it's taken a few months to get to this point. But, I should be up and working back on the Bronco in a couple months. I appreciate suggestions and welcome comments!

This is the jeep that has it's soul in my Bronco. It was a frame off restoration done entirely by myself with the exception of the paint. It had a build AMC360 running race gas and around 400-450hp, 4.56 gears with Detroits, 35" BFG's, mid travel leaf springs with Fox bypasses, full cage, Mastercraft seats, etc.

A few more. It was kind of an old school/lightly modified build. The last pic is what it looked like pulled from the fire. I kept the tires and swapped my old Raptor tires on it before they took it away

So here's the Bronco. It's an 81 Ranger model which was pretty much loaded. It's got power everything, 351m, C6. I wish it weren't optioned out so I'd have manual windows and locks, but oh well. I gave the drivetrain to my buddy since I will not be using any of it. It also came with an old school Rancho 4" lift kit. It will stay that way until phase 2 of the build when I go extended C&T front end with coilovers, full float widened 40 spline 9" rear and 4 link. So far I've only gutted the interior and cleaned up the engine bay. I will be boxing the frame and welding all the front cross members to the frame before I install the new drivetrain. I plan on going full chromoly cage front to back as well. I have aluminum solid body mounts and ordered up a ton of chromoly tubing. Most of it will be 2"x.120", but I also have 2"x.095", 1.625"x.120" and 1.625x.095" tubing for gussets and mounts. I bought 320' of it since it was cheaper by the qty. and I can sell what's left.

Cleaned engine bay

For now, I'll be running the suspension pretty much as is. I did pick up some FOX 2.0's for the front since the 25 year old Rancho 5000's are ready to fall apart. I will be sending out my old rear Raptor Fox 2.5's to get rebuilt and revalved for the rear of the Bronco too. I kept my mint 35x12.50-17 BFG KM2's from my jeep for the Bronco, though now i'm thinking of going 37"s. I got a great Black Friday deal on some 17x9.5" Raceline beadlocks so they are all mounted up

I ran Autometer's in the Jeep, but wanted to try out the Speedhut gauges. They are made in USA and will easily hook up to the LS platform. Autometer's need a lot of expensive senders to use them on an LS motor.

So, I know I'm going to catch a lot of hell, but I'm running LS power. I learned my lesson the hard way building an AMC motor because I wanted my jeep to be "all AMC". I had over $7,000 into that motor for 400-450hp and it just wasn't worth all the aggravation. FORD is not sponsoring my build so I'm going with what I think is the best bang for the buck. I bought a crate GMPP LS480 LS3. It's rated at 480+HP, all aluminum, capable of handling much more power, and is SMALL. I have future plans of adding a 4.0L Whipple super charger and this is a good platform for it. I am bolting this up to a TH400 and an Atlas II. I had Finishline Transmissions build me a reverse manual valve body TH400 with 300M input/output capable of 1500hp. They installed a super bell bell housing and B&M cast aluminum pan as well. I wanted the case as strong as possible with the Atlas hanging off the back. I only wish the Reid racing case was in my budget! I ordered the Atlas with a 2.0 low range since I will never be rock crawling with this and so I can actually use the low range if I want at the dunes. I am running a Circle D HD SFI flexplate and one of their billet 3,600 stall converters and a Winters shifter.

LS3

I am going to run the stock manifolds for now. I did cut the 2 bolt flanges off and weld on some 2.5" V-bands. Then I welded 2.5"-3" reducers on so I can run dual 3" exhaust. It's a little big right now, but I don't want to redo the exhaust completely when it gets supercharged and long tube headers.

I picked up some front Yukon gears and open carrier. I went with 4.56's for now. If the RPM's are too high with the 3 speed, it will be my motivation for going up to 37"s.

I scored a sweet deal on some Beard Super seats on Craigslist last weekend. This is pretty much impossible to find used in the Midwest. Got the pair for $200. They are small for me since I'm a big guy. I will wind up putting them in the back for the kids and I will be ordering PRP extra tall and wide seats for the front. I did get 4 Mastercraft 5pt harnesses from Rusty's off-road on Black Friday this year.

So this is what I sold my Raptor to build. It's taking longer then I hoped, but I'm doing it mostly myself with some help from friends and the wife. The plan is to put a 2 post lift in the back for the Bronco and make the back half the shop. The front half will be where I can finally park my truck and my wife can finally park in the front attached garage. I went with vaulted trusses so I have at least 13'6" on the outside of the lift and 15'6" in the center. There shouldn't be any headroom issues. I also went with 2x6 studs since the walls are almost 12' tall, plus it will allow me to add more insulation. And I put in as many windows as I could budget for. I HATE working in a dungeon so natural light was imperative. I have a 16'x9' garage door so I added windows to the top panel for more light.
This is where I'm at as of now. I'm waiting for my siding to get delivered. It's been back ordered 3 times now and I'm getting impacient. Then I can buy all the electric supplies and start running that. I'm putting a 100A box in the garage since I need 5 220V outlets. I am also running 1" gas pipe to the garage for my 2 Reznor 125,000btu shop heaters.

It's nice to see someone else from the Chicago suburbs on here. I grew up in Bolingbrook. I'm looking forward to seeing this thing come to life!

BFGs mounted up

PVTBronco wrote:It's nice to see someone else from the Chicago suburbs on here. I grew up in Bolingbrook. I'm looking forward to seeing this thing come to life!

Thats great to hear. I'm in Wheaton, but I didn't mention it cause I figured nobody on the site would know where its at LOL

A couple random pics. My little guy helping me on the roof, and where the garage sits waiting for siding

black954 wrote:

PVTBronco wrote:It's nice to see someone else from the Chicago suburbs on here. I grew up in Bolingbrook. I'm looking forward to seeing this thing come to life!

Thats great to hear. I'm in Wheaton, but I didn't mention it cause I figured nobody on the site would know where its at LOL

Ha! My brother just bought a house in Wheaton. I'll have him on the lookout for you. When the summer months roles around be on the lookout for me in my white and tan 96.

Sounds good, we'll have to meet up this summer