The BroncO 'Bama Build

ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Fri Feb 21, 2020 6:46 am

I guess its time to start posting pictures of my 1985 Bronco XLT auto 5.8 build. Bought this last year and had to rebuild the engine becasue of cam bearing failure. The plan is to offsett the awful truck culture of Texas with something cool and functional. Just started building the eams this past weekend and got the new cam broken in. The plan is to finish the beams and mount with threat radius arms and run a 2.5 CO and 2.5 smoothy. Mount glass and then drive it for the summer. I will start working on the cage next winter.

ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Fri Feb 28, 2020 6:30 am

slowly but shurely getting the beams done

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mobil1syn · Post by **mobil1syn** » Fri Feb 28, 2020 8:10 am

buy a 55 gallon trash can, 5 gallon of simple green concentrate, dump simple green in trash can, fill with water, drop beam in and let it soak for a few days, flip it over, let it soak for a few more days, let it dry and cleaning whats left will be much easier. i usually do the trash can procedure and theyre clean enough the locate powder coat place will media blast em for me.

mobil1syn · Post by **mobil1syn** » Fri Feb 28, 2020 8:11 am

ooh and if youre going to run glass, you can wear socks with sandals dude

ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 8:58 am

mobil1syn wrote:ooh and if youre going to run glass, you can wear socks with sandals dude

They are spark proof socks.

ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 8:59 am

Weekend updates.

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motorbreath53 · Post by **motorbreath53** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:17 pm

Cool stuff!

I want to widen a set of beams next time I have one apart. Seems straight forward enough.

Whats your plan for axles? And are you acounting for the lift with moving the balljoint or are you building it into the splice on the beams?

ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Thu Mar 05, 2020 1:47 pm

motorbreath53 wrote:Cool stuff!

I want to widen a set of beams next time I have one apart. Seems straight forward enough.

Whats your plan for axles? And are you acounting for the lift with moving the balljoint or are you building it into the splice on the beams?

It's a lot of work and patience.
I built 2 degrees of camber into my extension plates, less than most turns but my pivot points are sightly lower. I am going to extend and sleeve my stock ones until i am sure that everything is the way i want it, then ill get some made.

ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:48 am

Driver's side beam is done, finally...

Becks_Bronco · Post by **Becks_Bronco** » Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:43 am

Looking good man!

If you have not already bought the Threat stuff, you may want to look into Giant, Desolate, Solo, Oocho, Southwest etc. I have heard from a number of people that the fit/finish and fitment on the Threat stuff leaves something to be desired.

entity-unknown · Post by **entity-unknown** » Fri Mar 13, 2020 3:31 pm

While the others vendors may be prettier, it's cuz they have jigs and do it all day with a dedicated crew. You may not have the best welds but they're good enough for what you want. If you're gonna do cut&turn, you might want to practice a bit more for those life critical welds pie cut welds but your quality looks good enough as is. You saved yourself about a few thousand and no shipping BS -materials

Smooth Operator and good luck!

hobbyturnedobsession · Fri Mar 13, 2020 3:43 pm

I believe Yikes said it best to me one time. I've had the prettiest welds break and the ugliest hold. It's all about penetration.

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ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Thu Mar 19, 2020 6:38 am

Got the beams mocked up and working on radius arm mount locations. I had to cut off the old side pipe mufflers, won't miss those.

hobbyturnedobsession · Thu Mar 19, 2020 7:06 am

Looking good

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ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:47 am

Got the beams on and did some cycling. pretty happy with the bump travel so far.

funinthesun95 · Post by **funinthesun95** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:12 pm

looks good

ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Wed Apr 01, 2020 9:02 am

Had to rear work the shock mount a bit, but am happy with it now. The damn master cylinder is right where i want to put my upper mounts.

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hobbyturnedobsession · Wed Apr 01, 2020 11:46 am

I know the feeling. I am working out the same issue myself. I'm thinking a bend near the master cylinder to clear it. It's either that or go hydroboost.

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ThrustMaster · Post by **ThrustMaster** » Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:08 am

made more progress, finished up the drivers side. on to the passengers side.

Becks_Bronco · Post by **Becks_Bronco** » Thu Jun 11, 2020 10:15 am

looking good!! It took me as long to install a set of manual hubs as it did for you to mount the front suspension. I'm envious of your progress lol!