BIG STROKEY BRONCO "BSB"
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:50 pm
BSB started out life as an '82 6 cylinder born with a 18" throw hand shaker she was never destined for greatness. She was purchased in the 90s by then ORW owner Howard Hughes. She got all Auto Fabed up and pre-ran a few Baja races with the eco 6 and a 4 speed. After getting bent up a few times the ORW race team decided to kick it up a notch and they took her to the skilled hands of Mark Newhan.
With a very tight deadline the fledgling fab shop slammed the truck together in a few days. The TTB was swapped out in favor of a retired Dave Ashley class 8 beam setup. The stock steering was updated to a flapper setup with a big F-series box. The leaf springs gave way to a fresh 3 link and the 2" Bilsteins were replaced with 3" coil overs and 3" triple bypasses on each corner. The 300 6 cyl was ejected and a 5.8 was installed The truck never made it to testing. The project languished at ORW, the Racing program went away and although a bunch of fine work was done the truck was relegated to the back burner and soon ended up on the "to be disposed of list".
My friend Pauly was about to undertake a new build from a bone stock 86 when I bumped into Mark Newhan. I detailed our plans for the project to him and having just finished what is now the Pechansky truck I was well aware that my friend was starting down the road to a $40,000 investment. Mark indicated that Howard wanted the Bronco gone. Paul made him an offer and the BSB project was borne. We disassembled the Bronco relying on Greg at Total Performance for an SVO crate motor and some durable engine parts, a set of Walker Evans 17" wheels, 37" Goodyear MTRs, A bit of paint some interior work and shock valving. Most of you know that it takes some time to get a new truck dialed in but after a couple of Peninsula runs and much hard work Paul was happy. The truck rolled in corners like a trawler in a beam sea but it steered through the turns and never missed a beat. It was the 05 Baja 1000 pit at Cohobuzo JCT Paul's business partner asked to take a friend for a ride just after dark and one hour later the Bronco came limping back to camp with not a straight panel on the truck. They had barrel rolled in a tight turn 3 times at 60 plus MPH. I was heart broken, a gazillion hours of work down the drain, Paul lost interest. The following month he purchased the Walker Evans built Ram Charger of Steve Sourapas. He backed the twisted truck in next to the new purchase and called his partner. Pointing at the two trucks he said "there is my new pre-runner and there is yours, yours needs some work". BSB went Back to it's creator Mark Newhan for a new front cage, roof, doors and hours on a frame machine. After a half hearted prep job Paul's partner joined us for the '07 peninsula run. On the 3rd day the windshield fell out and BSB never saw the dirt again. The economic downturn hit and BSB sat in the partners yard. The dirt from the 07 still caked in the custom carpet job. The sun bleached the covers off the Mastercrafts. The shocks wept tears of shock oil.
Summer of 2010 came and it was peninsula run time again. Pauly came to me with a proposal. You fix it you can drive it. It was killing him to see such a killer truck just rotting away. I partnered up with my neighbor Bethel and we undertook the restoration of BSB. We stripped her to the bushings, fabbed up a rear sway bar, remounted a problematic wish bone, added an IPOD, GPS, Intercom, outside drain cooler and a hundred other little things. November came and it was pre-run time. 850 miles of the most fun an adult kid can have. Thank you lord! Thank you Pauly! Thank you Goodyear!
I have some more pics coming.
With a very tight deadline the fledgling fab shop slammed the truck together in a few days. The TTB was swapped out in favor of a retired Dave Ashley class 8 beam setup. The stock steering was updated to a flapper setup with a big F-series box. The leaf springs gave way to a fresh 3 link and the 2" Bilsteins were replaced with 3" coil overs and 3" triple bypasses on each corner. The 300 6 cyl was ejected and a 5.8 was installed The truck never made it to testing. The project languished at ORW, the Racing program went away and although a bunch of fine work was done the truck was relegated to the back burner and soon ended up on the "to be disposed of list".
My friend Pauly was about to undertake a new build from a bone stock 86 when I bumped into Mark Newhan. I detailed our plans for the project to him and having just finished what is now the Pechansky truck I was well aware that my friend was starting down the road to a $40,000 investment. Mark indicated that Howard wanted the Bronco gone. Paul made him an offer and the BSB project was borne. We disassembled the Bronco relying on Greg at Total Performance for an SVO crate motor and some durable engine parts, a set of Walker Evans 17" wheels, 37" Goodyear MTRs, A bit of paint some interior work and shock valving. Most of you know that it takes some time to get a new truck dialed in but after a couple of Peninsula runs and much hard work Paul was happy. The truck rolled in corners like a trawler in a beam sea but it steered through the turns and never missed a beat. It was the 05 Baja 1000 pit at Cohobuzo JCT Paul's business partner asked to take a friend for a ride just after dark and one hour later the Bronco came limping back to camp with not a straight panel on the truck. They had barrel rolled in a tight turn 3 times at 60 plus MPH. I was heart broken, a gazillion hours of work down the drain, Paul lost interest. The following month he purchased the Walker Evans built Ram Charger of Steve Sourapas. He backed the twisted truck in next to the new purchase and called his partner. Pointing at the two trucks he said "there is my new pre-runner and there is yours, yours needs some work". BSB went Back to it's creator Mark Newhan for a new front cage, roof, doors and hours on a frame machine. After a half hearted prep job Paul's partner joined us for the '07 peninsula run. On the 3rd day the windshield fell out and BSB never saw the dirt again. The economic downturn hit and BSB sat in the partners yard. The dirt from the 07 still caked in the custom carpet job. The sun bleached the covers off the Mastercrafts. The shocks wept tears of shock oil.
Summer of 2010 came and it was peninsula run time again. Pauly came to me with a proposal. You fix it you can drive it. It was killing him to see such a killer truck just rotting away. I partnered up with my neighbor Bethel and we undertook the restoration of BSB. We stripped her to the bushings, fabbed up a rear sway bar, remounted a problematic wish bone, added an IPOD, GPS, Intercom, outside drain cooler and a hundred other little things. November came and it was pre-run time. 850 miles of the most fun an adult kid can have. Thank you lord! Thank you Pauly! Thank you Goodyear!
I have some more pics coming.
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