1984 Ford Bronco Project

[Dakota Houligans]

Managed to get the 2 coats of sound deadener down a few days ago. Had to let it dry completely and sprayed the ceramic insulation layer in the back today.

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Turned out pretty good. The tin can sound is completely gone. More of a dull thud when you bang on the metal from the other side. So when we get the carpet and everything back in it should be much quieter.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Turns out I have 3 rusted off body mount bolts. So I now have bolts and new body mount bushings ordered. Oh well. I have a few broken seat bolts to remove as well. Hopefully I'll be able to weld nuts on the bolts and work them out.

 

[BobsGarage]

Any updates?

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Haven't done much on it lately been taking care of some stuff around the house and doing some hunting.

I did get some work done on replacing the body mount bushings with some from energy suspension.
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I started putting them together only to remember I planed to paint the hardware.

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I ordered some replacement hardware as well from LMC truck. I primed them with some rattle can primer and painted them all black.

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Turned out pretty good for spray can work.

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I have them all installed and torqued down. I have so small spots to fix on the top rear of the body and another small spot and it will hopefully be time to start on the roll cage.

 

[Overland California]

Haven't done much on it lately been taking care of some stuff around the house and doing some hunting.

I did get some work done on replacing the body mount bushings with some from energy suspension.
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I started putting them together only to remember I planed to paint the hardware.

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I ordered some replacement hardware as well from LMC truck. I primed them with some rattle can primer and painted them all black.

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Turned out pretty good for spray can work.

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I have them all installed and torqued down. I have so small spots to fix on the top rear of the body and another small spot and it will hopefully be time to start on the roll cage.

Looks good! How much did all of that body mount hardware from LMC run you? I couldn't get their catalog to work for me when I was shopping around for new mount hardware.

 

[Plasmajab]

All I gotta say is Im gobsmacked at the work you have done.. Awesome work man.. Just awesome.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Looks good! How much did all of that body mount hardware from LMC run you? I couldn't get their catalog to work for me when I was shopping around for new mount hardware.

I can look but I believe a little over $230. Not cheep but better than trying to clean up my nasty falling apart stuff. If you get it I'd skip the bolts for the middle 3 mounts all they send is some grade 8 regular bolts you can buy at any hardware store. But the ones for the core support and rear mounts are the factory style ones. Also I used energy suspension mounts that I ordered through work.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

All I gotta say is Im gobsmacked at the work you have done.. Awesome work man.. Just awesome.

Thanks. Plenty more to do yet. Hopefully with Christmas almost here and most hunting seasons over I'll have more free time to get back on it.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

The top corners before the fiberglass top are prone to cracking over time on these. Turns out I have some to repair on the drivers side and a least a small rust spot to repair on the passengers side.

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Rust on the Passenger side. When I pulled to top back I found a crack in the seam which is likely the cause here.

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Also found a crack in the door jam.

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[Dakota Houligans]

The drivers side is worse and looks to have been replaced at one point.

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When I took the top off you could see that the previous replacement panel wasn't fitted the best.

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Rust on the back side. I cut an access panel on the inside.

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I was told once that to stop cracks like this you need to drill a hole at the ends of the crack before you weld them up. I'ts supposed to help stop the crack. I guess we'll see.

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Then I cleaned up the area and tried to flatten it out a bit. I also got rid of the lip that was catching derbies and moisture between the cab and the top.

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Then it was time for a series of spot welds to hold it all together.

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Next I'll have to smooth it out. Also I plan to clean up from the backside and reinforce it a little perhaps.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

You can barley see them but there is a small crack just above the seam. Unfortuanatly I may have to replace a small section to get rid of the rust on this side.

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I cut another access hole on the passenger side. so I could get in and clean it all up and then reinforce it.

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Cleaned the paint off around the crack in the door jam and drilled the hole. I also started cleaning up the rusty spot. Might have to grind a little.

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[Dakota Houligans]

I had brought home some paint to do some spray outs of the paint ideas we had. So I decided to test in on the quarter panel so we could see it more full size.
This is the factory colors.
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Taped, sanded and primed.

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We picked the main color we wanted. but I wanted to try some ideas for a stripe down the body line. Originally we thought just the dark grey and red for the stripe. But my daughter wondered what it would look like with some blue too.

So the experiment begins. First a coat of the blue metallic.

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Added some tape for the blue test.

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And now the red.

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Removed the tape. And let it dry so I could tape the body line off and spray the grey.

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The grey sprayed on.

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Tape removed and now for some clear coat.

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Dried and tape removed.

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My daughter wanted the blue so her little brother has a color on the bronco too. I like her idea but not sure I like the way it looks. Both the wife and I think the grey and red looks better than the one with the blue. So I might have to come up with another way to include something for her little brother.

 

[Overland California]

Gray and red looks good!

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Finally got a little more time in the garage. I made some reinforcement pieces to put in the B pillars. I thought I had some photos of them when I was making them but Apparently not.
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That is the divers side. They are welded to 3 sides of each panel so it should be less likely to crack again.

After the drivers side fought me a bit on getting it to fit flush. I did the passenger side in 2 pieces. I welded the one side on after I had the main piece in place.

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It worked out much better that way. Unfortunately I didn't notice I welded too much at once or had the welder up too high. It definitely had good penetration.

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I have some work to do to smooth that out again. Oh well. I also found some problems with the drip rail that I'm debating on how to fix. A hot rod building friend says to just cut them off and smooth it out. Not sure if I want to do that. But it's going to be about -20 tomorrow and -30 the next so I'm turning the heat off in the garage for a few days. Should be able to make a decision by then.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Got a little more work done this week. Decided to just cut the drip rails off and figure something out. Drivers side cut off and the seem welded up.

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So I ended up with a big gap at the top of the door so I picked up some metal rod and positioned it to fill the gap. I kept it out a little farther than the door to keep a little bit of an edge.

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With the rod all welded it. It went pretty smooth for a first try. Took some time but no major problems.

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And finally after some grinding and sanding I have it mostly smoothed out. I'll have to do some fine tuning after primer but not too bad.

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[Dakota Houligans]

And the passenger side went a lot quicker. Cut off and seam welded and ground down.

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Rod welded it and smoothed out.

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And a couple after some sanding.

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All in all it was a fun modification that really served no purpose other than to remove some rust. Now I guess it's time to get back to replacing a little bit of rusty structural metal in the back.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Started repairing some more on the passenger rear corner below the tailgate.

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Removing some metal looking for the solid stuff.

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Had to cut away another layer of metal.

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Finally seems I made it to solid metal. I started cleaning things up but this is as far as I got that night. It was time to put kids to bed.

 

[AmericaMike]

Keep it up. I had to replace and fix everything on my truck except the firewall. It’s so worth it in the end.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

I got the rust cut out of the rear corner removed and cleaned up. I then sprayed it with weld thru primer since I won't be able to completely access the back side.

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The replacement piece all cut to fit. Sure am glad a picked up a plasma cutter a couple years back.

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Clamped in place with the back side coated in seam sealer. And ready to weld in.

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First layer back in place.

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And prepped for the next layer of metal to go back in.

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[Dakota Houligans]

The first 2 pieces of this section back in. I had to remove them to get access to the rusty metal behind them.

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Another replacement piece fitted and welded. I decided to put holes in the one side for access to push some seam sealer in.

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Cleaned up and ready.

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It looks like a mess but in is covered by the tailgate and rear bumper so no big deal. Now on to the rust around where the spare tire carrier bolts on.
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