Matt's 74 Bronco

[reaper71]

Here is another project that was just brought to me on 10/17/16 It's a 74 Bronco that needs a TON of metal work (if you see it it gets replaced)

Mark...

[reaper71]

Pic #1. This was taken on Monday the 17th as it showed up. The truck is pretty rotted in alot of places and will have extensive panel replacement. Floor,kick pan,rockers, A-pillar, B-pillar, quarters and front inner fender assembly.

Pic #2. I started the disassembly of the truck yesterday The drivers side.

Pic #3. Passenger

Pic #4 I was able to get the body pulled off the chassis as well.
He will come by to get the chassis to have it blasted.

Pic #5. The chassis ready for pick up.

Mark...

[flashed]

Im in .

[reaper71]

Small update.
Matt came and picked up the chassis on Monday evening and it was brought back Tuesday afternoon from blasting, so now its time to figure out my plan of attack. as I stated before it will have extensive metal work.
Basically from the firewall back will be new! These bodies do not have a skeleton to mount panels to, so it will be a puzzle to put back together.

Till next time
Mark...

[Russell Ashley]

Looking forward to seeing it come together. A few years back that wouldn't have been worth restoring, now they are like gold.

[franken]

Fords of the era had bad something and would return to the earth almost before your eyes. Thankfully Asia has parts. Gotta love the early Broncos.

[reaper71]

Russell, It's crazy how thing's change in the car world!
Even some of the Ugly cars/trucks have become popular. I think alot of it is do to supply and demand, as the rare cars go away we start looking at other ones to take their place. Hence making them worth something.

Mark...

[reaper71]

Franken, Yeah this thing is pretty bad, and it's odd haw it doesn't have an inner structure to hold it together!
Parts just get put together like a puzzle.

Mark...

[reaper71]

Pic #1. I worked on the chassis a bit, I had to replace the body mount area in the back of the frame (rotted out) So I made new plates to be welded in.

Pic #2. The finished project. Sorry for no before shot, must have forgot!!

Pic #3. This Was as I was getting ready to cut the back half off the truck to see if I could use the tail light, upper post and the lower cross sill.

Pic #4. Well after it was cut out it revealed some more rot.

Pic #5. And some more, so the customer decided to order the pieces needed and will continue when they show up.

Mark...

[reaper71]

After waiting for more parts to show up I finally got back to work on the Bronco.

Pic #1. This is some more parts I started to assemble and found out it needs more structure to kinda hold things together...so I changed gears.

Pic #2. Back to the body I marked out where I wanted to make my cuts (cutting because I need the front support brace)

Pic #3. And after the cut was made. Most of the trans hump will stay as well as the fire wall.

Pic #4. Now that I have a solid spot for the new toe board to sit it can be mounted to the frame.

Pic #5. The front section mounted to the frame and I can get started on the Inner fender.

[67ChevyRedneck]

COOL PROJECT!

I've always wanted an early bronco, but they are stupid expensive around here, even for a garbage basket case!

[Advanced Design]

Mark, I am in to follow along. Your builds are always interesting and informative.

Looking at how rusty this one is, initially I was wondering why not just find a more solid one. Guessing they have gotten really hard to find? Must be valuable as rust repair is so expensive and time consuming.

[reaper71]

67 I agreed to take the project before I saw it in person (lesson learned) If I new then what I know now I probably would not have taken on the project....reason being is it is a HUGE puzzle and it has to be carefully planned to even get started on this thing, and Yes they are expensive!!


Doug, Thanks for joining in.
They are not to hard to find if you have deep pockets to get a really nice one That being said it will be very time consuming and a challenge, not sure if I would take on another one at this point in the build

Mark...

[67ChevyRedneck]

Ohhhhhhhhhh, I misread your first post... this is a "customer car".

Yes, the majority of early bronco's are garbage, even a lot of the high dollar ones need significant work.

[reaper71]

So after figuring out what direction I had to go to get things started I first started to get the inner fender panel removed.

Pic #1. The inner removed to reveal some small spots to be repaired.

Pic #2. The upper cowl section was rotted so will need to be fixed before I move forward.

Pic #3. Using my trusty poster board for mockup I then transferred it to metal and made the new patch.

Pic #4. Patch all welded in place (I also painted inside the opening with rust encapsulator)

Pic #5. The inner held in place with self tappers and the fender was test fit and measured numerous times.

Next up the kick pan and A-pillar.

Mark...

[reaper71]

Pic #1. So after I had things all lined up and ready to go I was able to move forward.

Pic #2. The old A pillar removed and ready for cleanup and fitting.

Pic #3. 2nd shot of the cleanup and prep.

Pic #4. The process was fairly long trying to get the pieces to fit and measurements to be correct, but finely got it whipped.
All the pieces were then welded in place and then moved to the passenger side will get shots of it in progress.

Mark...

[Advanced Design]

Mark, that is really major rust repair. Nice work keeping it all aligned / lined up / square.

Are you making replacement patches / parts or are those you replaced here reproduced?

[reaper71]

Thank's Doug, To answer you r question most of the pieces are repop I will make pieces as needed. The small stuff on the cowl I made the rest was all bought.

Mark...

[reaper71]

Pic #1. Yesterday was a busy day trying to get the old removed and try to make some headway.
In this shot shows the rotted spots and the old inner fender removed.

Pic #2. This shows the inner kick panel removal. As you can see it is spot welded Vertical and Horizontal and made it very difficult to remove without tearing up other metal.

Pic #3. After most of the kick panel removed (small angle spot comes out)and this is when I noticed it would need some surgery.

Pic #4. This upper section needs to be cut out as well as the pan to the right was rotted through (The airbox sits on top of the pan area)

Pic #5. The old rotted spots all cut out.

Part 2 up next...

[reaper71]

Pic #1. The new pan made and welded in.

Pic #2. Using my trusty mock up tool made the upper section to be replaced.

Pic #3. The new sections replaced and metal finished.

Pic #4. Starting to fit more pieces to make sure things are fitting.

Pic #5. Close up of the kick panel,cowl/pan inner fender puzzle....
It was a productive day hopefully I can get things all welded in place Tomorrow

Mark...

[reaper71]

Was able to finish up the major pieces Wed. still have the A pillar to weld in place but the fenders fit good.
all shots just showing different angles.

[nlped]

I'm in to watch this one. I have a 74 Bronco in my building that I hope to get started in 2017. Just have to get my Falcon squared away.

[reaper71]

Right on!
Thanks for checking out the build.

Mark...

[Rickysnickers]

Wow, that's really nice work!

[67ChevyRedneck]

In the future:

"Hey man, your Bronco looks great!"

"Thanks"

"How much of it is original?"

"Windshield frame."



Looking good!

No inner coatings suck. My dad recently removed the cowl on his 58 chevy cab (a cab that appeared mostly rust free) and it looked a lot like the bronco underneath.