Project "Big Country" - Front Bumper Fab

[SC74]

Haven't been working on the truck too much lately, but have gotten the front end 90% done. Here are some pictures of the homeade trac-bar riser that will also serve as the fixed end mount for the steering ram. It's done and welded onto the truck now. I also finished my trac-bar and got the welded inserts in them and mounted. I went ahead and ordered a trac bar drop bracket from WH with some new hood pins upergrin: so that should help my angles a little more. The top of the riser is capped off flat and I tapped it for a bump stop.

[SC74]

I'm going to switch back to the stock pitman arm - the drag link is too flat on the bottom of the drop arm. The stock arm is basically the same as moving it to the top of the dropped arm. Since I'm running high steer arms and the drag link is going directly to the arm rather than to the tie-rod, I was afraid that the drag link would get into the front x-member when the suspension cycled.

Today I cut the bottom half of the x-member off and welded a 3/16" plate back in. Much more room now mokin:

My trac bar was not on during the pics (springs leaning!)- had to take it off to get room to cut.

[cuz1]

Robert,
Going back to the first page of this thread. What problems did you encounter when narrowing the grill / fenders / hood? I just put my hands on a front clip and want to narrow it for my bronco.

carl

[SC74]

Robert,
Going back to the first page of this thread. What problems did you encounter when narrowing the grill / fenders / hood? I just put my hands on a front clip and want to narrow it for my bronco.

carl

Carl - No real problems, just a major PITA! The grill was probably the easiest thing to do - had it done in one afternoon after some pre-planning and measuring. I did the grill first and then fit everything to it. The fenders went on easy - had to notch the driver fender to clear over the cowl and welded the fender to grill body line instead of trying to smooth that out rather than trying to leave a stock body line with an angled match.

The top of the grill / fenders took some time filling the pie shape from the angle. We trimmed some sheetmetal and bent it to match so that we could weld it in - not hard just tedious.

The hood was the worst part of it all :banghead: It probably could have been done a little quicker and easier but I paid a lot of attention to detail. I think others have used angle iron on the sides of the hood after they cut it - I cut the stock side off and re-used them. I separated the hood and hood frame (about 100 spot welds to cut out) - it could probably be done with the frame attached cratchhe:

Something that you may want to consider - I talked to Chuck about all of this when he started narrowing his front end and he has a buddy in the boating industry that works with fiberglass. Someone good with fiberglass skills could probably do the hood work easily, with a glass hood that is.

The only set-back it gave me was that I narrowed it too much to run the stock Bronco angle bracket and PB booster. I ended up selling my PB booster and going with a hydroboost set-up - mounts flat to the firewall so no issues with the narrowed fenders.

Hope this helps!

[cuz1]

very helpful thanks

[SC74]

I haven't been working really hard on the truck the past several weeks, but have gotten a few odds and ends taken care of.

Here are my modified drive shafts thanks to Carolina Driveline - top notch driveshaft shop :xyxthumbs: The only reason I have not installed them is because I have to remove my tranny cross-member to notch it for the shifter cable.

Also in the pic are James Duff long travel shocks for the front - now I need to bend a hoop for them. The bag on the shocks are the hood pins from Wild Horses. One of my next steps is fabbing a battery tray and hood pin mounts.

[SC74]

I got off early this past Friday and ended up at Cline Hydraulics in downtown Greenville to get hoses made for the hydroboost. I was hoping to use the stock powerstroke hydroboost hoses and use adaptors to the pump and box, but now Ford uses specialty fittings that makes it impossible to adapt to. I ended up getting them to change ends on both of the powerstroke hoses.

Once I figure out how I'm going to mount the PS reservoir (hood clearance issues cratchhe then I'll finish the low pressure return lines and add a fluid cooler to it.

[Mill Knob]

Glad to see that you got to do some work to your Bronco... Looking good.. It will not belong until you can pull it out of the garage under it's own power...:biggthumpup:

[SC74]

I used some 1.5x1.5x1/8" angle to mount the lower radiator mounts to. I'm using the stock "C" mounts and Bronco radiator. There's just enough room for the hood to close and plenty of clearance for the fan.

I'll weld two tabs on the upper core support tube to bolt the upper radiator mounts to.

I think I'm going to use muffler tubing for the lower hose cross-over. What have ya'll used to avoid buying the expensive cross-over from BC's?

[SC74]

Glad to see that you got to do some work to your Bronco... Looking good.. It will not belong until you can pull it out of the garage under it's own power...:biggthumpup:

No kidding - that'll be a great feeling upergrin: All I'll lack after finishing the radiator is fabbing a battery tray and a little wiring before I should be able to fire it up.