Project "Big Country" - Front Bumper Fab

[bucketobolts]

Can you see the drivers front tire without leaning out of the cab?

[744x4]

Yes and with the half doors it will make it even easier.I will get Robert to bolt it on after I drop it off tomorrow.

[Ogeechee 4x4]

That's looking great! :xyxthumbs:

[SC74]

Yes and with the half doors it will make it even easier.I will get Robert to bolt it on after I drop it off tomorrow.

Here are a couple pics of the driver side trail door upergrin:

Keith built these doors several years ago and they have been collecting dust in his garage ever since. Somehow they ended up with a coat of orange paint on them (check out the blue hinges holding them on!) and on "Big Country."

We've got some cosmetic work to do on the pass. side still, but I was anxious to see how it looked so bolted the driver side on tonight. I'm not sure if the aluminum diamond plate will stay shiny or not - I can see my burning my arm easy and getting blinded on a sunny day!

[SC74]

Plan on taking advantage of not working tomorrow and hopefully having a productive day of work on the Bronco.

Plan is to:
1. Build trac-bar (bend an off-set in it) and get heim ends welded on to bolt in-place.
2. Work on Pass. trail door.
3. Get the body bolted down for good so I can start taking measurements to bend the front clip.

I needed to get some weight on the front end before welding the trac-bar for good, so Keith had a good idea - bolt the PO's heavy as h*ll front bumper on it and mount the winch. I've also got some other heavy things I'll stack on it tomorrow - a couple car batteries, chains, etc. to make up any other weight to get accurate measurements.

Here's a pic with the original front bumper and winch - looks goofy with the narrowed grill and wide bumper mokin:

[Mill Knob]

Still looking good Robert... I will be working on my bronco as well tommorrow... Good luck

[SC74]

Finally got all 6 of the body mounts in and snugged up last night. What should have taken less than an hour turned into over 2 hours - dropped the metal bushing into a hole in the frame on the pass. side mount that is just behind the seat (the one that sits on a pedastal above the frame rail). While trying to fit everything in the bottom side of that pedastal (keep in mind I have 2 fuel lines running through there too) the metal sleeve fell. Over an hour and tons of choice words, we finally got it out with a magnet and fish tape.

On a more positive note.... I bought a 60 gallon IR compressor (Labor Day Sale) this past weekend and got it wired up last night too.

[SC74]

Got a good day's work on it today upergrin:

I started off this morning by notching the driver's side fender so that it would clear the cowl when turned in. I had the fenders loosely bolted to the grill so that they would have room to angle, but what a pain to get to those bolts with all of the extra sheet metal in the way that attaches to the core support. A few more cuts and all that is gone too :bdent:

I ended up taking everything over to Keith's house and we worked on it there the rest of the day - we've got a "mock-up" frame and tube at his house that was a lot easier to do all of the work on with more space.

The biggest thing was the gap between the fender and grill at the top of the grill. Keith got to snipping some sheet-metal and did an awesome job :rubeyes: filling the gap with some scrap sheet-metal that we had cut off the fenders. We decided to go ahead and weld the body line closed since we did the same to the rear - that way there won't even be bolts necessary to hold the fenders and grill together.

We were out of good flap-disc and plan on stocking up tomorrow to do the clean-up work, but here it is!

[SC74]

We also got a hoop bent for the front core support. Hopefully tomorrow I can clean the welds up on the fenders/grill and we'll bend the rest of the front clip.

Now I gotta figure out what radiator I'm going with and how I'm going to mount it cratchhe:

[bucketobolts]

Any plans on how to section the hood?