Just Don't learn...

[chazzone]

As my signature says, I have been the proud owner of an "89 EB Bronco II since I bought her in 1996. Over the years, I upgraded engine and suspension and built her into a great work/play truck.

After more than 360,000 miles, she is succumbing to the cancerous rot of rust in both body and frame.

So, I set out to find a replacement and found a Craigslist post from Oak Park, Illinois. It was an '89 Bronco II with just 79,000 miles.

I called and talked to Ron and he explained that it had originally been bought for the Mrs., but that she had eventually moved on to a smaller car.

Ron had it repainted and thought that he might build the BII into a toy to haul jet ski's and just have a good time with, but never got around to doing anything else with it.

Eventually, it just ended up being in the way, and momma said that it was time for Little Red to go...

Luckily, Ron really like the truck and decided to see if anyone was interested in it before he sent it to the scrap yard.

I called and we talked about the truck. I hadn't been started in years. The exhaust was pretty much rusted away behind the cat, and he thought that there was a pinhole in the gas tank. There was also a crunching noise when he tried to push the truck backward. He thought that it might be a transfer case...

I told him my story and what I wanted. I pointed out that I was in Indianapolis, and that I'd be happy to drive to Chicago and arrange to tow it back if the truck was solid. But, I also told him that I would not be happy if it turned out to be junk.

He offered to do me one better. He said that he thought that the truck would be great for what I wanted, and he'd even deliver it.

How could I say no?

Here are the original pics from the Craigslist ad:

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Odometer reads 79483

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Interior looks new...

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It also comes with a push bar...

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...and a new rear step bumper...

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__________________

 

[Dodger]

That's a good looking B2!

 

[Jim Henderson]

Nice !!!

 

[chazzone]

Reality

So...this afternoon, this is what showed up...

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The body is straight and overall very good. *The rear lift gate opens and closes like a dream, as well as all the doors. *However...there is some rust to be dealt with. *Above the rain gutters is bubbled and there is a small spot by the gas tank door.

At first, I was bummed, but I have been thinking of painting the top in some kind of white urethane or bed liner material, so I guess that's been decided.

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The interior is as good as advertised, but there is corrosion on the left seat brackets and the left rear bolt is missing from the bracket. *Not sure what's up with that. but I'll find out. *There is no apparent rust from underneath, so what ever I find after I take up the carpet should be fixable.

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The motor looks about like what you'd expect. *Everything needs to be cleaned, and of course the hoses and belts are going to be replaced. *I plan to swap in the 4.0 radiator out of my old truck, as well.

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I was sure happy to see this aux. cooler for the autotrans. *Considering that it was a mom-mobile, it can't have been flogged all that hard, and this would be *good insurance.

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I ran a Carfax and found out that the last year this truck was inspected was 2001. *It had 72,000 miles at the time, and it only has another 7k on the clock now. *Apparently it has been setting for the last 12 years.

I'm going to commence with the tear down over the next couple of days, and I'll post progress as it happens. *I'd lie to get this done before the snow flies, so thanks for reading and stay tuned.

 

[chazzone]

Thanks guys. I'm overall happy with the truck. It's definitely the new Bluesmobile...

 

[chazzone]

Does any one know if the XLT option came with fog lights in the lower valance? I can't remember ever seeing one, but they are there in this truck, and they definitely were not cut out.

Maybe it's an aftermarket piece.

 

[wildbill23c]

Nice find, far less damage than my 84 B2 for sure. When I bought my 84 B2 last winter and got it home I sat down and thought WTF did I get myself into, well luckily I have a local high school real close that was happy to do the mechanical work for me, so that overall saved my B2 from the scrap yard, if it wasn't for them I would never have been able to get my rig on the road.

I'm waiting to save up the rest of the money to get the front end alignment and new wheel hub bearings then it will be back on the road once again. Probably towards the end of September before I have the money, but I did manage to save up the money and get a really good set of all season tires put on it a couple weeks ago.

Considering your B2 set for about 12 years it does look great.

What did you end up paying for that rig?

 

[chazzone]

Wild Bill, fortunately I'm used to working on these. I pretty much rebuilt the old girl a couple of times over the last 17 years, and the D35, 8.8 and Duff suspension is going to be swapped over to the new truck.

I'm also thinking that I'm going to have to go ahead and swap the World Products heads, Camcraft cam, and headers.

It just never ends...

I didn't get this truck for a steal, that's for sure. The guy wanted $1000, and a good solid frame and body with only 79k on it is worth that to me. The new rear bumper is a Westin SURSTEP, which goes for as little as $230 or as high as $320. I don't know what the push bar is worth, since I can't find a new one to compare, but it's got to be worth a c-note anyway.

When I considered the cost of renting a car hauler and gas to the north side of Chicago would add another couple hundred, I figured that I couldn't lose if he was willing to deliver.

 

[wildbill23c]

I paid $975 for my 84 B2 and it needs quite a bit of cosmetic work. Only reason I got it was because the lady that owned it was nice enough to accept some payments as I only get about 30 hours a week at work, so I couldn't get the full amount right away, she was really nice about it, and kept driving it around once in a while to keep the battery charged.

Just wish i had the money to restore mine to original condition at least. I want it for a daily driver but I need the rust issues taken care of ASAP before I have frame and major body issues like you were speaking about.

Mainly on the passenger side is my rust problem, but definitely needs corrected.



Body shop quoted me $1200 for new panels with labor and no paint. So saving up for that after I get the front end alignment mess taken care of.

Sure is hard when you are on an extremely small income.

 

[chazzone]

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Body shop quoted me $1200 for new panels with labor and no paint. So saving up for that after I get the front end alignment mess taken care of.

Sure is hard when you are on an extremely small income.

Body work is something that has always been a big scary monster to me. When I grew up, my dad worked up to general manager of a Ford dealership, and I knew some really good old time body men, and even though I learned how to turn wrenches with the best of the mechanics, I was always intimidated by paint.

How silly is that?

I've done some pretty good repairs, and with products like Por 15, I feel like I can tackle the rust issues with this truck.

I expect that I'll media blast (buddy has one to loan) the top, frame, and any small spots I find. The frame gets Por 15, and the top is going to get Durabak or Al's urethane coating.

I can relate to small budget. If I didn't already have the major mechanicals from the old truck, I couldn't afford to do this. OTOH, I expect that i'll get as many miles out of this as I did the old one, so it's well worth the investment.

 

[chazzone]

Alrighty then... *I only had about an hour to work on this today, but I got the bumper, skid plate and fuel tank off the truck...

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Harbor freifght electric impact made short work of the rusty hardware. *Here's what she looks like underside so far...

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Yeah, that's an air shock...oh the humanity.... *No more of that crap in the future.

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I'll probably zip those air shocks off and fuzz into the front tomorrow.

 

[chazzone]

Pulled the front bumper, grill and I'm into the head lights. Looks like I'm going to replace the core support. Pics to come...

 

[RandyZie]

keep them coming!

 

[wildbill23c]

Body work is something that has always been a big scary monster to me. When I grew up, my dad worked up to general manager of a Ford dealership, and I knew some really good old time body men, and even though I learned how to turn wrenches with the best of the mechanics, I was always intimidated by paint.

How silly is that?

I've done some pretty good repairs, and with products like Por 15, I feel like I can tackle the rust issues with this truck.

I expect that I'll media blast (buddy has one to loan) the top, frame, and any small spots I find. The frame gets Por 15, and the top is going to get Durabak or Al's urethane coating.

I can relate to small budget. If I didn't already have the major mechanicals from the old truck, I couldn't afford to do this. OTOH, I expect that i'll get as many miles out of this as I did the old one, so it's well worth the investment.

I understand what's involved in the repairs needed to the body of my B2, because my local body shop owner told me how it should be done properly, which is exactly what I want, to have the job done professionally and done the right way. I do not have a shop to work in so if the weather is bad, so is what I'm working on. I'll save up the money and do everything a little bit at a time. I know most of what I want and how to do the interior as the carpet was ripped out leaving just the metal floor, the headliner has also been sagging in it for quite a while, so I'll be able to fix that myself. The exterior body work I've never attempted any of it before so I'll gladly pay a shop to do that part, everything else I'll do on my own, I don't mind turning wrenches, but welding and body work I don't understand and I admit that I would screw things up on that part.

My budget allows only minor things, so I have to save money for quite a while to get anything done. The good part about my current job is I get tips, so I have been doing all of the work on my B2 just from tip money, it took me 3 months to save my tips to get the tires done, and probably will be about a month of saving to get the rest of the alignment issues taken care of, but its just small goals I set to help me save.

Your B2's body rust is nothing compared to the mess I have, I will have to probably replace the whole brake rotor, caliper, etc. on the front due to the amount of rust when the time comes to do brakes.

 

[4.0B2]

that rust makes me cringe... I'm such a Missippi Boy, we don't get rust like that.

 

[wildbill23c]

I figured you would have rust issues in Mississippi as well just from the humidity. I'm thinking my 84 Bronco 2 came from Utah where lots of salt is used on the roads in the winter, as I have major rust issues, but mainly on the passenger side is where its the worst.

 

[RandyZie]

Could be worse. I just tore up my carpet. I don't have a floor on the drivers side at all. But I believe the previous owner left the window down when they parked it, so that didn't help.

northern Michigan, so we have salt on the roads even in summer ;missingteeth;

 

[wildbill23c]

My driver's side floor board needs welded back in completely, need to find someone locally with a good welder to do so, looks like it broke right at the seam. But it will be fixed here soon I hope. Then I can get the alignment mess finished that I didn't have money for when I got the new tires so I had to park it until I could get the alignment fixed so I don't destroy my new tires. Its coming along slowly, this winter it will be in the shop to have the rear main and front main seals replaced.

 

[chazzone]

Got a couple more hours in today. *Pulled the left fender and inner fender. *It wasn't bad under the Sport trim, no rust just not very pretty.

That'll get a coat of Durabak once I get the suspension swapped and put her back together.

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[chazzone]

that rust makes me cringe... I'm such a Missippi Boy, we don't get rust like that.

What's really sad is that this is about as clean a BII as you're likely to see up here. The fact that it looks this good after sitting for 12 years in Chicago is unbelievable.

If I get a chance, I'll post pics of my current truck. The cancer sucks.

As soon as I get everything off and out of the way, I'll be hitting the frame and any rust that I can see with a media blaster and swabbing it down with Por 15. The new core support is going to get Durabak to keep it from being a problem down the road.

If I had done this when I got the first truck, I wouldn't have to be doing this one. But then, I didn't have the time to work on the last one. She had to go to work the day I bought her, and she's had little down time in the last 17 years.