Project B2 Marauder 1984 Ford Bronco II XLS

[Jim Oaks]

Gauges:

I decided to replace the instrument bulbs with LED bulbs. The old incandescent bulbs give off a yellow light. The gauges have blue bulb filters, but the yellow hue of the light make the gauges look green. The new bright white LED bulbs give the gauges their true blue color.

I also didn't like that the gauge needles looked sun bleached, so I decided to report them with some orange fluorescent paint that I got from Hobby Lobby.

Above you can see how white the needle is with just a hint of color at the needle point.

Below you can see how much better it looks after being painted.

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Here they are lit up with the new LED bulbs.

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If you remove the screws holding the clear plastic covers over the gauges you can then remove the metal trim ring. You can see where the portion of the needle that was behind the ring is still orange.

I used a brush to apply the paint and laid some masking paper behind the needles to make sure The brush didn't touch the gauge surface. It took about 3 coats to make sure the needles had good coverage.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Front Suspension, Brakes & Hubs:

The Bronco II was upgraded with Rough Country 1-1/2-inch lift coil springs. I just wanted to improve it's stance a little with the larger tires and the new springs will improve it's handling. I wanted to go with Skyjacker springs but the Rough Country springs fit my girlfriends budget better.

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First I removed the front shock

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Then removed the nut holding the coil spring in place.

WARNING - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT:

When I'm ready to loosen the nut I drop the axle down as far as it will go to unload the spring. This is why I remove the shock.

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I will usually unload the suspension by dropping the axle down as far as I can, and then push down on the brake rotor to get the spring out of the upper coil bucket.

The spring won't shoot out because I've released the pressure from it and it's still help down with a washer and nut.

Then I remove the nut holding and spring retainer.

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With the spring and shock removed I will take a grinder with a wire wheel, clean up the frame and coil bucket, and paint it all black before reassembly.

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Here you can see the new Rough Country coil spring on the left and the old factory coil spring on the right.

Even though they appear to be the same height the new spring has more coils twisted into it (9) versus the factory coil (7). The spring is also a little thicker. This will keep it from compressing as much and improve the handling.

NOTE: It's still a Bronco II, not a sports car.

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Here's the new Rough Country 1-1/2-Inch coil spring and Skyjacker Black Max shock P/N B8552.

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Here you can see what's been cleaned up and painted black along with the calipers, brakes, and rotors.

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The factory automatic locking hubs were replaced with new Mile Marker 427 manual locking hubs. These factory automatic hubs have been known to fail with age, so they were replaced with manual hubs for reliability.

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When switching to manual locking hubs you'll need a Mile Marker 95-27988 Hub Conversion Kit Automatic To Manual Hub Conversion Kit.

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[Jim Oaks]

Rear Suspension & Brakes:

In the rear the Bronco II received a new Skyjacker R3135 Softride Rear Add-A-Leaf to lift the rear of the Bronco I to match the front.

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I used PB Blaster (you can also use WD-40) to soak the nuts and u-bolts holing the rear springs to the rear axle a day before I worked on it to help make them come off easier. Be sure to really soak the nut on the center pin that sticks up through the middle of the upper leaf spring plate.

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Shockingly I don't have any photos of the add-a-leaf install. Here's a link to a PDF file on how to do it:

https://www.broncocorral.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/skyjacker_add-a-leaf_instructions.pdf

Basically you're going to put a c-clamp on the leaf spring before and after the u-bolts. After you remove the u-bolts you'll lower the axle down to take all of the weight off of it. Then you'll remove the nut off of the center pin. The add-a-leaf comes with a new center pin, so if you have to cut the old one off it's ok.

With the center pin out you're going to slowly loosen up the c-clamps to let them spread apart. This is where you get to have fun installing the new add-a-leaf. One end of the add-a-leaf is longer from the center pin than the other end. Make sure that you install it so that the lengths match the existing springs.

Once it's in place you can squeeze the springs back together with the c-clamps, and install the new center pin and nut.

If you look at the picture below you'll see that there's actually one more leaf in the leaf pack than in the photo above.

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With the leaf spring done I installed new brake pads, hardware, and brake drums. I brushed some anti-seize on the axle to make sure the new drums don't get seized in place by rust. This way they'll come off easy the next time the brakes need done.

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[Jim Oaks]

Tires & Wheels:

For the past 6-years I've been using Cooper tires on my trucks. For this build I went to my local tire shop and had them help me find a tire that suited my needs at a decent price. They turned me on to the Americus Rugged M/T.

RUGGED M/T - AMERICUS TIRES

The Americus rugged M/T is a premium high-void mud pattern with large shoulder blocks for deep traction and crisp handling in on-road / off-road conditions.

www.americustire.com

Amazon.com : americus rugged mt

The original tires were a 195/75/15 (26.5" x 7.7" x 15") tire. I chose to go with a 235/75/15 (28.9" x 9.3" x 15")

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The new tires are 2.4-inches larger in diameter and 1.6-inches wider than stock. I chose this size because it was the biggest tire I could get to fit and not rub against the Bronco II's XLS fender flares and air dam. The larger tires will now make the speedometer register the vehicle at 5.3 MPH slower than what the vehicle is actually travelling. This is important to know so the driver doesn't get a speeding ticket.

The wheels are Crager Nomad II's.

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With the lift installed and new tires and wheels mounted I took the Bronco II to Wichita Alignment & Brake - 1200 31st St, Wichita Falls, TX 76302. This guy does great work.

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The right wheels and tires can really make a vehicle.

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[Jim Oaks]

Gutting The Interior:

I know I've mentioned before that we repainted the interior panels, recovered the headliner in new material, and added a new carpet. Here's a couple of pics of the interior being removed, insulation added, and the interior being put back together. This thing was gutted to a bare shell which is one of the reasons it took so long to complete the project.

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[Jim Oaks]

Back-Up Camera & Reverse Light Switch:

I bought this backup camera kit from Amazon:

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The first issue I had to deal with was that the backup lights didn't come on when the 5-speed manual transmission was put into reverse. I looked under the Bronco II and found some wires with a busted plug, and no wires going to the backup switch on the side of the transmission.

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The purple with orange wire and black with pink wire need to connect to the backup light switch. It doesn't matter which wire plugs in where. The switch simply connects one wire to the other to complete the circuit and turn on the lights.

I ordered a new plug, but it didn't fit. This switch has a blade type of connector in it. The 1986 (possibly 1985) and newer transmissions use a pin type of connector. The new plug fits the pin type of connector. My solution was to use (2) small female blyde type of connectors on two different color wires to make my own plug. Then I just connected the wires to the Purple with Orange wire and Black with pink wire.

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Since the interior had been removed it was an easy job running the harness from the monitor back to the right rear taillight. I used a wire tap to connect the red power wire to the black with pink wire on the backup light bulb harness, and the black ground wire to the black wire on the backup light harness. You can also see that I replaced the incandescent backup light bulb with a LED bulb for more light output.

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The harness that goes to the camera drops down through the body and behind the rear bumper where it connects to the camera.

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The camera is designed to be mounted over a license plate, but I was concerned that it would get bumped when the rear gate was open, so I mounted it under the plate. After taking this picture I cut a piece of aluminum angle the width of the license plate and mounted it behind the camera so it sticks out just past the top of the camera to protect it.

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I also added a single Nilight LED light I had laying around to help light up the area behind the vehicle to be able to see more when backing up at night.

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I attached the monitor to the lower part of the dash and angled it towards the driver. Note the oval thumb screw that I added to the ash tray. Originally you're suppose to reach under the ash tray and pull it out, but the monitor is in the way. So I added the thumb screw as a pull handle.

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[Peter Griffin]

Awesome progress/updates/information/pictures, thanks @Jim Oaks, motivation to keep plugging away on my '88!

 

[cadei007]

Round Headlights:

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I wanted to convert the Bronco II to round headlights to give it more of the original 1966-1977 Ford Bronco look. I've seen other people do this by removing their stock headlight buckets and replace them with round headlight buckets from older Ford's. I wanted to find an easier method.

I found this 7-inch round headlight mounting ring on Amazon for $20.00

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You can see the passenger side headlight removed and the original headlight bucket.

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I used the mounting ring as a template so I knew where to drill mounting holes.

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You can see the holes I drilled below. There's holes to bolt it to the body, and larger holes to allow the alignment springs to recess.

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For headlights I used Xprite 7-inch LED headlights. I installed these on my girlfriends Jeep Wrangler and they work great, so I chose them for the Bronco II.

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Below you can see how the light mounts to the body. You can see where thenut behind the adjustment spring recesses into the body, and the bolt holding the mounting ring to the body.

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Below is what it looks like with both headlights in and the grill installed.

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This is an awesome build! My Bronco is currently leaking water around the driver rear glass. My rubber seals are about shot, and I can't seem to find a source for them. What did you do about yours? Thanks!

 

[Kasika]

Pretty damn cool!

 

[XLTsplash]

I love the XLS package on the Bronco IIs. The round headlights give it that vintage Bronco look. Nice work !