The Deuce

[BONES]

Just spent the better part of the afternoon, welding my shock hoop back on and building a cross over bar to connect both shock hoops together, hopefully this will prove to be strong enough for now. At least untill I get the engine cage built to tie it all together.

Also spent a couple hours removing the rad and re-pinching the tabs that hold the jugs to the core on both sides and then reinstalling it. Ran it to bleed the air, then sealed the system with the rad cap and let it sit there and get up to open thermostat temps with the efan shut off, once the t-stat opened I let it heat up some more to see if it would create any leaks and found none, seems to have fixed the leaks for now anyways.

Heading out snowX4ing in the morning with a bunch of guys so I'll see how it all works again.

Will post pics and stuff after the run.

 

[PaleBlue90]

Just spent the better part of the afternoon, welding my shock hoop back on and building a cross over bar to connect both shock hoops together, hopefully this will prove to be strong enough for now. At least untill I get the engine cage built to tie it all together.

Also spent a couple hours removing the rad and re-pinching the tabs that hold the jugs to the core on both sides and then reinstalling it. Ran it to bleed the air, then sealed the system with the rad cap and let it sit there and get up to open thermostat temps with the efan shut off, once the t-stat opened I let it heat up some more to see if it would create any leaks and found none, seems to have fixed the leaks for now anyways.

Heading out snowX4ing in the morning with a bunch of guys so I'll see how it all works again.

Will post pics and stuff after the run.

lookin forward too it. u guys up north build some insane rigs!

 

[BONES]

Thanks for the kind words man!!

I better get off the computer....it's time to go wheeling!!!!

 

[Andres629]

lookin forward too it. u guys up north build some insane rigs!

Oh man, you have no idea! Some of the rigs I've seen here in town are retarded.

 

[BONES]

She survived another trail day, this time without and serious carnage.... only carnage was I ripped off my other rear fender flare.

I launched her several times, even drove like a mad man down some whoop trails created by the snow machines, bouncing over the tops of the whoops, bottomed the diff against the bump stops a couple times too, my shock hoops and cross over bar held strong this time. I think I better truss these diffs before I bend em, lol.

Rad held up great with no signs of leaking now, tho the stock 92 Exploder over flow rez needs a sealed lid or something because when I'm bouncing around getting some air here and there, coolant splashes out the lid. Sucks cause I still get green snow under there every time I stop. At least it's not the rad leaking anymore.

Sundays run consisted of 3 Jeeps, a Toyota and the Deuce. I pulled each one of them out several times, but this time I never got stuck long enough to need a pull. She was always able to back up to some degree and then back and forth over and over till she would claw her way back onto firmer ground. Impressed the hell out of the Jeep guys all day.....Oh and I came very close to laying it on it's side not long before the end of the day, I decided to cross and set of 3 foot deep ruts at a 45*angle on an 20*incline and as my passenger front tire hit the far bank to climb out the back end pivoted over to align the Bronco with the ruts and she tipped up on 2 wheels with the high tires about 2 feet off the ground. Luckily she didn't want to roll over an play dead that time. Need to get on building that cage ASAP!

So the next round of mods will be further building the cage and then building a truss for each diff.

The front I'm not exactly sure where to put the truss as I have no room over top of the diff due to the engine being so close when the suspension is stuffed into the bump stops and I will never install a truss under the diff for obvious reasons.

The rear will be getting an upper link mount system as part of the truss in preparation of linking the rear sometime in the not so distant future.

Here's some shots from the day.

 

[KELLY88]

That's a great looking BII and really good pictures to go along with it. Nice work!

 

[BONES]

Thank you very much!!

 

[BlackBII]

I like the pumpkin!

cool BII!

 

[BONES]

So far the specs for this rig are as follows:

1986 Bronco II Eddie Bauer

92 Explorer 4.0L swap, K&N filter, snorkel
fm145 5 speed manual
1350 manual shift front and rear 92 Explorer CV drive shafts
Full Width high pinion Dana 44 with mini spool
Full Width 31 spline 9" with mini spool
3.5:1 gears whoa! did he say 3.5OH's? yip I did.
Custom long travel Johnny Joint rad arm front suspension 4* Poly C bushings
front 16" stroke Procomp es3000's
Explorer rear leafs w/3" blocks and 12" stroke Gabriel's
custom 3" body lift on Daystar BII poly bushings
Stinger, sliders, skid plating
receivers front and rear
10,000 Crapion winch w/Daystar cable keeper
92 Explorer dash/wiring harness swap
Sirius sat radio, Pioneer head unit, 500w Rockford punch
8" JL Adio subs, 6" Alpine 3ways, 4" Kenwood in door 1" Sony sweets
Optima Blue top battery w/800watt inverter
Roll bar, Hippo Lined floors
Duplicolor color changed interior
Power locks, Power windows
Realistic CB

Gear carried is as follows:

60" Jack All
4500lbs come along
2x Snatch blocks
4X 3/4" clevis
2x 50 foot 7/16 air craft cable w/looped ends
1" snatch rope
3"X30 foot snatch strap
shovel, hatchet, Pulaski
folding shovel
12v air pump
150 piece multi tool kit
1/2" drive metric ratchet kit
assortment of fluids w/catch kit
electrical kit w/multi meter, survival knife


On the "to build" list:

Swing out/drop down tire carrier
Exo cage, 5.38 gears, DIY bead locks
Tube rear bumper, PIIA Lighting
Rock lights, flip up hatch window
Cut down doors, C4 swap, fuel injected 5.0L swap
Removable hard top, rear winch, rear 4 link suspension
Cargo area drawer storage system

 

[Andres629]

3.50's?! Holy dang! That's kind of cool though... but it must be a dog!

 

[BONES]

LOL, yeah she can be, in low range she's fine, I plug around in 1st gear most of the time for the technical stuff, and 2nd gear low for the faster climbs and such. In high range she's a total dog, does like 90kph in 3rd, cruising gear lol, no need for 4th or 5th gear with that poor gearing, ha ha.

5.38:1 gears are next on the list.

 

[BONES]

I decided it was time to modify the rear fender wells for more tire clearance. The goal was to open them up, make room for the 38's to stuff and then seal em all back up and make it look half decent. I feel I succeeded, what do you guys think?


First off was to figure out where I wanted it to be cut out, after some discussion we decided to cut off the whole factory flare, this factory flare will come into play later on when I find the time to fabricate it back onto the side of the Bronco over the new cut line. I want to weld it back on but in the higher position and widen it to fit the new cut line fender opening. Like I said tho, this piece will come into play later on for the Bronco.

Before the cut.

After the cut, and absolutely NO TURNING BACK NOW!!

If you look closely in this pic you can see the inner fender and the fact that it isn't quite shaped like our outer fender cut line.

Using what tools we had at our disposal, we manipulated the inner fender into place so we could easily weld in a couple small strips of sheet metal to close up that gaping hole.

Once I had a template cut from cardboard that would fit the gap, I transferred it over to the sheet metal and then after lining it up on the body I tacked it in place. Once it was there good with quite a few tacks holding firm, we used a BFH to manipulate the offending sheet metal into a more conforming position and then laid down some more weld.

Here it is shaped to how it looked best, with no low spots and all lined up with our cut line and sheet metal filler plate.

Once that piece was permanently placed, we stepped over to the next filler plate, again using card board templates transferred over to sheet metal, and lined up and ready for a couple tack welds.

I made sure to weld the plate from all sides to try and keep any small holes and pits to a minimum.

Fully welded inside and out and ready for some cleanup and paint.

Then it was time to head outside a test flex the Bitch and see how close we were in our guesstimates on wheel rubbage.

Looks like I now have a couple inches to spare between the top of the tire and the fender lip under moderate flex. We didn't have a great spot to really flex her out to see if it rubs still or not. I'm betting it comes close but even if it does rub I will bump stop it so it doesn't and call her done for now.

All in all it took roughly 20hours of work between 2 guys to get from start to where I'm at now.

I also made a couple patch panels to get rid of the rust in the front of the rear quarters.

Got a lil more done today, patched the passenger side rusty quarter, and mocked up the factory fender flare on the drivers side just to see what is all involved in that job. Looks do-able, but will need some new sheet metal fabbed into the flares to make them complete and actually fit the larger opening.

I think I want to try and make them stick out further than factory tho, massage them a bit to add another maybe 2inches of stick out if I'm lucky. The drivers side flare has some rust to deal with but the passenger side is good to mod. I'm really considering buying 2 new front fenders and modding them like I want to do to the rears, we'll see as it's at least a few hours spent per fender to mod them so it may not be worth all the effort and then bash them all up out wheeling.

Also made a lil more progress on the tire carrier, just more cutting and shaping tho.

 

[kris97ranger]

looks awsome. kinda like a tub for fitting slicks
________
Melrose herbal collective melrose

 

[Andres629]

Plans to give it some new paint in the future as well? Some sweet rattlecan paint maybe??

 

[BONES]

Yes plans for some paint is also on the list, prolly rattle can for a base and then some sort of wrap. My wife works at a place that designs, makes and prints decals out as large as you want em. I have been working on some ideas of what I want the wrap to look like, so far nothing is set in stone. The ones that appeal to me have been covered in skulls and bones, so we'll see what happens when that time comes. Wont be till late spring early summer before it will be warm enough for me to paint it so I have time still. One thing I want to do is keep the Eddie Bauer tan lower accent in the mix, so I guess I have some of the plan in stone, just not set on the rest.

 

[Andres629]

Should get Lordco to colour match your paint, and redo it in the same tan and blue like it is!

 

[BONES]

That would be cool too! Then slap the wrap on it, haha.

 

[Andres629]

You know... I don't mean to tell you how to do your truck or anything, but just a couple suggestions.
Maybe, if you did end up getting color matched paint, wrap half the truck in the wrap like you were going to, and have it match the blue and tan theme. I've got this idea perfectly in my head, just kind of hard to explain. =P

 

[BONES]

Yeah I like where your going with this. I wanted to wrap from the crease just below the door handles down to the tan accent, making it color matched somehow would be sweet.

 

[Andres629]

Here's kind of what I thought. I know it's nothing fancy, but it gets the point across. If I ever decide to get photoshop back, I could make a better rendition for you. And yes, it'll take a little more work than wrapping the lower portion like you thought, but these are just what I had in mind.