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1983 Bronco Long Term Rebuild

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    #16
    Love me some broncos

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      #17
      1983 Bronco Long Term Rebuild

      Instead of getting a new fuel line, i ended up getting some help from some family. Cut out the kinked section, flared the ends of where we cut, and installed some rubber fuel injection hose held by hose clamps. The original was metal, and it’s harder to find than i was willing to waste time on. Since it’s not a show truck, and the line doesn’t have significant pressure, this should work beautifully.

      Took it for a spin around the block after running for ~20 minutes this evening. Setup my plan for the next few steps.
      1) replace or soak all of the belts. They’re squealing like a sumbitch. Haven’t decided which route to take on that. TBD.
      2) Hunt for new/new-ish tires. Currently running 31/10.5/15’s, but it’s been on those same shoes since i got it in 2011, and for the last four years they haven’t been driven regularly (2 of which it was sitting not moving at all). If anyone knows of a set of new/gently used ones i can get by on for a while, shoot me a PM. Was looking on Discount Tire and i can get a brand new set of Corsa AT’s for around $500, so if i can’t find a decent used set, that’s likely what I’ll go with.
      3) Time to take the dash apart. Partially. One of my main lights for the gauges is out, so i could barely read my speedometer at dusk today. That won’t work very well if it’s going to be driven semi-regularly. Also, going to try and figure out why the fuel gauge isn’t working. I originally thought it was the float in the tank, but that was replaced along with the sending unit, so I’m not sure what it could be. If anyone has experience with this and may know the problem/solution, let me know.

      In an effort to not get too ahead of myself, I’m going to leave my plans at that for now. I think it’s all reasonable to get done within the next ~4-6 weeks. Going to be slow since summer classes start next week and work starts back up June 1st. Plus i can’t bring it home to cstat til the first week of August. Gotta wait til i move into my new place.


      That’s all for now. Hopefully there will be more updates sooner rather than later.

      Thanks and Gig’Em!
      Connor



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        #18
        We have an 80's bronco on my lease that was running a couple of years back. Nothing was wrong with it. One weekend the owner, who is 70, forgot the keys and broke the steering column and it has sat since. Bet someone could get a steal of a deal on it. Just needs a little TLC. I will take pix next lease run and post them up and see what he wants for it.

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          #19
          Originally posted by txhunter-1 View Post
          We have an 80's bronco on my lease that was running a couple of years back. Nothing was wrong with it. One weekend the owner, who is 70, forgot the keys and broke the steering column and it has sat since. Bet someone could get a steal of a deal on it. Just needs a little TLC. I will take pix next lease run and post them up and see what he wants for it.


          Sounds good, let me know! Be interested to see what sort of condition the body is in. If not me, someone could probably get a good deal on it.


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            #20
            Subscribed. Just picked up an 82 myself that I will be redoing.

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              #21
              Update time!
              Drove over to Bellmead Tx today because i found a gentleman with a hood and fender for $125. Snagged those up quick. No dents, no rust.

              Although i am a man of a few attributes, patience is not one. So on the way home i grabbed some paint stripper and currently the hood is being stripped. This stuff is AWESOME. I’ve never done this before today, but it literally started taking paint off as i was brushing. Going to scrape here in a bit, but from the little i tried on that i first soaked looks like I’m going to have to scrape, recoat, and scrape again. No big deal though since the stripper is relatively inexpensive for how much area it covers.

              Sorry for the bad cell phone pics, like i said, patience isn’t exactly my thing. I’ll get better pics in the morning when it’s all stripped.

              Thanks and Gig’Em!
              Connor
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                #22
                Also, if anyone needs parts for broncos, the guy i got these from has a TON. 78-79 models and 80-86. Message me and I’ll send you his number.

                He also has an 84 (i think) for sale that’s in ok condition body wise but runs well. Has the 351HO motor with a Holley carb. Newer wheels on it. Also said he’d throw in two new doors for it to replace the dented ones on it. He wants $2k for it. PM me your number if interested and I’ll send you the photos he sent me of it. Would make a decent resto if you’re wanting to go that route, or a great hunting rig.


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                  #23
                  Two coats of the stripper down and it’s getting much better. Going to tackle the areas that still need work in the morning with sandpaper and see what happens. Found one area that needs a smidge of body filler, but nothing terrible.

                  Also, note to anyone using stripper like this: Get full sleeve gloves. I got longer ones that go ~6 inches up the arm and that’s not even close to enough.

                  Thanks and Gig’Em!
                  Connor

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                    #24
                    I love this thread! It gives me all the joy of working on a bronco without actually doing any work or spending any money.

                    Keep going!

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                      #25
                      Got some better pictures after i ran the third round of paint stripper this morning. Got them pretty close to cleaned off and smoothed, then shot with a coat of primer. For some reason the hood wouldn’t come as clean as the fender. The paint on the fender came off in sheets looking like wet paper, but the hood needed a lot more scraping.

                      Going to sand, fill a couple small dents, and prime again with a true spray gun next week. Did them with a rattle can this morning to prevent rust due to the high humidity here. Even just from leaving them out last night they had a small bit of rust. Next week will start the test of my body working skills. Going to be a bit of trial and error i think, but what’s the fun if there’s not at least one screw up?

                      Thanks and Gig’Em!
                      Connor
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                        #26
                        Decided to take her out of the garage today so that i could try and run the stop leak for the rear main through properly. Still gets up and goes like it used to, but **** it leaks oil. I’m hoping by running it a couple days the Blue Devil stuff i put in will work and hopefully not be leaking any more. Don’t really have the money to drop close to a grand to get the rear main done, and don’t have the shop at my place to do it.

                        On the chance it doesn’t work, Anyone know of a good (and cheap) way to do it yourself so i don’t have to spend half of my Bronco’s value at a mechanic?

                        Thanks and Gig’Em!
                        Connor

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                          #27
                          Following. I had an 84 Bronco in high school. Wish I still had it.


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                            #28
                            I did my rear main seal in my driveway. This job is almost all labor and very little parts cost (seal kit = $30 plus replacing spilled fluids).

                            I left the engine in the truck and removed the automatic transmission and transfer case to access the seal. I had to be stealthy because of rich snooty neighbors and I was just a renter. In between major steps of the job, I would hide all my parts in the garage and no one could tell that the major parts were missing.

                            Disconnect both drive shafts and tie up out of the way (wrap tape around u-joints to caps the on and avoid spilling needle bearings), remove transfer case, remove transmission, remove and replace rear main seal without scratching the crank shaft (scratch = new seal will leak).

                            Re-install parts in reverse order.

                            Be sure that the torque converter is fully seated before you tighten the transmission bolts.

                            Done.

                            I already had a Harbor Freight transmission jack adapter, but that's about the only special thing you need. Make some alignment pins to guide the transmission into place on the re-installation. Impact wrench helps with removing the cross member bolts. I did the job by myself and I'm small.

                            You should replace the transmission input shaft seal because its easy to get to during this job and its cheap. If that leaks, you are doing this job over again.

                            If you are going to delete your EGR valve, plug the holes on the back of the head while the transmission is out. It's much easier to access.

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                              #29
                              Been a slow last few weeks with not much really going on. All that's been done is two coats of filler primer and sanding on the hood and one of the fenders. Now that I've done that, they're close enough to smooth that I'm pleased with them. I've got the other one half way stripped down, but I ran out of paint stripper before I could finish. Will probably get back on that one this week so that I can body work the one dent it has on it.
                              Once those are finished, I'm going to spray the exterior of those panels with some sort of primer so that they don't rust in the time between now and when I put them on to get the whole thing repainted. Being in College Station, the humidity is killer and basically everything gets a little surface rust if there is bare metal. Also going to power wash and deep clean the interior of all three panels. All of those will be getting a coat of semi-gloss black, so you'd never even know that they weren't the original panels. Plus, it just makes for a cleaner looking engine bay in my opinion.

                              Other than that, things are going to be slow between now and when I move it up here around the first of August. Hopefully ill have a few small updates between now and then, but with how busy I've been the last few weeks, the chances of that are slim at best. Stay tuned for a few small updates and hopefully I'll get things ramped up again in a couple months.

                              -Connor

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                                #30
                                Really got after some sanding today. Hood has had the one small dent fixed now, and has two full coats of self etching primer. As far as I’m concerned, it looks and feels smooth, so it’s good to go. I got the second fender all stripped down. Realized it had a couple small dents that weren’t fixed properly, so i got them close and finished them off with a little body filler. Sanded and primed it with its first coat of filler primer. Since it had the original paint and was pretty decent minus the couple of small dings, it’s only going to get one coat of that before etching primer.

                                After 6 hours of sanding, I’m covered in dust, and calling it a day. Probably won’t be able to do much this week with first round of tests coming up for my summer class, but hopefully later in the week/next weekend I’ll get some more sanding done. Now it’s time for a cold beer and a shower.

                                Thanks,
                                Connor




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