1984 Ford Bronco Project

[M Rose]

Thanks. My chiropractor has been liking all the extra hours and work. It's a good thing I don't sleep much normally! Probably being more fussy than I need to be for it's intended purpose. But the hope is that it will last for awhile.

When you are done with your 84, you want to do my 89?

 

[Dakota Houligans]

When you are done with your 84, you want to do my 89?

Would be fun. Might have to take it out and enjoy it for a bit before I take on another.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Sanded and cleaned the roof in preperation for primer and lizard skin.


Taped off a few things and sprayed the primer.





Time for the sound control layers





And now a few coats of their heat resistant coating.



And after it dried.





Now its time to make some brackets and get the visors mounted.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Made some brackets to mount the visors onto the cage.



All welded in.





And a test fit of the visors.





Turned out alright. Keeps them out of my line of sight but still usable.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Cleaned up some brackets for the rear suspension and exhaust. After some time with wire wheels and die grinders I decided that it was good enough.





All sanded and ready for some primer and paint.



After 2 coats of epoxy and 2 coats of valspar industrial coating. Good enough for a beater Bronco.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Time to start fitting the dash back in.



I removed all the wiring and then separated the hvac plenum from the main dash cover.





I figured it would be easier to work with them as separate parts and them final fit them together. After holding them in place as best I could I marked the area to be cut out.





Then the trimming started



And after what seemed like a few hundred times in and out. It was fitting pretty good.







I got a little carried away on the passenger side.



Then it was time to start cutting the inner piece.







And another few hundred times in and out and it was fitting.



Then I made some cardboard templates to reseal the ducking that I cut out to fit around the cage.





Now I just have to decide if I want to patch it with metal or maybe some plastic of some kind. Though about fiberglass too but it can be a pain without some sort of frame to support it. Oh well I figure something out. But for now I think I should get some sleep.

 

[Abreu93]

I've had the bronco for about 12 years. Needed some work when I got it.
View attachment 44108 View attachment 44107
So I fixed some rust and started making changes.View attachment 44109 View attachment 44110 View attachment 44111 It got a little more involved than I had hoped. View attachment 44112
But eventually we started spraying bed liner on it.View attachment 44113 View attachment 44114 View attachment 44115 View attachment 44116 View attachment 44117 View attachment 44119 View attachment 44118 View attachment 44120 View attachment 44122 After all the body stuff was done It was time to start on the rest of the stuff. The old engine was tired. The axles where open diffs with 3.55 gears. And the interior needed some help.

That was some super awesome body work, how much did it cost you?

 

[Dakota Houligans]

That was some super awesome body work, how much did it cost you?

The old green body probably cost around $600 is to bedliner the outside. Don't remember how much in the sheet metal. The newer gray body will have a larger price tag in the end. But it's mostly time and materials since I'm dump enough to do it myself.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

I managed to get some plastic formed to fit with a little help from some heat and a die grinder.





Then I cleaned and scuffed both pieces with a red scotch bright pad and the ducting. I put a fed spots of super glue on to hold them in place.





After that I used some 2 park plastic glue to seal it up. It flowed a little more than I hoped but it worked out well for what I needed.





Then it was time for a little trim black paint. My ocd would let me leave it as it was.





Turned out pretty decent. And this way both my outer hvac ducts are still functional.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I managed to get some plastic formed to fit with a little help from some heat and a die grinder.

View attachment 138332

View attachment 138336

Then I cleaned and scuffed both pieces with a red scotch bright pad and the ducting. I put a fed spots of super glue on to hold them in place.

View attachment 138337

View attachment 138338

After that I used some 2 park plastic glue to seal it up. It flowed a little more than I hoped but it worked out well for what I needed.

View attachment 138340

View attachment 138341

Then it was time for a little trim black paint. My ocd would let me leave it as it was.

View attachment 138342

View attachment 138343

Turned out pretty decent. And this way both my outer hvac ducts are still functional.

What kind of glue are you using ? What are you doing to hold the shapes of your patches, a heat gun. Where did you get the plastic to make your patches ?
Are you loosing any of your ducts ? Looks like your getting down to the nitty gritty of it all now. Is your motor and drive line coming along too ? Awsome

 

[Dakota Houligans]

What kind of glue are you using ? What are you doing to hold the shapes of your patches, a heat gun. Where did you get the plastic to make your patches ?
Are you loosing any of your ducts ? Looks like your getting down to the nitty gritty of it all now. Is your motor and drive line coming along too ? Awsome

The glue is a SEM 2 part adhesive called "Multi-Plastic Repair Material". It is used to repair bumpers and plastics on auto body repairs. Even when dry it remains a little flexible to allow expansion or twisting of materials. I've had good luck with most of the SEM adhesives.



There isn't anything holding the shape. I heated the plastic with a map gas torch and let it fold over the edge and then cut out the basic shape with an air saw and fine tuned it with a 3 inch 36 grit roloc disc. I had to heat some areas again to get the cures and slow right. Though about it afterwords but I didn't take and pictures of it. Or a video could have been interesting. I got the plastic from a friends pile of left overs. Couldn't tell you if its plexi, acrylic, lexan, or whatever. I don't think its regular Plexiglas though it was pretty tough and I didn't crack any of it. The only ducts I may lose are the 2 that blow on the side windows. I need to do another test fit and see if I can modify them to still work. They originally ran right where the cage runs. Unfortunately the motor and drive train is mostly just collecting dust and ideas at the moment. I'm trying to get some of the interior back together to free up space.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Started working on cleaning up the dash. I used a little paint solvent on rags to clean the spray paint the previous owner had put on it.





It took a fair bit of scrubbing but I got most of it cleaned off and ready to get it returned to closer to it's original color.





I still have some more dash pieces to clean up and the door panels. And after that hopefully I'll get to repainting them.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Cut out some tabs to mount the shoulder belt for the rear seat belts to the cage if we have the top off.



The tabs in place.





Then I spend about 4 hours sanding the cage. Now its all cleaned up and wiped down. Now to find the spare time to get some primer and paint on it.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

I got the cage wiped down and primered with some PPG black epoxy.









And then I sprayed it with the same color as we are going to do the body. I'm using a charcoal/gray color with a mix of pearls containing blue, violet, and red.











So far so good. We'll see how good it is when it's all dry. Hoping not too many runs.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

I cleaned as much of the old crappy pain of the dash as I could. I also did the glove box, and a few other lower parts that go on the dash. I scrubbed them with a cleaning solvent that is used for cleaning up automotive paints.







I had a few spots on the dash that I needed to fix before re-coating it. I used more of the plastic from the duck work modifications and the SEM plastic 2 part plastic repair to patch some missing pieces. All the pieces got lightly sanded at slow speed with a 36 grit grinding disk on a die grinder to give the adhesive a good surface to bite.







Then it was time to fix a few cracks in the dash. For those I used these plastic repair pieces. They are normally put in a tool that heets them up and you melt them into the plastic. Since I don't have the tool I used a torche to get them glowing and quickly melted them into the plastic to reinforce the cracks. I put them on the back side of the dash.



I also trim off the legs.





Then after trimming the legs off. I scuffed the area with the 36 grit and applied the plastic adhesive over the repair.





We wanted to replace the original cigarette power port with the double usb and cigarette lighter type. The hole was a little to big so I filled in the sides with more plastic.



Again I used the clear plastic and the metal reinforcement.





Then I scuffed and applied the plastic adhesive with some more plastic around the edge. It was wider so help reinforce the edges.





After a little sanding and shaping it filled it fairly well.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Now it was time to return it to the original color. First I scrubbed it all with a special soap that has some grit in it and helps to remove a leftover junk that would mess up the new coating. Then you spray it down with a wax and grease remover at wipe it down until clean. Right before you spray the color you spray down an adhesion promoter that is used wet on wet. The color has to go on while the adhesion promoter is still wet so it will melt into the plastic.



After the first light coat. of SEM Color Coat.







After 3 lightish coats it actually looked pretty decent.







This is how it looked before.



And of course a sort of final assembly picture to see about what it is like back together.









Turned out pretty good. I still have several panels and trim pieces to fit around the cage and then probably do the same refinishing to them.

 

[M Rose]

Wow...this makes me realize I need an air compressor badly so I can do some repair to my plastic pieces in my ’89.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Air compressors defiantly come in handy. I just upgraded to an 80 gallon industrial compressor about a year ago. Used to have a little craftsmen 20-30 gal that did ok for small projects. It's nice now I never have to wait for the compressor to catch up. Just make sure you get one that is up to the task you want it to do. Mine is overkill for most home shops. But it has all the goodies to make sure I always have enough cool dry air for tools or painting.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Did a little more work on the dash. The foam seal on the vents was just about non existent. So I found some D shaped weatherstripping and used it to seal the vent connections.



I also painted the bracket that holds the drivers side of the dash and the steering column up. Just used some spray can trim black.



Then I started on fixing some of the wiring in the dash. The headlight connector looks like it has gotten hot a time or two.



Brought home a replacement. They come with the wires but I removed them and just reused the factory ones.



I also patched up the wiring that had been spiced into for a alarm or remote start at some point in it's past.



I cheated a little. I used uninsulated butt connectors to crimp the wires together and then soldered them and used sealing heat shrink over top.







After I patched up the wiring. I put the duct work back into the dash. I also put the wiring back in. The dash is reassembled but waiting for me to finish some body work before I reinstall it. Don't really want to fill it with sanding dust after I got it looking so nice.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Found a little spare time the other day and got out the wire wheel, sandblaster, and sander out and cleaned up the rear axle. Then some primer and paint.