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July August 2007 Issue 28

$4.95 US $6.95 Canada/AUwww.BroncoDriver.com Readers Stories | Tech Features | Event CoveragReaders Stories | Tech Features | Event Coverag

TheNewAdventureso

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TedNugent

TedNugent

TheNewAdventureso

f

TedNugent

C6ansmissionRebuild

Lonestar Bronco

Rocks Ka

C6ansmissionRebuild

Lonestar Bronco

Rocks Kat

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hey tell me that Im crazy; I just put my 1989Bronco II through a 10 month frame-off restora-

tion. To further complicate my condition, I intend towheel the heck out of it too!

Where were from we are known as The FordFamily. We are extremely loyal to the Ford brand andmy father has a nice collection of vintage Fords. Wehad always loved the Early Broncos, and my dad waslooking to add one to his collection. In the fall of2003 he purchased a mint 1974 Bronco Ranger,

loaded with all the goodies, and built to conquer anytrail in Moab.

Thats when my Bronco sickness took over.I was recently married, attending college, and

trying to get out from under my wifes monthly carpayment. There was no way I could afford an EarlyBronco, but I wanted something with 4 wheel driveand of course it had to be a Ford. I loved the boxylook of the Bronco II, and to me it represented thereincarnation of the Early Bronco. So the searchbegan

After months of searching locally and on theinternet, I needed something to come along to scratch

my Bronco itch. I narrowed my search down to a1989 XLT 4x4 located in Fort Worth, Texas. It wasrust free, had an automatic with manual transfer casrebuilt 2.9L and transmission, 6 Skyjacker suspen-sion lift, Flowmaster exhaust and 31 tires. On awhim one Friday morning, I purchased a one-wayplane ticket to Dallas with hopes of completing the

journey before school and work resumed on Mondamorning.

The previous owner was gracious enough to

pick me up from the airport and take me to his homHe was aware that I would be driving it all the wayback to Utah, and he was kind enough to have it fulserviced and ready to go. He handed over the titleand I was on my way. It was a leap of faith for me,having never seen the Bronco in person and notknowing if it would make the 20 hour voyage home

She was rough around the edges, but she wasmine now. The long drive back to Utah gave meplenty of time to contemplate future modificationsand upgrades. It also gaveme time to wonderwhat everyone

A Bronco II is a

Bronco Too!BY JOSH BRYNER, UTAH

A Bronco II is a

Bronco Too!BY JOSH BRYNER, UTAH

T

LITTLE DID I

KNOW OF THECOMPUTER ANDWIRING NIGHT-MARE THAT LAY

AHEAD. WHAT

STARTED AS AWEEK-END TOWEEK-LONG

PROJECT AT ALOCAL HOT-ROD

SHOP, SOONTURNED IN TO

A 6 WEEKHACK-JOB!

30 Bronco Driver Magazine for enthusiasts, by enthusia

F E A T U R E D B R O N C O

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would think of my new rig. I jokinglythought of painting it white and getting thelicense plates WHTRASH!

She made the trip without a hitch.Shed passed her first test. On the wayhome I met up with some family inSouthern Utah. There, I was finally able tolock in the hubs and test out the 4 wheeldrive. I was amazed with what the littleBronco II could do off-road. Low range wasawesome! It could maneuver through any-thing and it was a great climber. I played ina few mud holes and climbed over a fewrocks. I then proudly headed back home toSalt Lake City with healthy dose of red mudcaked to the paint.

Once back home, she would encounterher next challenge. I told myself that if shecould only put me through my last year ofcollege, then Id have a chance to fix her up

right. There was just one catch, the com-mute between work and school totaled 80miles a day! No one else believed she couldmake itand I could only hope she wouldpull me through. The months passed, work-ing full time and a full schedule at schoolkept me busy, and my Bronco II kept plug-ging along.

2 weeks before graduation my familymade the annual Easter trip down toSouthern Utah. I decided to take the Broncodown and I caught up with them late on aFriday night. I worked her pretty hard onsome trails over the weekend, and headed

back home on Sunday night. On the wayhome, the overdrive on the infamous A4LDstarted to go. I had a transmission shop dropthe pan and they told me it was completelyshot to pieces. So, the last couple weeks ofschool I cruised the interstate without anyoverdrive. It was slow going, but shelimped home and got me through to gradua-tion.

Second test passed!Now the fun could really begin. Rather

than drop a bunch of coin to just repair thestock transmission, I figured it was a goodtime to start the V8 swap. I searched for awhile for a 5.0L V8 with auto transmission.I knew little about the differences betweenthe different years of the 5.0, but I found agood deal on a wrecked, low mileage 1997Mercury Mountaineer. Out came the 215hp5.0L with GT-40p heads, 4R70W transmis-sion, OBD-II ECU and every inch ofwiring. And so, the drivetrain transforma-tion had begun

To maintain the stock transfer case, Ipurchased an adapter from AdvancedAdapters. James Duff motor mounts, V8radiator, dual sump oil pan, and customFord Lightning transmission mount werecrammed in the tiny engine bay as well.

Just getting it to fit was quite a task. The

heater box was generously trimmed to cleathe valve cover, the trans tunnel clearancethe inner hood modified, and battery trayrelocated. The huge radiator and electric fawere stuffed into a modified radiator sup-port, and the oil filter relocation kit wascustom mounted.

Little did I know of the computer andwiring nightmare that lay ahead. What stared as a week-end to week-long project at alocal hot-rod shop, soon turned in to a 6week hack-job! We quickly learned that wwere venturing in to uncharted waters.While many V8 conversions had been per-formed on other Bronco IIs or Rangers, thlater model DIS Explorer/Mountaineer 5.0was not a popular conversion option, and tmy knowledge had never been performed.Due to the complicated wiring and compuer controlled transmission and emissions

sensors, there were many concerns thatcould have been bypassed with an earlierMustang 5.0L. Also, the aftermarket suppofor such an engine was slim to none.Basically every local Ford technician wasstumped. They said there was no way itwould work in my Bronco II. Techs fromSVT, Ron Morris Performance, PainlessWiring, fordfuelinjection.com, and manyother aftermarket companies were stumpedIn short, the ECU needed to think it wasstill a Mercury Mountaineer, and all sys-tems in the Bronco needed to be identical the Mountaineer. At the time, the technolo

gy didnt exist to fool the computer.What had I gotten myself in to?After some time, and to the dismay of

all the technicians at the hot-rod shop, theBronco started on the first try! No one knehow or why it was running, but it was!Another question remainedwould thecomputer be able to shift the 4R70W? Ashort road test proved it shifted througheach gear just fine. We were shocked! Dueto major wiring flaws, the first couple ofmonths left the computer stuck in openloop. Meaning the ECU was controllingthe engine based on preset algorithms, andit wasnt functioning based on feedbackfrom sensors. The 5.0 screamed and wasfull of torque and power, but it wasnt run-ning as efficiently as it should have. Also,the computer still wasnt satisfied and wasconstantly tripping the check engine light.

Months and months of tweaking, troubleshooting, and tuning still left any whoworked on the truck baffled. We decided tostart the wiring from scratch once again. Acustom wiring harness built for the 97 5.0in a Bronco II was designed by StreetPerformance. Once installed, the computerwas running in closed loop and all systemwere monitoring the sensors. Road testing

left a few more bugs to be discovered, but

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one by one they were all taken care of. One year after starting theconversion she passed state inspection and emissions, which was good sign to me that the conversion was finally complete.

I then added 33" tires, 15x10 Cragar Soft 8s, James Duffreceiver bumpers and a few other bolts-ons. She made her firstcouple of trips to Moab and I fell in love with rockcrawling andthe town. I couldnt believe that I had lived in Utah my whole lifeand I was just now experiencing what Moab had to offer. She didvery well in Moab. The short wheelbase, 33s, and plenty ofground clearance made quick work of many difficult trails. But,also realized that more upgrades were necessary if I wanted to coquer some of the areas tougher trailsmainly lockers and axleswap. Im still waiting on those, but I figure they can wait until thstock running gear gives up the ghost.

At that point I felt like I had a sweet rig, but one thing wasmissing. It didnt look the part. It was just another Bronco II withfaded paint and a dented body. I started looking around for a cheapaintjob; after all it is a trail rig! My search led me to RatstangRestoration in Hooper, Utah. Richard, aka Ratstang, convincedme that a frame off restoration was possible, and that he could tak

my Bronco II to a whole new level. I gave him the green light, anon May 26th 2006 the restoration began.

Ratstang found many small problems that would soon haveturned into big problems. For one, the radiator support that hadbeen modified to fit the new V8 radiator was being torn to shredsMost of the support braces had been chopped out, and with thearticulation in the body and suspension, the radiator support wastaking quite a beating. He also found some portions of my framethat were starting to crack. In addition, he encountered many sec-tions of the wiring harness that were in need of repair. Once thepaint was stripped, he also found some collision damage in the drvers front fender and rocker panel. Only minor rust repair wasneeded beneath the cowl on the firewall. Overall, a very smallamount of rust was found. Im glad I found a Texas truck!

The decision was made to pull the entire drivetrain and sepa-rate the body from the frame. The frame was stripped, blasted,coated with 4 coats of POR-15 and then sprayed with urethaneRaptor Liner. The result was very clean, and should last forever.The entire underbody was given the same treatment, hopefully giving it some protection from off-roading and the harsh Utah winterThe body went through a very painstaking and meticulous restoration. Each body panel was taken to the bare metal and straighteneRatstang will be the first to tell you that Bronco IIs didnt comestraight from the factory! Add to that the fact that the previousowner of my Bronco lived on a golf course and you can seethere was quite a bit of body work to be done. The collision dam-age on the drivers side was repaired, so too was break in damageon the drivers door. The drivers rocker panel was deemedirreparable, and replaced with a brand new one. The previousowner had also installed an A pillar spotlight. This was removedand the metal was repaired and smoothed. Several other cosmeticflaws were corrected and repaired. To finish off the body, a basecoat of Land Rover Buckingham Blue Pearl Metallic and ChawtoWhite was applied. Five coats of clear capped off the show qualitpaint job.

To repair the radiator support we decided to go with a tubedframe support. This would give it much more strength and prevenfuture stress from occurring in the radiator support. It would alsogive more room to mount the new Aluminum radiator. It was builin a manner that it could be easily removed to allow access to themotor for future upgrades. Many custom brackets were created onthe new tubed support including headlight mounts, hood latchmounts and radiator mounts. It was then painted to match the

truck.



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Rather than purchase new fenders, weconcluded that we could cut most of thecollision damage out of my current fendersand add Bushwacker cutout fender flares.The Bushwackers were custom formed andfitted to the fenders, and inner fenders weremodified to increase clearance of largertires. 35 inch BFGoodrich Mud Terrain tireswere then added, and stuff nicely in the newwheel wells.

To mate the frame and body onceagain, new James Duff polyurethane body

mounts were used. The 5.0 was remountedon the James Duff motor mounts, this timegoing in with new Torque Monster Headers.The headers lead to Magnaflow high-flowcats and true dual exhaust, exiting throughtwo Flowmaster 40s. To help keep theautomatic cool, and in addition to the stocktrans cooler, a B&M transmissionSupercooler was custom mounted to thenew radiator support. A B&M transmissiontemperature gauge was also custom mount-ed to the A pillar. Body trim and acces-sories, including Bushwacker flares,rearview mirrors, skidplates, grill and head-

light trim were hit with a coat of bedliner,

giving the truck a tough, rugged look.Many other areas of the truck were

modified and repaired. Modification of theheater/AC box was repaired, and internalvolume increased to create more air flow.After much research on calibration of thetachometer, a solution was found at a loca

junk yard. The internal components from afull size V8 Bronco tach were wired up tothe stock Bronco II gauge, giving an accu-rate RPM reading for the new 5.0. Manyrepairs were needed on the factory 89 cha

sis harness, and the wiring harness was further updated to accommodate the drivetraiconversion. Also many small parts werereplaced, such as rear tail light lenses,power door lock actuators, front valance,custom trans dipstick, brake fluid reservoirear brake modulator, electric fan and mannuts and bolts.

The result is ONE BAD BRONCO IIShe turns heads everywhere we go. Thecolor of the paint was just what I wanted, it appears black most of the time, but theblue really pops in the sun! I wanted tostick true to the classic Bronco II color

scheme, yet give it a clean, updated look.

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The two tone lines are close to the stockposition, but have been slightly modified.The headers and mufflers on the exhaustgive the V8 a throaty, mean sound, and the5.0 in the light-weight Bronco II will

smoke just about anything. And Im gladthat I stuck with the DIS 5.0, its uniqueand the OBD-II custom tunability is great.Shes a beast. A dead-sexy beast!

The next area needing an overhaul isthe factory interior. For now though, it isnice not to have to worry about getting itdirty, and in the future I plan to install afull internal roll cage. Custom rock sliderswill be going on sometime soon to protectthe smooth body work.

Not only do I have to keep up with myfathers 74, but my brothers Jordan andJaden drive built 66 and 70 Broncos,respectively. Obviously a solid axle swap isnext on the menu. The replacement axlesare currently being built at Sexton Offroadof Kamas, Utah. The Dana 28 will bedropped in favor of an Early Bronco solidDana 44, stuffed with Yukon chromoly axleshafts, Yukon Superjoints, Yukon 4.88 ringand pinion, ARB, and disc brakes.Replacing the rear 7.5 will be an EarlyBronco Ford 9 inch, shaved and trussed,complete with Yukon chromolys, 4.88 ringand pinion, ARB, and disc brakes. Whentime and money allows, Sexton Offroadwill be performing the axle swap and set-ting it all on a custom long travel suspen-

sion. I cant wait!Of course I have many to thank for

helping me bring my Bronco to where it istoday: My son Jaxon for being my Broncobuddy, Richard Cordon of RatstangRestoration for the meticulous restoration,Scott and John of S&J Motorsports, DustinSexton of Sexton Offroad, Heath ofModular Madness West, Robert Pasqualeof Torque Monster Headers, Jamie Fortune,explorerforum.com and finallybroncoii.org. Without their help, theBronco wouldnt be close to what it istoday. I also need to thank my wife Beki

for putting up with all my Bronco madness,and supporting me in what I love.To me, the Bronco II continues with

the tradition that the Classic Broncostarted. I hope that I can inspireother Bronco II owners to taketheir trucks to the next level andshow the potential these truckshave. I sure hope Im not theonly crazy Bronco II guy outthere!



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EACH BODY PANEL

WAS TAKEN TO THEBARE METAL AND

STRAIGHTENED.RATSTANG WILL BE THE

FIRST TO TELL YOUTHAT BRONCO IIS

DIDNT COME

STRAIGHT FROM THEFACTORY! ADD TO THAT

THE FACT THAT THEPREVIOUS OWNER OF

MY BRONCO LIVED ONA GOLF COURSE

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