My ongoing 1988 Bronco Project

[Jacampb2]

Commercial break... Most of you watching this are probably wondering what I am going to do with this when I am out on the road:



I did not forget about cup holders. The console design is making it difficult to sneak them in though. I made this one, and it will go in the passenger side of the console. I still haven't worked out a drivers side one yet, but I have some ideas.







BTW, this was really easy to make. I just cut the bottom off another foam cup like the one I typically have, wrapped it in tin foil, and turned it upside down and put down three layers of mat and resin. Flipped it back over, cut the foam cup out and a bit of sanding and I have a perfect fit for the cup size I typically use, and BONUS, it fits Monster cans perfectly as well!!!!

More to come in a bit.

Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

Waiting for some glass to dry, so here is a quick update. I got the monitor mounting all worked out, I will show pictures once it is in. Started glassing the front edges of the console, where it meets the dash.

The plexiglass I mentioned in an earlier post was to cover both the monitor hole and the console opening. The pieces shown in the picture are just hot glued in each corner, and are there just to give me a flat surface to fill to so I can get a nice fillet on the edges. In a few minutes I am going in to gt my rotozip and will be cutting the hole for the passenger cup holder.



Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

I didn't get as far as I really wanted to, but I am about ready for filler. The glass needs a bit more sanding, but it is getting to late for it tonight. I got both cup holders in, they will need a little more glass too. All the edges are sanded. Hopefully filler will start going down tomorrow.

Here are the pics:









Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

I am really liking this build. Nice work and different too. Your use of the touchscreen has me intrigued as to what your electrical/computer plans are. What interface are you going to use? I am looking forward to that part of your build.

You will have to wait and see like the rest of us then. I don't know for sure what I am doing yet. I am probably going to use a few year old amd +3400 box I already have. That is if I can fit the mobo and if I can keep it cool enough. I may have to go to a amd athalon m processor, we will see.

I got a little bit more work done. The wife and kids are back home again, so I only have a few hours at a time again. I decided to fill in the side access panel. It was only there to allow the installation of the shifter, but I came up with another plan. I will cut out enough of the bottom frame that I can install the console with the shifter in place. It was going to be a PITA to install the shifter with the console in place, access or not... The peach colored stuff glued all around the openings is foam bead for use with caulking. I am using it to get the basic shape of the finished edges, and this way it wont take so much filler to make the radii.

Here are the pictures:





Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

I got a few hours of work done again. I put a layer of resin over the foam bead. I got everything sanded, scuffed up the low spots, cleaned all the dust off and started the body filler. My 4 year old gallon of bondo (only about 1/4 of a can, but a test mix showed it hardened still) ended up having chunkies in it. Anyhow, I picked them out as I went, but I am buying a new gallon tomorrow! I got the first layer on about half of the console, and knocked it down with the random orbit sander again. With any luck, I will have the whole thing with one or two layers on it by tomorrow night. I don't know yet how much it is going to take, but the filler work should go much faster than the glass did, the filler dries much quicker.

Here are the pics:





Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

It's getting closer. Got a couple more coats of mud on it today, keep sanding and filling. The passenger side is almost there, drivers side and back need a few hours yet. All of the sanding today was done by hand. Makes for a lot more work, but a lot better results. The top of the console is almost there as well. Edges around the openings will need more work yet.

Here are the pics:







Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

I made a bit more progress on the console. One more coat of mud down and then sanded again. It is getting really close. The curves toward the front are 99% there. It still needs a little filler on the back and front sides. It got banished to the floor after that, as santa (aka. the UPS guy) brought me my new present. More in a bit, but first, here are the pictures of the console:







And the present that UPS brought and caused the console work to grind to a halt...

I received the Autometer mustang cluster today. It is indeed just the meter movements, and they are odd balls too. I spent a lot of time f-ing with it trying to get the autometer movements to work like the stock ones.

Unfortunately the way the motors are wound prevents using them the same way. The best I could get out of them was a 90° sweep. Not enough, not even close. So, I went with plan "b". I am putting the stock meter movements in the autometer cluster. It is pretty much the same thing they did, so basically what it amounts to is a fairly expensive (retail, not what I paid) set of white face gauges. They are EL back lit, and IMO look pretty cool, so it will be worth the work. The cluster itself is a much different shape than the stock one, but roughly the same size, so putting it in the dash should not be terrible.

So far, I have the voltage gauge, the oil pressure gauge (which I will mod to read true oil pressure) and the fuel gauge in place and verified working. I managed to break the coolant temp gauge, so if anyone has one that they want to sell, send me a PM. I have the guts from my aftermarket tach, and will be putting that in place of the autometer tach, and then there is the speedo to tackle. I should be able to use the micro from the stock one to drive the autometer movement, or I can use the stock movement there as well if need be, I am just not sure how I am going to calibrate it yet, but hopefully I will have the data sheets for the driver IC on the factory speedo board tonight and can formulate a game plan. At the very worst, I know I can set it so 80 mph is still full sweep on the gauge, even though it is only a bit under 180° sweep instead of the full 270° sweep to 120mph.

Anyhow, here are the pics of the cluster, the pic of the front is with the factory movements already in place.





Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

A bit more progress over the last night and today. I got all of the gauges hooked up and verified working, the only one I could not test was the speedo, and it will have to wait for when the bronco is on the road. I couldn't find any info on the speedo micro, lots of shops selling hardware to flash them, but at $7k I will find a different way. I found some promising datasheets for air core speedo driver ICs, if worse come to worse, I think I can build my own driver, but then I loose the ODO... We will see what happens. More on them later.

I got the 5th coat of mud on the console and sanded it again. It is really starting to take shape. I think it will need a bit more on the sides and back, a little around the shifter hole, and the openings still need a lot of work, but I have to knock the plexi out before I can go much further with those.

Here are the pics so far:





Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

Okay, a few more very light coats of mud, and a lot more sanding, and here we are. The last few filler applications have been just for filling out the few low spots that remained, and hitting all of the edges to smooth out the exposed glass. The rest went toward filling all of the pin holes I could find. Of course, after sanding a bunch of pin holes came back, so before the next coat I will wipe it all down with a damp rag. First though it is going back in the truck to mud up to the dash good and tight. I have added a significant amount of size to it, so it is not going to fit perfect anymore. We expect this though, that is why it is going back in the truck

I would say we are at 99% right now (excluding the openings). All of the sanding/shaping up to this point has been with a farriers file, a cheese grater, and 60 grit paper on a home made 12" long sanding board. After the steps in the truck, I will be going progressively lighter grit until it is nice and smooth.

Here are the pics:





Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

The console is back in. The fit isn't as bad as I thought it could be. Less than a .125" gap. It is mudded in place now though, just waiting for the filler to set up so I can pull it back out and start working on the openings and finish sanding.







Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

The progress so far this morning. Pulled the console back out of the truck. Knocked the plexi out. Started forming the openings. Sanded a bit more. Next step, wash it and hopefully start applying the last of the filler.





Later,
Jason

[stipud]

Of course we are interested!! Cars and car audio go hand in hand. Who'da thunk it?

Man... I am stunned. Holy crap Jason, you are a machine!!! You already had me at " I decided to put the BKO tub on the F-350 frame". That is some seriously incredible work, especially the frame mods to make it all come together! And man, what a workshop!

Nothing pisses me off more than rust work though, so I can't say I envy you just yet. I don't know if you've tried POR-15 before, but it's what I use on all my rust buckets, and I love it!

[Jacampb2]

Well, I do believe that tomorrow it will be ready for paint. I spent hours sanding today, went all of the way to 320 grit, and then I bought a can of the duplicolor bedliner tonight (I have decided on the bedliner, and then matching gray dash and trim paint) and I find that the prep for the bedliner is 100 grit. So now I have to resand adn scuff the sucker up again. It is pretty for tonight though. I made some headway on the gauges as well. I have the mustang gauges mounted in the truck gauge can, and I test fit them in the dash. Fits great, no idea how the trim will come out there yet. I will take pictures of the gauge stuff after I finish up the console tomorrow.

For now, here are the pictures of the console.











And I finally found a use for that old clumpy bondo, I cast a block of it, and then am planning to use it for idiot light holders for the mustang gauge cluster...
Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

Hopefully the end is in sight. More sanding and touch up this morning and then I laid down the duplicolor bed liner. It really is a close match to the factory dash pattern. Hopefully it will give it a nice "feel" as well. The stuff goes down easy, but does not go very far. One 16.5 Oz can was just enough to give me three full light coats. I don't really want any more than that on there though, or the texture will start to really build. I am giving it 15 minutes or so, and then I will lay down the color.

Here are the pics:





Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

I got the color down, and I am not really happy with it. For one, the medium gray dash and trim paint, which seems to be the lightest gray they sell, is quite a lot darker than the factory dash. No big deal, I have bigger problems at the moment. It seems something went awry with the duplicolor bedliner. In the last pic you can see it. It must have ahd bubbles or something in the coating, and they popped when the color went down. There are all sorts of pin holes on the flat top of the console that were definitely not there before the bed coating. There are a few spots like this here and there on the sides, but that could have simply been missed spots from filling and sanding, but I don't think so. The sides are nowhere near as noticeable as the top though. So, what do I do? sand down the patches and reapply, or should I just try to fill the spots, either with a quart of bedliner, or possibly paintable caulk? Give me some advise? I have never dealt with this crap before.

Pics of the color, last one is the worst spot on the top.







Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

Well, I think the console is fixed. I filled the bad spots with hot glue and smoothed it out with a razor. Re-applied bed liner and I like it a lot. It has been about 3 hours now, and still no signs of pin holes. I am much happier now. I may leave it black, and re-do the dash to match. I really like how it looks.

The last picture is of what I am currently working on for the gauges. I have it all blown apart right now, I need to countersink and epoxy in the gauge stand offs, and this picture is of the factory speedo driver. I need to extend the connector for the ODO because it does not reach the spot under the tach. I finally got the ribbon connector de-soldered with out ruining the board, made a little PCB that will actually power the ODO LED back lights as well as hold one of the trip/reset buttons. 27 wires soldered in place to the new PCB, and I guess I should have measured, because I am still way to frigging short. So, next step is to de-solder all of the wires and make it longer again. That is all for this week though, it is back to work for me tomorrow. I should get a bit done next friday though.









Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

I couldn't help myself, I needed the bench space, so I threw this in the bronco. I really, really like the black, and I think it contrasts well with the factory dash color. What do you think?









Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

g time no update, work has kind of stalled. I am working a bunch of over time at my real job, and I bought a CNC mill last month that I am working on getting running. The mill is 99.9% done though, so I will be back to the bronco soon...

Anyhow, my Cerwin Vega Strokers just showed up. Thank God for ebay! I found these old school gems for sale for $190 each, shipped. Brand new, in original packaging. I am sure there are newer, louder subs out there, but IMO old school don't get much better than this!

I will be running all Phoenix Gold amps, and probably all Phoenix Gold Zero Point interconnects if I still have enough in my boxes of goodies. Once I get it off the ground, I will update with the install.

The only thing I did not account for, is the subs are dual 2ohm coils. I did not realize that CV ever made the old school strokers in dual 2 ohm configuration. The date on the subs is 2000, and I guess I didn't realize they made this style stroker for that long either. No biggie in the end, it will allow more wiring flexibility.

So, here are the pics of the new additions to my collection...







Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

Well guys, long time no progress...

Between the new little one, the new CNC mill and my summer basement remodel, I had almost Zero time to work on the BKO project. I got back out to the shop for a few hours today and began working on the sheet metal again. I would have picked back up on my gauge project, but it may never reach completion. I am afraid that I lost some important bits and pieces while the shop was a wreck. I am going to go back to the important stuff first. Finish the truck body, reinstall all missing mechanicals, get it up and running and movable, and maybe even put in the stereo this year. It will all depend on how much time my wife and kids allow

Here is the first new picture for the new year. I started moving the external wheel openings. Being that I don't have a lot of money to sink into the project now, I am using the stock metal. If all goes well, it should buy me a few years, and I will get new quarters and cut those up. I intend to cut the rust out of the wheel arches and replace with custom fiberglass flares. We will get there when we get there. Here is the pic from today:



Later,
Jason

[Jacampb2]

Of course we are interested!! Cars and car audio go hand in hand. Who'da thunk it?

Man... I am stunned. Holy crap Jason, you are a machine!!! You already had me at " I decided to put the BKO tub on the F-350 frame". That is some seriously incredible work, especially the frame mods to make it all come together! And man, what a workshop!

Nothing pisses me off more than rust work though, so I can't say I envy you just yet. I don't know if you've tried POR-15 before, but it's what I use on all my rust buckets, and I love it!

Hey, thanks! Like I said though, this is almost a years worth of work so far, cut and pasted into one long run, so I am not that much of a machine. I have to say though, I was making really good, fast progress last winter until I got sidetracked by the CNC mill and the new little one.

As for POR-15 it is a very good product. This truck was so bad that I still needed a lot of metal removed to even give any coating a chance. The Rust bullet stuff I mentioned, actually gets better test results than POR-15, and is a bit cheaper. Once all of the sheet metal is done, I am going to subject myself to cleaning the underside of the tub and coating it with something. There is to much rust on the bottom of the sheet metal to avoid it if I want the tub to stay together.

I hope you guys enjoy this! I love doing this kind of work. I hope to start making significant progress again this winter.

Later,
Jason

[stipud]

Incredible. I only posted after reading up to when you finished your front floorboards. Now I am absolutely shellshocked! WOW is all I have to say.

Hey, a year is not much when you consider how little free time we really have. Considering all the other projects you've been doing, and the new addition to your family, I think this is still an insane amount of work! Hell, even the best people would have given up at step one. This truck is going to be amazing... completely custom, completely yours!

It's a real treat to read something so eloquently documented like this. And I love that it encompasses all fields, from automotives to machining to stereo equipment. I can't wait to read more.

Have you got any plans for the interior? I bet you would be pretty good at upholstery too

I am pretty sure your kid is going to be welding by 3 years

[ssims]

if its can hold a monster can then its a sik console keep it up

[Jacampb2]

You know what slowed me down the most right after I started was installing the newer dash. I HATE the old style dash the trucks have, the 93-96 style like I have wasn't a ton better, but IMO it was better. I had no idea so much crap was going to have to change to install it. It came out good though, and lots of people told me it couldn't be done-- bah!

As for the interior, I will probably be doing a lot of glass. That is the main reason I brought this over here. I threw out all of the bronco interior panels because they were shot. The F350 panels were in good shape, and will work for parts of the cab, but not in the cargo area. Even if the old BKO panels were decent, moving the wheel wells means I would have had to shit can them anyhow. That only leaves me with custom. I have to find room for ~12ft^3 for the 4 strokers. I will probably make the enclosures to go along each rear bed side, I want to do them out of fiberglass quite badly, but I don't know if I can make it strong enough for strokers. I have seen them shred a MDF box made of two laminated 3/4" sheets. Hopefully with enough structural planning, I will be able to pull it off. The plan would be to "wrap" it, two strokers on each side, amp rack directly behind the rear seat leaving a mediocre amount of cargo space in the back. I have to play with box dimensions. I want to tune the strokers lower than recommended and flatten out the response-- sure I will give up SPL, but with 4 of them, and not a competition vehicle, I think it will be plenty loud. A re-tune should help shrink the boxes. I am a long way away from that though.

The front door panels are in good shape, but they are "work truck" type half panels, and are not going to stay. I will probably use them as a base for custom panels though. I will also be converting the doors back over to full power, the f350 stuff was all manual, but I saved the window regulators and lock motors from the old trashed EB doors.

I honestly don't know to much about upholstery, but funny you should mention it, as I have been trying to find info online. I have a pair of mustang seats that need new foam and recovered. I am thinking of using them up front. The original EB bucket seats are low back, and really uggly-- think Cadillac. Anyhow, they went to the curb a few months back, I was sick of tripping on them. Upholstery work doesn't look too tough from what I have seen on TV and on line. I will probably just buy a sewing machine and try it

Thanks for the props! It makes it worth documenting when folks are watching. You all get to see me make a fool out of myself when stuff doesn't come out right too-- I normally post my hideous failures as well as my successes.

Later,
Jason

[Wakeup]

Jason,
Wow wonderful! Definitely keep us updated! Sweet work!

[harobkr90]

jason, AWESOME.

my dad has had a ton of broncos and they've just grown on me ever since.

i love the shifter!

hands down, great work!