What a mess. Every time I get to something I don't have time to do, and farm it out I get screwed. So I took the Bronco to get headers and exhaust done, at Burlingame Muffler, for any local guys here to STAY AWAY. I dropped the Bronco off the beginning of May and he said that it shouldn't cost me more than $1500 to $2500 for the full exhaust. I let him know that I understand that the headers are going to be a pain and if it cost that much it was what it was as long as it was clean. So what was supposed to take a week or two took 6 or 7 and my list of stuff to do to complete it grew. They broke the hood scoop almost completely off, broke the Flaming River steering column, well the dip stick is what it is, and all they did was the headers. The biggest problem was his wife, who runs the books. The crap hit the fan when she called me last week and tried charging me for 48 hours just for the headers. So $4080 just for headers, I flipped. On top of that I was just there 2 days before and he hadn't even started the driver side, so basically some where around 16 hrs for the driver and 32 for the passenger. I told them I'll just come pick it up and we settled on $3000, but they kept the mufflers that I gave them another $500 for them to order. So yesterday Jesse from Off Road Recovery went to grab it for me and it took the turn for the worst with the broken steering column and hood scoop. Man I banged that hood around for 2 years and never managed to do that one. I'm freakin crushed. This sucks. Now I have to go after them for this crap. Wish me luck.
Sorry to hear about the bad luck with the muffler shop.
Hindsight being 20/20, never give a shop a "blank check," so to speak, about work-to-be-performed or an "open quote." Perhaps it will help other members from going down the same path...
So got the street wheels and tires and tried throwing them on to run it around for the final touch-ups. Setup is a set of OE 2011 King Ranch Wheels with the inners coated black wrapped in 37x13x20 Procomp Xterrain. The OE wheels barely contact the Currie High Steer so a set of 1/8" spacers will be needed to clear. Also surprisingly the '11 wheels have an inner lip on them that doesn't clear the rear hubs so the lip will be shaved off all the wheels. But it'll be a good setup for running around town and on the freeway and hopefully keep Mr. Policeman from feeling the need to give me a ticket.
Took all the springs off the rear shocks and it sits at ride hight with no springs and 200 PSI. Gonna be a tough setup so to not be too squishy, but I'll give Ballistic a call after the 4th and figure it out.
Other than that she's off to get the hood scoop fixed, a soft top made, finish the exhaust, final tuning, and then gears and lockers, and she'll be ready to go.
Here's some pics of how much further the OE SD wheels bring the rubbers in, and the rub issue.
Nothing huge just a couple pics of some small touches while we trouble shoot some issues with the Accel ECM. Got the 1/4" spacers on for tie rod clearance. Wiring guy wrapped the headers and fabbed a shield for the passenger side lines. And exhaust tips. When I get her back, plan will be to finish the trac bar and then drive her around town and commute to San Jose for a while before I do gears and to see where I want to go as far as gears, if I want to change or adjust spring rates/Shock pressures, and get used to the manual valve body on the streets. As soon as we get the ECM/Computer communication bugs worked out I'll post video of the Dyno tuning and results, with 37"s and 3.73 factory Superduty gears. Last time I dynoed the motor, trans, tcase, combo in the buggy on 42"s it ran 275 Horsepower at the rear wheels. So I'll be shooting for 350-400 on the 37"s.
So having some issues with the tuning. I'm almost positive it's the plugs. Talked to the owner of Campbell Auto who was more than generous enough to lend me an extra ECM to see if my ECM was fried. When I told him that we ran the vehicle rich attempting to take it to the show at Knotts Berry and fouled the plugs, they are done. He said that it could take as many as 3-4 sets just to dial the motor, and that it has to be adjusted to a close ballpark within 30-60 seconds sometimes in order to not foul the plugs. So plan is there is a guy in Placerville that is the guru with the Accel ECMs and the 4.6's, just gotta find time to trailer her up there.
So news of the rain caught me off guard and I had to run home and throw the top and doors on yesterday. Thank goodness my 6 year old can follow orders and lower the forks on the lift down while I lined the top up. She did awesome for her first time without me actually holding her hand. Nice and slow, no surprises. lol It's been a long time since I had the doors on, like the beginning of the build. The passenger side just needs to be adjusted, but the driver is about a 1/4" off, so I gotta check it out when I get more time and see if I can fix it or if I have to take it to a body shop.
Also finally decided on my coil rates and ordered. 100/150 front and rear. I had an old number that I had figured out by calculating a long time ago of 80/180, but no luck in finding that kind of specs so I had to ballpark it since it was tough enough finding ratings lower than 150s. Got the 100/150s from FOA. I'll post some pics when I get them on next week. All I have now are the pics with the top and doors on.
So have not had time to run her up to Placerville yet for tuning. Kinda been waiting on the new coils at a much liter rate. Came in on Wednesday and got them on today. Nice they bottom out now. Looks like everything came out right were I wanted it. Front comes an inch from fully bottoming out before everything starts hitting or barely clears, so the front will have to have bumps. The picks are basically going to be full bump. The rears are bottomed out. I'll let ya'all know next week what pressures they are set at to raise the front 2.5" and the rear about 3.5". I really don't like the way the wheels look so I'm putting these wheels back on the '11 King Ranch Excursion. For the street I'll be running a set of 40" MTR Kevlars on 17" Welds. I'll have pics next week at ride hight. It'll be awhile until I can let ya know how it handles, being that I have to get it up to Placerville to get the tuning set. Probably get it up there in the next few weeks. Just have to do the new trac bar. Here's the pics of her at full bump and some clearance pics.
hey i seen an add on a mustang site about ford selling the mold for a company to make the 64-65 mustang body again...in the ad they mentioned they are going to do the bronco also...
can you post picks of driveshafts....during the 80`s we did wheel alignments on trucks only...and driveshafts...
i remember a friend redid an old jeep with a 350 conversion and the shaft was a pita..
Finally got to get out and get some seat time in her at Hollister yesterday. Worked great. Steering Pressure is a low but I think it has to do with needing one final tune up. Tuner left the idle low till we fixed a couple little items so I'll just need to get it up to him to bump the idle up and get her dialed in. Here are some pics and a shrt clip before we loaded her up. I changed the tires and ran out of the house and forgot the video camera, so sorry for no good video yet. I think we are going to go back out next weekend to get a full length video in the mini con and rolling around some of the open areas. We are going to enter the wife in it for Top Truck Challenge 2013. Had the wife take it through the Culvert Section and it only got hung up once when the driver side front tire slid of the side. We pulled it back and I asked her if she wanted to just exit. She said hell no. Then proceeded to hit every line and flexed, crawled, and gunned it all the way through without a scratch. I was impressed with both. Here's some pics and the short clip.
Amazing. Simply awesome. A set of anniversary red cobra seat covers would set that thing off perfectly!! Really nice build, had to pass this one around the office!