Hello all!

My name is Jamie Helmick and I live in Barnesville Ohio. I have 7 loves in my life. My Lord, My wife, my 4 daughters, and my Bronco. I look forward to learning from you all since all I have ever learned about wrenching has come from experience. And from what I can tell there is a lot of that here. I am working on an '85 Bronco named "Ferdinand" by my youngest, and it has been a journey to say the least. Drove 2 hours to get it. Test drove it twice. Ran well and strong. Then about 45 minutes into the trip home with it, it caught fire... Hence the project. (I have to admit, bringing it the rest of the way home on a flatbed was pretty depressing!)
1985, 351W, 52K miles before the fire.

Welcome, Jamie!  Certainly glad you joined.

Tough luck on the fire.  What caused it?  And, what did it burn up?

Thanks Pebcak!
Here is a pic of the progress so far. This represents about 8 months worth of work even though it doesn't look like it!

Welcome, that's tough. But that is a good looking Bronco!

Welcome! Glad you joined, I like your project. Good to see kids joining in too. Sorry to hear about the fire, and I commend your determination to restore it 🙂

Evening Gary,
My best guess is that it must have backfired through the carb and caught fire. I can't even begin to tell of all the "interesting" things I discovered through further investigation into the sellers claims about the Bronco, but it did actually have a new carb and wires, so I am not sure if something was off there or not. I did notice during the tear down that he had the throttle return spring perch between the carb and the intake so that may have even let a little fuel/air mix escape and maybe enough engine temp set it off? Who knows? I inspected the carb the best I could and there seemed to be no damage. So, that makes me think maybe it didn't start there. I bought a rebuild kit from Edelbrock and am anxious if my first ever carb rebuild will be a success ;o). Fire wise, I thankfully flagged down a cruiser and grabbed their fire extinguisher to put out the fire before it destroyed the hood. (I have the pull pin from that extinguisher as my key ring). From a damage standpoint it really just melted everything rubber or plastic. What really did me in, motor-wise, was when the FD showed up, pulled my air cleaner and proceeded to drowned the motor. Literally. I've tried to take pictures as I have worked along the last 10 months, but I am no photo journalist by any means. Most of the pics were for reference since its faster than labeling everything, which I still had to do. I rebuilt an '82 F-150 a little more than 20 years ago and it was a little bit of a trip down memory lane for me. I also lost my father last year unexpectedly when he and I were on a motorcycle trip heading down to NC, so its been good therapy as well. By God's good grace we persevere. I have replaced the gas tank & straps, sending unit, fuel lines, brake lines, restored the 9.0 rear end with bearings and seals, front main seal on the C6, and new radiator so far. I have spent many hours with wire wheels, grinders, rust converters, and sand blasting and am far from finished, but I am pleased with the progress so far. I just wish I had more time to work on it. My shop time is usually from 10p to when ever I lose momentum. I happened to find a blue '86 Bronco at a local junk yard (the exact opposite of the one you have pictures of) and the guy towed it to my house for free and just told me to keep track of what I used and he will come pick it up whenever I call! That sure restored some faith in humanity! So, it has been helpful to look off of, but man did a lot of things change in just one year! I did also find the Bishko folks and bought a full PDF version of the service manual (over 2,000 pages of it anyway) and it has been a great help. Anyway, I am rambling on. Thanks a million for creating a space like this for Bullnose folks to learn a few things!!

Sorry for the loss of your father.  That must have been traumatic.

But, fixing something, like a burned truck, can be very theraputic.  So, with the help of your family I'm sure this has been a big help.

And, bringing the other truck to your house and offering to take it back was such a nice thing to do.  Yes, it surely restored your faith in humanity.

What do you have left on your to-do list?

Really at this point I am looking to wrap everything up and get it on the road.
My next steps will be to get it in time, sort out the rest of the vacuum and wiring to what I need and what I don't. I am not under any emissions requirements where I live so I didn't bother replacing any of that. I don't really want to cut everything up wiring-wise though so I may just try to find a way to seal off the unused plugs and what not and try to make them look halfway decent. I need to put the bumpers and the front clip on, get an exhaust put on and a front end alignment and I may try to drive it for the winter. I ended up putting some Headman long tube headers on it and I am a little concerned that the driver's side flange is so close to the front drive shaft but we will see what the exhaust shop can do.
If it runs as well as I hope it does I will save any body work for another year or two. Once I get it rolling I will likely work on all the rubber window seals and the passenger side window motor.
Here are the pics that actually sold me on wanting this Bronco. My '82 F150's interior was red, my Dad's '84 Straight 6 was Blue, so I was hoping for tan and it looked pretty clean to me.
If you or anyone sees anything in my rig that needs attention or you/they have a question about please sone hesitate to point it out or ask!

Thanks Ford F834. My oldest turns 17 tomorrow and she is dying to drive it to school once it's road-worthy! ;o)

thanks grumpin. Good group you all have here!

Nice looking Bronco!  Your daughter is going to be the envy of her classmates.  

On the vacuum, here's what I think is needed: Underhood/Vacuum Systems.

Good grief Gary this is exactly what I was looking for! Since most of my lines were torched and melted in half, I didn't really have a good idea where stuff went until I bought that manual from Bishko, but the annotated pictures you gave are spot on and make it much simpler! And to think you have a huge show &swap meet in just a few days and can still reply this timely to a post is amazing. You really do take this site seriously. I am profoundly grateful. If you weren't 13 1/2 hours away, I might have just seen you in a few days and maybe even hit services together! Maybe someday, Lord willing. Thanks again.

The stuff on vacuum has been on the site for quite some time.  Someone asked the question way back when about what was needed and, having answered several times before, I decided to detail it out once and for all.  But I'm glad it seems to have worked for you.

Yes, please do come!  We can talk Ford and the Lord, and worship together.  

Amen brother!

Gary Lewis wrote

Yes, please do come!  We can talk Ford and the Lord, and worship together.  

Bless this Ford, oh Lord, we pray,
Keep her safe both night and day.
Bless the one who holds the wheel,
Those who ride - Your presence feel.
In Your care, may she roam---------
through towns and wilderness-------
then safely home.

Very apropriate for the many Fords heading out in the very near future.

That prayer stuck hard. I love it! Seeing it at the top of the page initially sure got my attention to say the least! Will be praying for safe travels for all! I look forward to seeing plenty of pics!!!

Just throwing this out there... Katie and I are getting a head-rush being stuck upside down in my initial pic of my youngest grease monkey.

Anyone have a suggestion for rotating that pic 180? (I could always delete it I guess)
I looked through the info on pics and HTML but maybe I missed something.

Thanks!

I bet Gary can "walk" you through it!