fiftyfordfloored Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 This story started with a trip to a local garage... Was talking to the guy and telling him I'm looking for an old Bronco. He says I have one on the trailer out back going to the scrap yard in a couple hours. I bought it and had him drop it off a mile away at my buddies farm. It was a 1986 Bronco (U152) with an EFI 302/AOD/3.55 8.8. Quad shocks and all that cool stuff, plus a rust free tailgate and nearly immaculate interior. After really looking it over, I decided the rest of the body was really pretty terminal. They had fiberglassed over rust everywhere and now it was chunking off. Ok, I figured I'll find it a nice shell to swap everything into. The 1981 Bronco (U151) that was originally a 302/C6/3.00 9" (engine is gone). I had originally planned to swap the engine/trans/front axle from the '86, swap the gears in the 9" to 3.55, and end up with an EFI 302/AOD/3.55 9". I also originally thought that the EFI 302 was in good shape. Purred before I shut it off a few months ago. Go to start it and it lights right off with a slight rod knock which continues. Okay, that's my luck. My goal for this truck is to make it the best daily driver combo, with plenty of torque to tow smaller loads, but still get reasonable fuel economy cruising. I decided I'm going to build a nice 300 I6, leave the C6 (probably build that as well) and the 3.00 gears alone. Quad Shock outfit the '81, and transfer all the goodies I can into it. Double Trouble... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiftyfordfloored Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 I gutted everything from the '81 to get to the rust I have to repair... And tossed everything, as the interior was complete trash... Excepting the back seat... Any one needs a nice seat in red let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 I gutted everything from the '81 to get to the rust I have to repair... And tossed everything, as the interior was complete trash... Excepting the back seat... Any one needs a nice seat in red let me know. I’m jealous! I have dreams of building an ‘80 or ‘81 Bronco, or maybe an ‘82 or later disguised as an ‘81. But it would be for tooling around in the high country so would be outfitted for that rather than cruising. By the way, you may have missed the notice, but threads in this Projects folder can be locked by the author so others can’t post. Like I’ve done on my EFI thread. That’s so you can either use it as a whiteboard, like I’m doing, or a blog where you post what you are doing but don’t want comments. So, if you decide you want to do that I can delete this post and move any others that come along. But, you’ll want to have some place to move them, like a real back & forth thread on the build. Your call. Anyway, cool project! 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiftyfordfloored Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 I’m jealous! I have dreams of building an ‘80 or ‘81 Bronco, or maybe an ‘82 or later disguised as an ‘81. But it would be for tooling around in the high country so would be outfitted for that rather than cruising. By the way, you may have missed the notice, but threads in this Projects folder can be locked by the author so others can’t post. Like I’ve done on my EFI thread. That’s so you can either use it as a whiteboard, like I’m doing, or a blog where you post what you are doing but don’t want comments. So, if you decide you want to do that I can delete this post and move any others that come along. But, you’ll want to have some place to move them, like a real back & forth thread on the build. Your call. Anyway, cool project! 👍 Gary, if that makes you jealous, my sister's '83 I picked up for her for free has factory perfect floor pans and also all perfect factory rosewood trim and dash-pad. I welcome commentary. Probably going to take me a while and I'm sure people will have some constructive ideas or advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Gary, if that makes you jealous, my sister's '83 I picked up for her for free has factory perfect floor pans and also all perfect factory rosewood trim and dash-pad. I welcome commentary. Probably going to take me a while and I'm sure people will have some constructive ideas or advice. Hmmm, "free" and "perfect" don't usually describe the same truck. But, good for her! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 First of all welcome and I'm glad you found us here on this forum. I've always been a fan of your red flareside 🙂 Next, thank you for sharing your Bronco build. I am with Gary, I'm envious of that truck! Like Gary I really love the 1981 model year. I'm working on a '81 F150 but the further into it I get, the more I wish it was a Bronco instead of a pickup. Maybe someday... for what it's worth I have the 300 six and 3.00 gears and I like it, but mine has a close ratio diesel T19 not a C6 so your experience may vary. I look forward to your build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiftyfordfloored Posted November 11, 2017 Author Share Posted November 11, 2017 Hmmm, "free" and "perfect" don't usually describe the same truck. But, good for her! Gary, perfect floor pans, not perfect truck haha. She needs a hood and some rear fender work and tailgate work but around here solid floors are an exciting start. Over all it's really good though; minimal rot. My mother's friends apparently have money and no concept of what anything's worth, so when they asked me if I wanted their "crappy old plow truck", I said sure. Free bullnose, don't have to ask me twice. Once I get to working on her truck, I'll post pics and progress in a different thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiftyfordfloored Posted November 11, 2017 Author Share Posted November 11, 2017 First of all welcome and I'm glad you found us here on this forum. I've always been a fan of your red flareside 🙂 Next, thank you for sharing your Bronco build. I am with Gary, I'm envious of that truck! Like Gary I really love the 1981 model year. I'm working on a '81 F150 but the further into it I get, the more I wish it was a Bronco instead of a pickup. Maybe someday... for what it's worth I have the 300 six and 3.00 gears and I like it, but mine has a close ratio diesel T19 not a C6 so your experience may vary. I look forward to your build. F834, 80-81s are my favorite as well. I miss my red flareside, but she went to a good home. The guy did a nice job with her; she's 4x4 now with a fuel injected 300 on 33's. I've always been a huge Bronco fan, just never found a decent one. All of a sudden, they're everywhere and people are practically giving them away or scrapping. I have a huge hoarding problem; anything '80-86 I can't say no to. I still have dash boards and clusters and trim panels all over from various shenanigans and junk yard trips, so now I can put some of it to good use. Still looking for a set of correct Marchal fog lamps for the '81. I have the cluster bezel and the switch all ready to go. My end goal with this truck is to make it more or less like this one: Probably never find those cool stripes anywhere, but I always thought they were neat. I never heard of a Trailer Special package Bronco before, but I'd love to recreate that package as well (if I can figure out what exactly made up that package). I like the idea of the 300 and the 3.00 gears too. Probably work well for cruising the interstate. The C6 is a power leach, but very strong and bulletproof. I'm thinking I may pull it apart and rebuild it with some high performance pieces to help it out a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 F834, 80-81s are my favorite as well. I miss my red flareside, but she went to a good home. The guy did a nice job with her; she's 4x4 now with a fuel injected 300 on 33's. I've always been a huge Bronco fan, just never found a decent one. All of a sudden, they're everywhere and people are practically giving them away or scrapping. I have a huge hoarding problem; anything '80-86 I can't say no to. I still have dash boards and clusters and trim panels all over from various shenanigans and junk yard trips, so now I can put some of it to good use. Still looking for a set of correct Marchal fog lamps for the '81. I have the cluster bezel and the switch all ready to go. My end goal with this truck is to make it more or less like this one: Probably never find those cool stripes anywhere, but I always thought they were neat. I never heard of a Trailer Special package Bronco before, but I'd love to recreate that package as well (if I can figure out what exactly made up that package). I like the idea of the 300 and the 3.00 gears too. Probably work well for cruising the interstate. The C6 is a power leach, but very strong and bulletproof. I'm thinking I may pull it apart and rebuild it with some high performance pieces to help it out a bit. That is/was Christopher Lott's Bronco. He restored it and is now working on another one just like it except it has a EFI 351W in it. He had those stripes reproduced. If you are serious about wanting a set he is the guy to talk to. He can get them made. Not inexpensive, surely, but he has the templates on file and a source that can make them. He posted brochure pages with the ad for that truck and this is what it says about the tow package: I have also been looking for a set of the factory fog lights since I have a XLS instrument bezel with the fog switch face plate and the correct switch. The lamps themselves are Marchal 750/759 series lights and come up fairly often on eBay, but not with the Ford surrounds. That is an extremely rare item to find, and quite expensive if the seller has any idea what he has. I keep wishing a set would turn up in the junkyard but it will never happen... Edit: Christopher Lott's handle on FTE is Early Cobra, and he runs a really neat Facebook page for Freewheel package and Chromatic striped trucks and Broncos if you do the FB thing at all: https://m.facebook.com/groups/443736922474997 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiftyfordfloored Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 That is/was Christopher Lott's Bronco. He restored it and is now working on another one just like it except it has a EFI 351W in it. He had those stripes reproduced. If you are serious about wanting a set he is the guy to talk to. He can get them made. Not inexpensive, surely, but he has the templates on file and a source that can make them. He posted brochure pages with the ad for that truck and this is what it says about the tow package: I have also been looking for a set of the factory fog lights since I have a XLS instrument bezel with the fog switch face plate and the correct switch. The lamps themselves are Marchal 750/759 series lights and come up fairly often on eBay, but not with the Ford surrounds. That is an extremely rare item to find, and quite expensive if the seller has any idea what he has. I keep wishing a set would turn up in the junkyard but it will never happen... Edit: Christopher Lott's handle on FTE is Early Cobra, and he runs a really neat Facebook page for Freewheel package and Chromatic striped trucks and Broncos if you do the FB thing at all: https://m.facebook.com/groups/443736922474997 That's awesome. He did a really nice job on that truck. Ended up at the junkyard this past Sunday and grabbed a cylinder head off of a '69 240 six. There was a really nice front half of an '81 F150 flareside next to it with a complete 300 and all the accessories and Duraspark II set up. Bed was shot, fenders were nearly mint. May have to go back for that stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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