BlueBronco budget build

[Louisbaby]

Matt, you are a legend...

[66sprint6]

Noooooo way, especially not compared to some of the amazing talent floating around these parts, but I do love to tinker and see what I can and cannot get away with! Havin fun too which is good...and I imagine Ill have even MORE fun seein how much abuse all this work can stand up to!

Matt

[canadianbacon]

Wow, that light switch idea is a pretty good one, nice job

[66sprint6]

While on the phone with Comcast last night I had just enough time to put together some u bolts for the rear axles.





Pictures turned out poor but you get the idea. They are ugly and exactly what I wanted. I made em outta steel RC plane rod and some tiny (4mm) nuts...tehee. One of my nuts dropped (tehehee) and I lost it dangit so Im missin a nut (teeheeee) but Ill find it one day. I plan on taking it all apart one day and smoothing out the RC4WD leaf mounts so they look a little better but for now Im done. I also got the shifters all finished up and ready to go and re-mounted the rear panels to the tub after realizing they were a little off. Gonna finish off the rear tub, add some front inner fenders then itll be on to paint and figuring out how to mount it all.

Matt

[Louisbaby]

Looks awesome dude. Perfect size too. Happy new year to you...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[66sprint6]

Thanks, you too!!!

Got the rear tub together with the body panels!



Fit together surprisingly well considering its ME making it happen lol. I got the exhaust tweaked where I want it and only need a couple small tweaks here and there, toss together some panels to bridge the gap between the panels and tub up top and then call it good



Shoot, even the front lines up really well. In this pic its just tossed on for kicks.



I was working on gettin the dash section of the interior tub trimmed to allow the front end to come down a hair so the doors will line up better and pulled an idiot move with my xacto. The entire blade in my thumb down to the handle = end of my night. Idiot. And technically I did go back in and glue the part that broke off allowing the knife to enter my thumb back on lol. Tonight Ill get that together and start on some inner fenders.

Matt

[Louisbaby]

Looks great buddy, are you going to strengthen the windscreen with some sort of steel roll cage?

[66sprint6]

The windshield will be strengthened with some styrene and then a simple rollbar will be put in place as well. Hopefully itll be enough to keep it together for a while LOL. I plan to strengthen the top with styrene as well and then the simple roll bar will help when the top is off when it rolls. Thats the thought at the moment at least.

Matt

[LoneRanger]

It has been very cool to watch your progress with this truck over the last few years. It has gone from a total stocker to a totaly custom 1 off rig- I know everyone who has kept up with this thread has watched first hand your modeling skills grow by leaps and bounds. Hats off to you!


L.R.

[66sprint6]

Thanks a ton, I've sat and watched so many amazing builds go on and finally decided to try my hand and what better rig than the Bronco! I dabbled in some stuff with the Mule and Courier but the Bronco has always been the rig I've wanted to own in 1:1 so its time to make it exactly what I would own. More work done tonight, far less stabbing myself and more progress although not much I'll take it! Pics later if I can.

Matt

[66sprint6]

Well...I said I snag some pics of last night's progress but I lied. I capped off the empty section between the tub and rear panels, but its not super clean and Im not 100% happy with it. Im gonna try to file it down a bit more then Ill snap some shots. I also figured out how I wanna mount the top whenever I run it and needed to finish up some things before I could get good shots. Im also thinkin about NOT painting the body panels. I know it sounds kinda silly to do all this work and NOT paint it up nice...but I remember when I first built the Bronco how I couldnt wait to get some trail rash cause she was too shiney. Ive always wanted a dingy, patina-ed, faded Bronco in 1:1. One thats not super rough, but not shiney and pretty, yet sexy in its own way. I think Ill do some work here and there but leave it a little rough around the edges in some places as well. Then again, I may be forced to paint it afterall to make sure everything matches. ANYways, first things first, gotta get the interior finished up before I can even think about paint.

Matt

[66sprint6]

Got quite a bit done this weekend and its actually starting to come together!!!

Finished up covering the dead space between the tub and upper fenders. I also came up with a way to mount the top whenever I might wanna run it that should help hold it all together nicely



I then made some little caps to cover the holes while the top is off. How long till I loose em and say screw it and never run em again...first ride is my bet.





This is an idea of how Ill attach the top. I probably wont crush the ends but itll be somethin similar.





I then moved on and roughed in some inner fenders. Im not gonna detail the engine bay at the moment cause the hood will stay fixed for now. I need to get further into the build to figure out a way to keep the windshield frame secure when the hood is gone and dont wanna mess with it just yet. Im thinkin when I get the cage build Ill attach it to it but for now...this will do.





Holding the front clip on for now to show it fits and everything seems to line up nicely!!!



After that I finally moved on to mounting the rear tub. I bend up some steel mounting tabs for the front and brazed a nut to each one. In the rear (no pic yet) I just drilled one of the plastic SCX10 crossmembers and JBwelded a couple nuts to it. I then use the shocks up front to secure the inner fender section for a total of 6 screws holding it together. Seems pretty solid so far!





PAINT! The interior tub looks 100 times better now to me. Still has some rough areas but Ill prolly mask em with weathering of some sort.







Thats it for now, gonna get the electronics all settled in then glue the front to the tub. Been considering tryin to velcro it to the tub for now just so I can have easy access to the electronics till I make the hood open. Gonna eyeball it later and see what I come up with.

Matt

[H2Micr0]

Very nicely done!!!!

I will use your work as an example to follow when I build my interiors soon.

Cheers
H2Micr0

[66sprint6]

Thanks for the kind words! Its been fun...and trying but only because Im learning as I go. Have fun with it and dont be afraid to completely destroy what you built and start over at some point lol

I got the dash put together and attached with ShoeGoo last night but forgot to get a pic. I did it this way so I could remove it if the light switch ever went out and replace it. I had to do some touchup painting here and there but hopefully the paint will be good and dry soon and I wont have to worry about scratching it so easy lol. Gonna look at putting some scale touches and detail work in and then try to figure out how I wanna do my cage.

Matt

[66sprint6]

Dash together and attached, fits like a glove!!! Also got my shifters in as well. Went ahead and added some steel panels to allow the transfer case shifters some clearance. Made sure to toss some primer on my welds to try and cut the chances of rust down.



Im not 100% happy with the trans shifter just yet and will probably end up moving it back some on its own. Originally they were gonna be closer to the dash but I didnt like that either. I made everything there from styrene and nails. I made the shift boots from styrene and painted them with Plastidip to give them a rubber look and then used Epoxy to make the shifter handles on the transfer case shifters. I used an old rod end ball that I sanded to shape and some shrink wrap for the trans shifter to make it look like a stock shifter.

I also realized in modding the rear wheel wells to clear the tires I didnt leave room for the rear tank filler neck so I tossed one in real quick and made sure to RTV the holes I cut in the panels really well to help protect it and keep it from moving. If I had caught this earlier I woulda modded the stock shield but dont wanna hassle with it right now.





Thats it for now. I started wiring up the front lights and had to do some work to get the front clip ready for the LEDs. I will finish that up shortly and be able to glue it all together soon I hope!

Matt

[66sprint6]

Well crap...



I wasnt too keen on the shifters and noticed somethin a little funky goin on with em. The styrene around the shifters themselves turned soft and mushy. Not sure if it was the paint or ShoeGoo or both but it had to come off which messed up the paint pretty good lol. I then made a new housing for the twin sticks, moved them and moved the Tranny shifter as well. MUCH happier now. Little more touchup and it should look legit.





I forgot to take pics of this a while back. I used some stuff layin around and put together 2 gas caps to make things a little more 3D. Not too bad!





Gonna snag some LEDs from Jmel then Ill be able to move on with getting the front clip finished and mounted up.

Matt

[LoneRanger]

original shifters were legit, too bad they popped off. looked damn near just like my trial rig- liking the gas caps!

L.R.

[OSRC]

Love this rig.... It's refreshing to see a ground up build with handmade parts, trial and error and a little ingenuity. So many builds here are just buying and bolting on parts. Anyhow, the interior looks awesome! Well done and can't wait to see it back together!

[66sprint6]

Originally Posted by LoneRanger

original shifters were legit, too bad they popped off. looked damn near just like my trial rig- liking the gas caps!

L.R.

Thanks man, Im building it sorta as if I owned it in 1:1 and was making it a little more trail worthy. I know ALL about the stock shift knob coming off, they do it in my 88 F150 as well!!! I thought about putting a setscrew in the scale one to make it more realistic to how I always have to fix em Had a 91 Ranger that was the same way, shift 2nd and off goes the knob lol. As for the gas caps, I think they turned out pretty close! Another coat of silver will help.

Originally Posted by OSRC

Love this rig.... It's refreshing to see a ground up build with handmade parts, trial and error and a little ingenuity. So many builds here are just buying and bolting on parts. Anyhow, the interior looks awesome! Well done and can't wait to see it back together!

Budget has always been key for me as I dont have a ton of money to throw into somethin Ill end up beating the crap out of on the trail so Ive had a TON of fun making stuff work. This site is fantastic cause its full of people who come up with slick ways to make stuff happen and I am always lookin at builds and learning as I go which is why I enjoy posting up my builds the way I do...never know who might use one of your ideas.

Matt

[Louisbaby]

Absolutely love this thing. Now I must get a bronco body and try this... Greta job.