New2rocks & Roo celebrate the Bronco

[new2rocks]

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Bronco:
The Ford Bronco Celebrates its 50th Anniversary 1966-2016

The kind folks at GCM invited me to celebrate this event as the newest member of the GCM #tinytruck Team by joining GCM and team drivers Rob & Amanda in Townsend, TN, home of the largest gathering of 1:1 Bronco owners in the universe.


So of course I had to get one of these for the event:


With little time to prepare for the event and a super busy work schedule, it stayed mostly stock for the trip to TN. But don't worry, it didn't stay that way for very long (spoiler alert).

Of course, we saw lots of these:


And then James Duff (yes...that James Duff, famed builder and racer of custom Broncos and maker of all sorts of Bronco performance parts) came over to our booth and drove my tiny Bronco:


Yay! Best part of that sequence was one of the kids trying to tell James how to drive our tiny course. Little did he know...

A little sidenote...the GCM tiny truck booth drew more foot traffic than any other booth at the event. And the Ascender Bronco that GCM contributed to the fundraising raffle drew several times more entries than any other prize. We might be onto something with this whole scale RC thing...

With all of that Bronco awesomeness in the air, and a ton of new GCM parts for the Bronco Ascender, I couldn't wait to get home and get this up on the table. I'll be using this thread to highlight a bunch of GCM goodies, some specific to the Bronco/Ascender and some not, some new and some not as new. Feel free to fire away with any questions.

[Wes S.]

That looks amazing! Wish I was there...

This makes me want P-L's Bronco body re-release even more. If they would only release it sooner. The Ascender Bronco isn't what I'm after-I want to paint it a certain style-but that event looked really cool. More pics!

[new2rocks]

As a side note, because most of the event took place during the week, Roo wasn't able to join us at the event. But he didn't waste any time getting to work once I got back:


He decided to start with the Bronco sliders:


They come in the familiar GCM shrink-wrap packaging, sorted very nicely, of course:


Two screws on each side:


And voila! We have sliders:




Fit and finish are superb as always, and the look is nice and clean.

Eagle eyes will notice that something happened to the stock wheels. What you see in the pix are the new GCM 1.9" Deep Dish wheels, wrapped with RC4WD Genius Ignorante tires (4.09" OD, X2SS compound, sweet looks). The wheels look amazing (pictures don't do them justice) and tuck incredibly well for a deep dish wheel (unlike some others on the market that stick way out due to lots of negative offset). The wheels and tires will probably end up on another rig after some testing here. But more on those later. Time to put more stuff on...

[new2rocks]

Roo decided that the forward motor conversion should be next. So out came the package and Roo got to work:


Although these don't come with written instructions, they're not hard at all to put together. Roo will take us through a little step by step:

1. Start with the transfer case. Remove the transfer case components from the bottom of the package (casing, 2x gears, 2x shafts, 4x bearings, 3 long screws and 4 short screws in the compartments immediately above the housing and bearings).




2. Separate the two halves of the housing


3. Insert all 4 bearings inside the housing. The tolerances are tight, so make sure you're pressing them straight in and don't force it.




4. Install the gears on the input and output shafts. The input shaft is the shorter one, and the output shaft is the longer one:


Line up the grub screws on each gear so they grab the indentation in the middle of each shaft.


Thread lock, thread lock, thread lock...






Allow this to sit for 24 hours so the thread lock sets before greasing and assembling.

[tgh117]

If you don't mind, can you tell me the length on those sliders, I'd like to use them on my blazer build I think if I can. Keep up the good work, I just did some of these same upgrades myself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapascrap

[new2rocks]

While the t-case sets, next up us relocating the tranny up front. Roo will take us through it, step by step:



5. Start by removing the strut between the front shock towers:











6. Remove the battery tray from the chassis and axle truss. Detaching one of the front shocks completely from the hoop will allow better access to the axle truss to remove the necessary screw.













You won't be needing this anymore:





7. Use a rotary tool or file to create a small notch in the upper section of the frame rail between the legs of the right front shock hoop. This notch will be needed for the spur gear to clear.









8. Remove the tranny from the skid plate by removing the 4 flat head screws from underneath. Put the screws to the side so that you can reuse 2 of the to install the transfer case bracket later.













9. Remove the spur gear cover from the tranny









10. Remove the slipper clutch and spring. Set those to the side for now so you can reinstall them later.









11. Remove the green aluminum motor plate and install the GCM motor plate with mounting tabs facing away from the tranny. You will reuse the 2 motor plate mounting screws but you will not be reusing the motor plate.













12. Reinstall the slipper clutch and spring assembly





13. Install the tranny beginning with the motor plate tabs that line up with the upper shock mount screws (where the OEM strut used to be).









The tranny attaches with a screw through the back leg of the left side shock hoop. Line up the mounting hole on what is now the lower left corner of the tranny case with the shock hoop hole and use the M3x16 flat head screw included with the kit in place of the stock screw.





Here's the screw you'll need:





Here's what it looks like after:





Next up will be installing the tranny-to-t-case shaft and t-case...

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by Wes S.

That looks amazing! Wish I was there...

This makes me want P-L's Bronco body re-release even more. If they would only release it sooner. The Ascender Bronco isn't what I'm after-I want to paint it a certain style-but that event looked really cool. More pics!

Thanks! For more pix, check out the GCM Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/GCM-Racing-...94607/?fref=ts

Originally Posted by tgh117

If you don't mind, can you tell me the length on those sliders, I'd like to use them on my blazer build I think if I can. Keep up the good work, I just did some of these same upgrades myself.

The sliders are approx. 132-133mm long. I'm guessing they would look a bit short on the Vaterra Blazer body but probably would work on the RC4WD Blazer body (which has a shorter wheelbase).

[new2rocks]

The last part of the forward motor conversion is installing the t-case. Here we go:

14. After allowing the t-case gears to sit for 24 hours for thread lock to cure, grease and assemble the t-case:


Use the included 3 screws to assemble the two halves of the t-case.


Note that the holes in one half of the t-case are threaded but not in the other. Start the screws on the opposite side of the threaded holes.


15. Time to install the t-case mounting bracket. The bracket is designed with a lip that sits snugly inside the frames c channel rail on one side and requires only 2 screws from underneath to secure it:






Use the original tranny mounting screws to secure the t-case bracket in these two locations underneath:


When the bracket is installed, it will look like this:


16. Next it's time to install or make the t-case to tranny shaft. GCM can provide these for you, or you can make one out of a couple of 5mm to 4mm universal joints as I did (readily available at many LHSs, or on Amazon or eBay) and 4mm music wire. The total length of the shaft will come in at approx. 45mm. I cut the music wire to 23mm and flattened the ends:


After attaching the u-joints to either end of the music wire and installing (thread lock, thread lock, thread lock), it looks like this:


Once the t-case to transmission shaft has been installed, you can install the t-case into the bracket using the 4 included screws. When it's all done, it will look like this:








Editor's note: Oops...after going through this, I realized that I didn't include the driveshaft removal and re-installation in the step-by-step. It's easy enough to figure out, and I"ll update later on.

[CODYBOY]

Nice write up, great job Roo!!

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by CODYBOY

Nice write up, great job Roo!!

Roo says thanks.

[northernerbill]

Looks like a great weekend, and makes me wish that sometimes I lived that side of the pond.
You have to love the Ascender as the go anywhere rig, its visually unstoppable!!!

Great to see the young scalers ascending through the ranks too, I know I encourage my two sons as much as I can to get involved......nice one

[svt923]

Nice start sir. I'm am expecting the full slate of GCM parts on this one.

When you're done traveling the country as a big shot team driver, we need to hit the trails with our matching Broncos. Maybe my truck can become internet famous by being photographed next to yours.

[Bmxreeves]

Subb'ed


__________________________
1.9 Ibex tuber - The Merica ibex.

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by northernerbill

Looks like a great weekend, and makes me wish that sometimes I lived that side of the pond.

It was fun, but our current election cycle sometimes (often?) makes me wish I were on your side of the pond. smh

Originally Posted by northernerbill

You have to love the Ascender as the go anywhere rig, its visually unstoppable!!!



Great to see the young scalers ascending through the ranks too, I know I encourage my two sons as much as I can to get involved......nice one

Agree 1000% on both fronts.

Originally Posted by svt923

Nice start sir. I'm am expecting the full slate of GCM parts on this one.

Hmm...now there's an idea...

Originally Posted by svt923

When you're done traveling the country as a big shot team driver, we need to hit the trails with our matching Broncos. Maybe my truck can become internet famous by being photographed next to yours.

More like when the boss lets me get out, lol...but yes, once this is running again, let's definitely get them out for a run and some pix.

Here's a quick tease of some of what's to come:

[Natedog]

Awesome Bronco celebration build, keep it coming!

[tgh117]

great write up on the trans install. GCM can just take your photos and post it to there website now.

Keep up the good work. Thanks for the slider length also, those could be in my future for rocker protection purposes.

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by tgh117

great write up on the trans install. GCM can just take your photos and post it to there website now.

Keep up the good work. Thanks for the slider length also, those could be in my future for rocker protection purposes.

Thanks and you're welcome. Keep up the good work on your build!

[new2rocks]

With the motor and tranny now up front where they belong, it was time to get to work on the rear suspension. I'll take you through the conversion step by step starting with a stage 1 setup, which keeps the existing shock towers, and then convert it to a variation on the stage 2 setup which ditches the shock towers. Let's get started...

1. Start by removing the wheels and lockouts so that you can slide the axles out of the housing:










2. Remove the screws securing the lower link and lower shock ball end to the axle housings on both sides:




3. Remove the spring retainer cup, springs and spring collar from the shock to leave damper only:








4. Remove the grub screw securing the shaft that holds the lower links at the skid, remove the shaft and lower links:








5. Removing the upper links is optional (you can leave them in to prevent axle wrap). If you choose to remove them, start by detaching the upper links from the axle truss and then remove the axle truss:






6. With the axle housing now detached, insert the axle leaf mounts onto the end of either axle. The axle mounts will be a tight fit at the end of the axle tubes and will be looser when pushed in. If you have trouble getting the mounts onto the axle by hand, you can place the mounts on a flat surface and tap the axle housings until the mounts slide onto the tubes.






7. Now it's time to assemble the sub frame extensions that will attach to the chassis and be used to hang the leafs. In this case, a few pictures will be worth a thousand words:




Top tip: slide the brass bushing onto the screw that will secure the swing hanger (shackle), then slide the screw and bushing into the sub frame extension to secure the swing hanger.







8. Attach the leafs to the sub frame extensions and then attach the sub frame extensions to the chassis. For stage 1 installations, allow shock to sit in cutout in sub frame extensions:




9. Attach axle to leafs


10. Attach lower shock ball ends to axles using screws and spacers include in the GCM kit:




If you were planning on a stage 1 conversion, you're now done!

But Roo and I don't take the easy road, so it's onto stage 2...

[new2rocks]

Since we're planning on a full interior using the new GCM Bronco interior kit, we needed to make more room. It was time for stage 2...

1. Start by removing the rear shock towers. if you've already mounted the sub frame extensions, you'll need to take these off first to get to the shock towers.


2. Attach the sub frame extensions to the chassis. If you purchased the stage 2 kit, use the included spacers between the sub frame extensions and chassis where the shock tower used to go. If you didn't purchase the stage 2 kit, add a couple of 3mm spacers:


3. Here's where I added my own twist. Instead of using the shock bridge included with the original stage 2 kit or the touring car shocks included with the newer versions of the stage 2 kit, I decided to go for a more scale looking shock. 60mm Ultimate Scalers (internal springs removed, of course) filled with 5k diff oil, an M3x35mm screw with 6mm of spacers for each upper mount, and an M3x25mm screw with 3mm of spacers for each lower mount (I used conical spacers for the lowers but regular ones are fine):


4. Attach shocks at the sub frame extension mounting screw immediately aft of the GCM logo on the chassis side and outboard of the axle leaf mount on the axle side:










Leaving us with this:






Don't let the short shocks with limited travel fool you. There should be plenty of usable suspension travel with this setup:






You'll also notice along the way that I removed the receiver box and stock ESC (which will be getting replaced anyway). With all of that done, we now have plenty of room for an interior. Stay tuned...

[CODYBOY]

Looking good Roo, thanks for the great update!