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koda6966
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2007
- Messages
- 7,898
- Vehicle Year
- 1988
- Transmission
- Automatic
I hope you like to read.. it's story and dream time.
Every time I climb into my Ranger, I pop it into drive and ease it through the muddy ruts of the old turn around going to the second driveway, its easier to get out that way. Only problem is I keep worrying that I'll get my little 2wd stuck in the mud. Then I'll get driving down the road, and I'll pass a house with a old rusty SUV sitting in the driveway. There's no wheels or even a frame, it's just the body. You can see that they're keeping it for storage. Pretty neat idea, I have an Escort Wagon in my yard for the same purpose. But that little rusty body is the body of a Bronco II and every time I pass it, I see one in my mind. I almost go off the road day dreaming about it. I should really talk to those people about hiding it, it's slowly killing a teenage RBV enthusiast.
Enough of the story time. Lets get talking about the truck.
I see it just a regular little BII at first, I can find them cheap around here when they're around. Usually they're odd colors, like white with red pinstripes or blue and white two tone. You can never find black. So I would get to work with my masking tape and rattle cans. I can get the good paint job when I can afford it. After I let the paint dry, I would pop off the rear door and toss the back windows, hack into it with the angle grinder since its the best metal cutter I can get my hands on. To keep my lines strait I would take the chalkline out of the work truck and lay a good line across the roof. I trust chalkline with my life, since it's needed in the most important part of our business. After hacking the poor BII down a bit I would get to work stripping the interior of everything I can. The panels I would paint black, with red accents. Carpet and headliner would also be made black. I would patch the floor rust that I would most likely see with some bits off the roof. Guess it would come in handy after all. Before I get to putting all the stuff back in, I would have to fix something. I have no wheres to store it when it rains or in winter, so having an open cab isn't really a good thing. Some good old metal would come in handy at this point. I would start welding it in a little behind the end of the roof, so its even with the bottom of the slope up to the roof. Next comes the more complex fabrication. I would weld up a spot that I could just fit either the rear hatches window, or the window out of a small truck in. This way, the cab is completely closed off to the elements. I would also decide to include a few grommets for my lights. Now that that's settled, I would look into fabbing myself a nice little roll bar, since I took a lot of strength from the cab. It would just be something simple, with a double bar on the front and two single bars going out to the back of the truck. I would spray the rear down with bedliner to prevent some rust, and get to work making a tailgate. Some thin tube in a rectangle shape with one or two cross bars should be sturdy enough, with either diamond plate or mesh to fill in the empty space. I would make it so that it swings out, since making it work like a regular tailgate would be a pain. After that, shes pretty much finished and drive able. Hell I could even make it my daily driver.
But you can't just stop once you get that far, a true project is never finished. Next I would begin work on the bumper. I don't like those square ones, and I never liked ones that stray too far from the body lines. I would have to fab one up close to the origional equipment, but with enough of a lip edge to include a good brush guard. My welding skills are limited, so I may have to pay to have this one built. But then again, I just remembered that my dad worked for a few years as a welder. I would include some nice lights on it, but once you get thinking about it what would I need them for? My headlights have worked perfect for most trails I've been on or seen. I would only be including them for looks. And that's not what my truck is about. Ever see those big lifted fullsize trucks with the brush guard and about 10 Hella lights spread out on the bumper, and on a roll bar in the back? I hate those. You know they've never been out wheeling. You can tell from the shiny new paint job and the too-clean tires. Once I got done with the front bumper, the rear would be simple. Stock is good enough for me. Now my truck has functionality for looking nice and a good strong bumper that could someday support a winch, but what about tires and lift? I have to say, a lot of BroncoII's leave something to be desired in that category. Someday I'll be able to afford a good set of fender flares so I can hack away at the fenders and not worry, but since I don't expect to have money to throw around for the next five years or so, I'll just fill in the empty space. For the lift I wouldn't go too high, since adding more height to something that already has a high center of gravity never made sense to me. Maybe two or three inches of a body lift. All I'm after is clearance for the tires. Which of course would be 31's, not sure if I would need to regear to keep my MPG. But oh well, I'll deal with that down the road. Now she has a lift and tires, and is just about ready to go. Only one thing is missing.. a visor. Lund visors aren't hard to find and I always liked the look of them on first gen rangers and BII's. I'd purchase one of them and besides the truck and the tires, it would be one of the most expensive purchases so far.
Well, that's my plan for the future. I hope to someday get to accomplish it. Mostly, I posted this for feedback on the idea, and to maybe inspire some people in their own projects. As with all my projects and idea's, don't expect to see it happen too soon. I'm still in highschool, and I can barely afford to keep gas in my truck let alone build a project. But hey, you never know..
Every time I climb into my Ranger, I pop it into drive and ease it through the muddy ruts of the old turn around going to the second driveway, its easier to get out that way. Only problem is I keep worrying that I'll get my little 2wd stuck in the mud. Then I'll get driving down the road, and I'll pass a house with a old rusty SUV sitting in the driveway. There's no wheels or even a frame, it's just the body. You can see that they're keeping it for storage. Pretty neat idea, I have an Escort Wagon in my yard for the same purpose. But that little rusty body is the body of a Bronco II and every time I pass it, I see one in my mind. I almost go off the road day dreaming about it. I should really talk to those people about hiding it, it's slowly killing a teenage RBV enthusiast.
Enough of the story time. Lets get talking about the truck.
I see it just a regular little BII at first, I can find them cheap around here when they're around. Usually they're odd colors, like white with red pinstripes or blue and white two tone. You can never find black. So I would get to work with my masking tape and rattle cans. I can get the good paint job when I can afford it. After I let the paint dry, I would pop off the rear door and toss the back windows, hack into it with the angle grinder since its the best metal cutter I can get my hands on. To keep my lines strait I would take the chalkline out of the work truck and lay a good line across the roof. I trust chalkline with my life, since it's needed in the most important part of our business. After hacking the poor BII down a bit I would get to work stripping the interior of everything I can. The panels I would paint black, with red accents. Carpet and headliner would also be made black. I would patch the floor rust that I would most likely see with some bits off the roof. Guess it would come in handy after all. Before I get to putting all the stuff back in, I would have to fix something. I have no wheres to store it when it rains or in winter, so having an open cab isn't really a good thing. Some good old metal would come in handy at this point. I would start welding it in a little behind the end of the roof, so its even with the bottom of the slope up to the roof. Next comes the more complex fabrication. I would weld up a spot that I could just fit either the rear hatches window, or the window out of a small truck in. This way, the cab is completely closed off to the elements. I would also decide to include a few grommets for my lights. Now that that's settled, I would look into fabbing myself a nice little roll bar, since I took a lot of strength from the cab. It would just be something simple, with a double bar on the front and two single bars going out to the back of the truck. I would spray the rear down with bedliner to prevent some rust, and get to work making a tailgate. Some thin tube in a rectangle shape with one or two cross bars should be sturdy enough, with either diamond plate or mesh to fill in the empty space. I would make it so that it swings out, since making it work like a regular tailgate would be a pain. After that, shes pretty much finished and drive able. Hell I could even make it my daily driver.
But you can't just stop once you get that far, a true project is never finished. Next I would begin work on the bumper. I don't like those square ones, and I never liked ones that stray too far from the body lines. I would have to fab one up close to the origional equipment, but with enough of a lip edge to include a good brush guard. My welding skills are limited, so I may have to pay to have this one built. But then again, I just remembered that my dad worked for a few years as a welder. I would include some nice lights on it, but once you get thinking about it what would I need them for? My headlights have worked perfect for most trails I've been on or seen. I would only be including them for looks. And that's not what my truck is about. Ever see those big lifted fullsize trucks with the brush guard and about 10 Hella lights spread out on the bumper, and on a roll bar in the back? I hate those. You know they've never been out wheeling. You can tell from the shiny new paint job and the too-clean tires. Once I got done with the front bumper, the rear would be simple. Stock is good enough for me. Now my truck has functionality for looking nice and a good strong bumper that could someday support a winch, but what about tires and lift? I have to say, a lot of BroncoII's leave something to be desired in that category. Someday I'll be able to afford a good set of fender flares so I can hack away at the fenders and not worry, but since I don't expect to have money to throw around for the next five years or so, I'll just fill in the empty space. For the lift I wouldn't go too high, since adding more height to something that already has a high center of gravity never made sense to me. Maybe two or three inches of a body lift. All I'm after is clearance for the tires. Which of course would be 31's, not sure if I would need to regear to keep my MPG. But oh well, I'll deal with that down the road. Now she has a lift and tires, and is just about ready to go. Only one thing is missing.. a visor. Lund visors aren't hard to find and I always liked the look of them on first gen rangers and BII's. I'd purchase one of them and besides the truck and the tires, it would be one of the most expensive purchases so far.
Well, that's my plan for the future. I hope to someday get to accomplish it. Mostly, I posted this for feedback on the idea, and to maybe inspire some people in their own projects. As with all my projects and idea's, don't expect to see it happen too soon. I'm still in highschool, and I can barely afford to keep gas in my truck let alone build a project. But hey, you never know..
