1984 Bronco II XLS side project

[dvdswan]

Found these, might help. Seems the shifters were replaced for spinning.

Loose shift lever (TK 5 speed) | The Ranger Station

Shifter problem | The Ranger Station

 

[Jim Oaks]

I found a company here in Texas selling TK5 shifters for $129.00.

Ordered one. We'll see how it works out.

Ford TK5 Shifter Repair Parts Online

Shop For Ford Ranger TK5 Shifter Parts. - Allstate Gear Stocks a Full line of Manual Transmission Rebuild Kits and Transfer Case Parts At Wholesale Pricing. Call Us Today!

www.allstategear.com

 

[fastpakr]

It would be interesting to know what actually broke in the shifter.

 

[scotts90ranger]

To me it looks like the shifter ball (white plastic) split and is no longer a press fit on the knurled part of the shifter... I vaguely remember talk from WAY back in the day that the ball from a Craftsman screwdriver fit the shifter decent on one of the transmissions...

 

[Jim Oaks]

I just realized that I never finished documenting this build. I hate when people do that. LOL.

I cut a hole in the hood for the hood scoop but cut around the supporting structure under the hood. It's a 2.8L V6 with an open element filter, not a V8. It's not a horsepower build, but I couldn't see adding the scoop and not making it work.

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The roof of this thing had quite a bit of surface rust and this round area that has a cracked.

When I sanded down that area where all of the cracks were, there were actually lines left in the metal where the cracks were. I've seen paint crack from having too much filler under it, but I've never seen anything crack like this.

I actually painted this with Rust-Oleum Satin Black oil-based paint. I thinned it with mineral spirits, so it's (4) parts paint and (3) parts mineral spirits, and then sprayed it with a Husky gravity feed paint gun from Home Depot using my Husky air compressor.

I'm actually surprised at how well it turned out. I've always painted vehicles with automotive paint. I've never painted a vehicle with Rust-Oleum before, but I know that people have, and I was doing a low-buck paint job, so I figured I'd give it a try.

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If you look closely, you can see that I created new XLS decals and stripes out of gloss black vinyl and put down the sides, there's also (2) gloss black vinyl racing stripes that run up to the hood scoop.

I converted this to round headlights using a 7-inch mounting ring that I got from Amazon and a pair of Xprite LED round headlights.

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The interior got a Rust-Oleum makeover as well. Funny because I wasn't purposely looking to do an all Rust-Oleum build, but when I was sampling paints that I could use on plastics, I liked the Rust-Oleum 'Nutmeg' the most and it's really close to the same color of the interior.

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The dash was in bad shape. I added a Coverlay dash cover and then repainted everything. It also got a new Pioneer stereo, dash speakers, and I replaced the cigarette jack with a dual 3.0 USB Charging Port. The monitor is for a backup camera.

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The center console was repainted, and I added switches for the driving lights and off-road lights along with a dual USB charging point that displays the vehicles voltage. The back of the console received a USB charging port for the backseat passengers. I painted this part of the console black so it would all blend together and look intentional.

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[Jim Oaks]

The needles on the gauges were all sun bleached, so I painted those as well. In case you didn't know it, the dash gauges are supposed to light up blue. There's a blue filter over the bulb. The problem is that the old incandescent light bulbs gave off a yellow hue which made the light look green. I replaced the dash bulbs with clear (white) LED bulbs, so now the gauge lights up blue the way it was intended.

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The leather power bucket seats came from a Ford Fusion, and I actually found these on Facebook Marketplace for $60!! No, they're not a bolt in swap. The rear of the seat bracket bolts into new holes in the floor, but the floor drops mown in the front, so I used 1.5" square tubing under the front mounting holes and then bolted them through new holes with a large washer on the bottom (under the Bronco II) to spread the force through the floor. I added a small fuse block to the vehicle to power the additional lights I added and for these seats.

I added a black carpet kit which I think helps make the bucket seats blend in and then used black fabric paint on the back of the rear seats to match. There's also a fire extinguisher in the back, a tow strap and shackle in the storage compartment, and I added a 12V & USB charging station.

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I did replace the shifter with the one I linked to earlier.

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This thing also got a pair of Rough Country 1.5" lift coils, rear add-a-leafs, new shocks, Mile Marker manual locking hubs, Crager Nomad II chrome wheels, and 235/75/15 (28.9″ x 9.3″ x 15″) Americus Rugged M/T tires. I didn't want to lift it since it wasn't mine, and I didn't want to remove or damage the XLS trim around the fenders, so I added the 1.5" lift to give it a little better stance and stuck to the 235's.

I have this as a feature vehicle over at the Bronco II Corral:

1984 Ford Bronco II XLS B2 Marauder - Bronco II Corral

This 1984 Ford Bronco II XLS 4x4 is a rare vehicle and features a 1.5-inch lift kit and a round LED headlight conversion.

www.broncoiicorral.com

 

[Jim Oaks]

I found some video that I recorded while I was building this thing to show its new owner. I decided to put it together and post it on YouTube. Here it is if you're interested:

 

[RobbieD]

That turned out really nice.

How did you do the headliner?

I like how you did the 2-tone interior effect.

 

[Jim Oaks]

That turned out really nice.

How did you do the headliner?

I like how you did the 2-tone interior effect.

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some black headliner material and some headliner spray adhesive. Recovering it's easy;

Remove the old headliner
Brush off any old foam residue from the old headliner
Lay the headliner out so it's overlapping 2-3 inches on all sides
Pull it back 1/2 way so it's folded in the middle (front - rear)
Spray the adhesive on the headliner backing panel and the back of the headliner (not so much that it soaks through)
spread the headliner out to get out and wrinkles and make sure you have good contact
And then do the other half.
Slot openings in the material for your openings (lights / visors)
Push the fabric through and use the spray adhesive to attach it to the backside
Then once it's all spread out smooth and looks good, fold the edges over and glue them to the backside of the headliner.

 

[Jim Oaks]

When I bought this, someone had already converted it to a Duraspark.

The carb was leaking from the accelerator pump, so I bought a rebuild kit, rebuilt the carb. and reinstalled it.

This is what I found inside...

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I like the Ford 2.8L V6. It only makes 115 horsepower, but it's a really reliable engine when you replace the TFI ignition with a Duraspark. There aren't any sensors to fail. No computer. They're easy to work on. The 2.8L won't get you there fast, but it will definitely get you there. I would only own one with a manual though. The manual has a better 1st gear to get you going, and the A4LD automatic is crap. This engine was intended more for the Mustang II which was about 600 pounds lighter.

 

[rumblecloud]

Geez...can I be your friend so you can rebuild my Ranger?

 

[ryan]

Paint turned out awesome