Wanting to say hello.

[Brahmus]

Well i guess I could have put this in the general intro section, but since i'm here because of a B2, I figured why not. A little background so you experts can better understand what I'm capable of, heading towards, and am clueless about.

I have a 73 bronco i did a budget frame off on back in 00 while I was in college. She was my DD for a year, and play toy for a while then was parked in 05 and hasn't moved since. Ond day I'll go back and upgrade what I couldn't afford to back then. I also had a 93 Black Bronco. That project got about 1/4 of the way then a hurricane decided to finish it for me. I built in 04 an 01 4x4 supercrew, lifted, Lightning SC motor swap, all the bells and whistles, way to much money, showed it, rode it, never wheeled it.. haha now it's up for sale.

So enough about the past. Over the last few years I've gotten rid of all my ATV's, both utility and race. I have been saying for some time I needed something to get around the house, farm and camp but wanted something more versitle than an ATV for hauling tools and people. I liked the side by sides that have come out but wow $$$. So I decided to pick up a B2. It's originally from Oregon, so now I understand what you northerners mean by salt and rust... She's an 85 Eddie Bauer auto A4LD with some severe body rust but the undercarriage was surprisingly clean. She runs well though there is a little smoke on startup, rusted out exhaust and oil leaks.

My goal is to build a yard, camp, farm buggy. There are NO ROCKS in southern Louisiana!!! I don't forsee mud boggin her, but it rains alot down here and most of the mud is slop so I'd like 4 wheels to pull when I need them too. And most importantly, Cheap is the key word.. haha I should throw out that i'm in the middle of 5 different projects and don't entend to do much that's time consuming to it. At least not for a while, until some of the other projects are completed.

So for starters I chopped her up, fairly well I might add. I know this might upset some of you, but know that the body was unsalvagable, though the previous owner was driving it on the street, I won't be, ever. If I have to bring it somewhere it'll go on the trailer and I'll tow it.

The tires were free, though older and a bit dry rotten, they were never ran and hold air. 33 x12.50r15 Goodyear wrangler MTs.

I've removed most of the cab wiring, bumpers (I'll build my own), sway bars, a/c components and other small nonessentials. I've changed the motor oil, filter, fuel filter flushed the coolant, and changed out the outer tire rods.

Still to come, tranny filter and fluid, trans fluid, diff fluids.

I have plans to recover the seats with something waterproof and cheap (suggestions?) Build a roll cage, though not as extensive as most would want to see, remember, no climbing, no rocks. But I do notice that sometimes things happen. Plans to build stout bumpers as I'm sure at some point or another I'll need to be yanked out of a sticky situation or be the one yanking. I will probably dove tail the front and put the fenders back on. (just because, no real reason to do it) Before that though I need to clean up under the engine bay more and replace the valve seals. I'll probably do the duraspark eventually too, but that's not a priority. But can I remove the smog pump, egr etc before I do the duraspark? I notice and oil leak from somewhere but with all the crap still in there it's hard to tell, is there a common leak zone to watch for?

I'll now open it for disscusion, comments, concerns etc.

 

[59bisquik]

Welcome to the board! I dont have much advice for ya since I spend most of my time in the rocks and avoid that brown wet stuff as much as possible. But welcome aboard and hopefully the guys will chime in and help you out with your questions!

 

[koda6966]

Roll cage. =]

 

[kimcrwbr1]

If the engine is running good now with the computer dont mess with anything until you have the parts for the duraspark swap. They normally leak out the base of the intake manifold where the heads meet the block when you do the valve seals pull the manifold and reseal it. I put a bead of permatex #2 in the valleys when installing the manifold you dont need to pull the heads to change the valve seals just use air in the cylinders to hold the valves up just put the piston at TDC on the valves you working on so one dont fall in. I bought a palm spring compressor for $15 on ebay that worked just fine. If you already have sensors unplugged then yea you cancap off the EGR but I still am using the air pump basically to plug up the holes.

 

[adsm08]

I think you are missing some stuff.


Like most of the body.


And seats. I don't really know much about cars, but people keep telling me that seats are important.

 

[Brahmus]

Thanks for the info. Ordered the valve seals and valve cover gaskets this morning. Will try to tackle that and resealing the intake manifold later in the week. Still need to pick up some DOM and order material to recover the seats, since it seems they are important.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

I had my bench seat burn up in front of the tavern once. After the fire department ripped it out down to the springs I washed the windows for about three hrs and piled about 5 inches of cardboard on the springs to drive home with. I loved that scout 1973 his name was fred the thunder pig. AMC 258 it kept melting the exhaust manifold.