My 1978 Bronco XLT

And so it began

my78bronco — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:02:08 +0000

Several weeks ago my dad and I started putting the motor back together. well the first day was a pain, getting everything ready and all the prep. plus, piston rings are sucky to get right. anyway, our FIRST day of the rebuild we accomplished putting in the cam, the crank, AND all 8 of the pistons. In my opinion we made good progress. The pistons took the longest because of the rings. We had to get the rings in a certain position before we put the pistons in. and while beating the pistons in with a hammer, i was almost sure i broke a ring several times but i didnt. Well after that it was off to work for a week, and then began the second day of the motor build. We had some pretty limited time that day so all we accomplished was putting the timing chain and timing chain cover on, the oil pickup tube, and some special bracket. well after that began another week of work. Well today is my day off and also the 3rd day of our motor rebuild. Right now im waiting for dad to get home so we can head over to the machine shop. Whats in store for the 3rd motor rebuild day you ask?? Well we get to put the oil pan on. We also get to put the rods in and the heads on. then im going to paint the motor a dark green color with special paint. the paint is “dupli-color engine enamel” and in fancy letters it says “DYNO HEAT TESTED” and under that it says 500 degrees. so im guessing this paint will withstand up to 500 degrees farenheight. thats probably spelled wrong. pics soon??? hopefully.

Nothing special here

my78bronco — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:54:36 +0000

Ok so not much has went on with the truck lately. I have to call the machine shop today to see if they have finished the motor yet and thats about it. But yesterday I went birthday gift, shorts, and swimming trunks hunting. I found this really cool thing that Samantha wanted and bought her it. I also found a really cool pair of Ocean Pacific swimming trunks and NBA shorts. Hopefully sunday when i go to the party I will be able to wear those swimming trunks. we arent sure though because we might not even go swimming after all. We will see… hopefully I can take some pictures and post a link sometime about how things are going, or even just some cool or funny pics.

The ancient bathing suit.

my78bronco — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:39:42 +0000

Ok so yesterday i find out Sammy cant go shopping today with me. So I go looking for my “Old” bathing suit. It didnt cross my mind that I have not worn this darn thing in like 3 or 4 years. But soon enough I find it deep within my Dresser. I pull the bright orange hawaiian style shorts out of my dresser, with the help of a winch on a buddys fourwheeler (not really but it sounds cool) and tried them on. Well they seem a little small. No worries, ill just go shopping alone today to get them. well yesterday i find out at work that today i have the late shift and cant go get some swimming trunks. but my next day off is wednesday. and i have morning shift tuesday thursday and friday. So either tuesday afternoon or wednesday dad is going to take me shopping. Im gonna cash my check today and save about 50 for some shorts and a pair of swimming trunks. Hopefully the party on sunday will be fun. Now it just needs to hurry up and come. oh yeah and no rain please….

Working Hard…

my78bronco — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:48:14 +0000

Well I have been working the night shift (12:30-8:30) alot lately so i dont have much time to do many blogs. but next week I SHOULD have morning shift again with more time to work on my truck and my blogs. the motor should be put together here in about a week. once that happens i might post some pictures.

It All Started with a beat up Chevy II (part 2)

my78bronco — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:04:47 +0000

Ok so the Bronco is getting ready to be pushed off the trailer, and guess who gets the job of sitting inside and pressing the emergency brake and steering it! Wow that was a blast. Anyway, the truck cleaned up nicely!! And aside from the itty bitty tires it sits pretty nice. Well It turns out that when we baught the truck the guy gave us a motor, transmission, & transfercase! He also is going to help us with all the machine work for the motor, so we stopped by the bank after about a week and got a couple hundred out. We gave him the money to buy the rebuild kit for the 1983 5.0 liter mustang 302 engine!! Its taken a while but he is just about done with all the work on the block. and im headed over there today to work on smoothing out the heads. But in order to acquire the transmission and transfer case, i needed to take the old transfer case out. which was a pain in the left nut (not literally because thats a hernia right??). Well at this very second im waiting for a call from a guy who knows a guy who owns a transmission shop. and maybe i can get a deal for under 500 on that Bullet-Proof Beauty of an ALUMINUM C6!! Another cool thing is hopefully I will be getting a FRESHLY rebuilt Edelbrock 600 4bbl Carb today for only $50 from a guy my mom works with!! the truck is coming along really nicely, a few weeks ago i got the 31” tires on the truck, with plenty of room to spare (might go with 33”s)… I decided to take a wire brush thing hooked up to a drill and grind off a bunch of surface rust in the engine compartment. its going to be black, along with the frame!! and there it sits for now! about 4-5 inches higher, cleaner, and almost meaner!!

the 3 angles

my78bronco — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:34:31 +0000

I went to the shop today to check out the motor so far. its been balanced and soon to be honed!! almost finished with the fancy shmancy “3 angle” valve job! he said hopefully in the next week or so we will start putting it together. and then comes the pictures…

It all started with a beat up Chevy II

my78bronco — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:46:41 +0000

So while driving through some hick town with my dad one day, we stop at this yard sale. well i see some completely beat up car in some tall grass. but hey it looks kinda cool. so dad gets in the truck and I ask him about it. Turns out it was his first car!! Well i think its cool. So i get this idea and talk to dad about rebuilding a MUSCLE CAR. one problem. i pretty much only liked 60′s-mid 70′s muscle cars. and each one i found was just another letdown. Dad tried talking me into buying this truck he found, but i wanted nothing to do with it. i was set on a muscle car. untill one day i called up a guy with a Chevy Orange 1969 Nova SS… came with a motor, transmission and transfercase. But wait… he only wants 1500 for it. new wheels and tires, new shiny paint, good trim, no dents, nice chrome, motor block, transmission, and transfercase…. whats the catch? I call the guy up, everything seems perfect and I felt like I was on the path to buying my first car. It came down to my last question, How much bondo is on the car. and the phone went silent. The guy told me pretty much all of both quarter pannels is bondo. and thats when i got pissed at muscle cars and decided to look at this god forsaken truck dad wont shut up about. To my surprise this truck was much cooler than i had expected it to be. Aside from the itty bitty tires and moldy paint and akward stance, this truck was pretty sweet. We winched it out of the mud and weeds and took it to the car wash. all the mold just came right off, and the top looks much better now! the truck also sits straight. it was just in the mud! I am extremely happy as we tow it home, to its new destination, aka… the yard! one day, this trucks amazingness will be restored.

New Tires!

my78bronco — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:14:19 +0000

YAY!! This week I got the 31” tires that were sitting behind my truck on. And in the process repaired the 4wheeler tire aswell. A few of the lugs gave me trouble. but i baught some new ones and put grease on them and they went right in nice and easy. it sits a good 3 or 4 inches higher and i need to jump to get in!!

Stuff ive learned

my78bronco — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:47:19 +0000

Ok so I get certain “assignments” and in each of these “assignments” I learn something new, or build on what i know. Now This weeks “assignment” was to write down all of my “assignments” and also what I have learned from them. WELLLLLLL, I dont remember the assignments, but ill make a list of a few of the things ive learned!!

SOME basic HTML, Embedding, How to research, Frontpage, WYSIWYG, Some flash things, hexidecimal stuff, Audio for pages, Links to certain things, how to blog (still working on that one), how to make something that someone might not like seem slightly appealing through an awesome one of a kind website!!

78 Bronco

my78bronco — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:50:10 +0000

I am waiting right now for the moter to get Honed and Hot tanked so we can spray it dark green with the special “heat resistant up to 500′ “!!