FULL BUILD: 1966 Ford Bronco Crazy Horse

[Music] today on trucks it may not look like much now but this old Bronco is the start of project Crazy Horse and Stacy's got a mess on his hands as he begins growing out the bass and bolting on the good that's all today on trucks [Music] welcome to trucks I hope you're ready for this week's show because today I'm gonna start a new build up on this really sorry 66 Ford Bronco now the direction behind this build up is number one to pay tribute to the legendary big Olie Bronco that absolutely dominated Baja racing in the 70s with none other than Parnelli Jones behind the wheel and Bill strop sitting beside him trying to hold everything together number two it needs to be a state of the art trail rig something that you can crawl rocks and go through mud with the best of them also needs to be street-legal now I know you're probably thinking wait a minute you're gonna do all that with this piece of junk you're crazy can't be done you've gone too far well I figured you'd probably say that so that's why I'm calling this project Crazy Horse that and it's gonna be really crazy when I get done with it today's project deals with one of the most difficult messy pain-in-the-butt projects you can possibly do and that is replacing rusty floor pans now it doesn't matter if you're into cars trucks whatever if you're a how-to guy you are eventually gonna buy a project that's got some rust in the floors so you either need to know how to do this yourself or take it to somebody to do it for you either way you really need to know what types of tools and techniques are involved and that is what I'm going to show you the first thing you need to do is make sure you've got a tetanus shot then you need to come in look the vehicle over and assess the damage so you know what kind of replacement paddling's you're gonna have to have now to do that you need to completely gut the interior get rid of anything they might be bolted to the floor like the seats top roll bar things like that here we go Barry watch those edges all right now here's something you're not gonna see on truck gear the legendary PVC roll bar I think this company went out of business here it comes Barry look out okay with everything apart you can kind of see what we're gonna have to replace now obviously these floor pans are shot and also notice that the cancer goes all the way up here into this toe board we're gonna have to replace all that now the crossmembers those are pretty solid this one back here looks good but here in the very back that one shot so I'm gonna go ahead and get all of them just to be safe now here's a surprise notice our striker panel it's completely rusted through so we're gonna have to replace that whole piece and the rocker may seem nice here but it's shot so we'll need to replace that too as you can see we need a lot of stuff so for floor pans we went to a place called wild horses and got their complete five piece floor pan kit and these are stamped and formed just like the original pieces down to the beads and the floor the hunt for the transmission everything when you put these in it'll look just like that Bronco came from the factory and that is one of the good things about a Bronco you can buy these preformed panels so you don't have to make them yourself now if you don't need all five pieces you can buy each piece separately for crossmembers rocker panels and door striker panels we went to a place called Jeff's Bronco graveyard got these heavy-gauge direct replacements that pop right in place of the original pieces once we get them out now you can see they're stamped and formed just like the original parts now Jeff's Bronco graveyard is a unique place they not only have top-quality new stuff but they also deal in hard-to-find use stuff like all metal hoods with no rest and door assemblies both of which we got just in case we need them okay it's finally time to start cutting right no there's still some prep work that you have to do in here now since I'm gonna be cutting out so much of this floor you need to stress up the body to keep it from flexing and bending and getting out of alignment on you because if that happens it's almost impossible to get it all straight again so the first thing I'm going to do is weld in a support from fender to fender to keep those from moving when I cut out those Stryker panels then we'll run a support down across the door openings and this will support the door keep it from flexing in on us when we take out the rockers okay it's finally time to start cutting things out the question is where the heck do you start well you start at the lowest foundational support in other words the floor pan is supported by the crossmember and that's supported by the rocker panel and that's kind of the beginning of the chain so that is where we'll start to get that off take a drill bit or a spot weld cutter and drill out each one of these spot welds [Music] that takes care of the rocker pannel now this is a nice surprise our inner rocker it's really solid so we're not gonna have to replace that also to take out your striker panel do that the same way drill your spot welds and the new pieces just plop right in now I'm gonna take a break change my shirt and I told you this was a messy project we'll see in a few minutes welcome back to the shop I'm right in the middle of dealing with some really nasty rusty floor pans on project Crazy Horse now before the break took care of the rockers and the Stryker panels but before I put the new ones in I'm gonna deal with some problems that you might run into namely what do you do if you can't get the panels out now if you'll remember on the rockers we drilled the spot welds and they pretty much just fell right out now I'll tell you something right now well strikers are not gonna come out that easy so what do you do well you're gonna have to cut them out and as you can see they come out about an inch at a time screaming and kicking all the way now the tools that you're gonna need to do that is everything from a narrow nibbler to a sawzall to a cut-off tool hammer and chisel and even some snips all of which you need to have in your arsenal before you ever try this kind of project now we're ready to put the new panel in but before you do come in here with a grinder hit this edge hit all these edges where you're gonna be welding so we have some nice clean metal to weld to now also notice I've got some paint in here but it's not just any kind of paint it's called miracle paint from Bill Hirsch automotive you can literally paint this stuff right over rust and it'll seal it up and keep it from rusting I've used that stuff for years and it really works now also notice that we've got a rusty panel here we need to build a patch panel for it but we don't need to do that yet we'll do that at the end of the project all right slide the panel into place and position it now some clamps and a body hammer are perfect for getting it just right make sure you're checking it with your door so you know it fits that's right on [Music] when you have it perfect tack weld it in place double-check it with your door and then finish welding it in now we're ready for the rocker and it should pretty much just slide into place be prepared though to do a little bit of trimming with the snips to get it to fit just perfect now you're gonna want to spend some time here because this is what makes or breaks to look at this truck rocker needs to line up with the fender and it also needs to work with the door ride so spend some time here now once you have it right go ahead and clamp it in place and weld it okay now finally we are ready to tackle these old floor pans this is where you're gonna be really glad you got that tetanus shot now getting the old pans off at the crossmembers can be a little tough because all these spot-welds have got to come out just like with the rocker but an easy way to do it is to cut the floor into sections using the outside of the crossmembers as a guide then just come in here with a chisel get this old junk off the table now you can use a sawzall to do that or a cut-off tool I definitely prefer the sawzall because it's a lot quicker it doesn't make nearly as big a mess but before you do any cutting you need to come under here make sure you know what's underneath before you unleash that sawzall because it'll cut anything including your frame also make sure you don't cut away more than you know the new pans will cover you're gonna have to go in and patch that later on well that takes care of cutting out the old floors and lays to rest yet another shirt and that's two of your countin so we're gonna take a break but after that I'm gonna put some floor pans in this sucker stay with us welcome back now if you're just joining us you're way too clean because we're right in the middle of replacing some rusty floors in project Crazy Horse now we've already got the rockers and the striker panels in got the old metal cut out now it's time to check out the crossmembers because if those are bad they got to go now you can see we actually lucked out really well because these are in great shape except for a little bit of surface rust so we're going to take some clamps straighten up the ears so the new floors have a nice flat place to mount to then we'll hit them with some miracle paint this rear one will just replace that all right now take a grinder and smooth off these crossmember ears so you have really nice metal to weld to then set in your center pan now you should expect to do a little bit of tweaking and twisting on this to make sure it fits just right but it should pretty much lay right in there now once you're happy with the fit go ahead and punch some holes for your spot wells now it is very important these pans fit flush down on the crossmembers not only for strength but also nothing looks more amateurish than a big old gap between a floor pan and the crossmember remember if you take your time and do this right this will look just like a factory installed once your main pan is tacked into place go ahead and sliding in this rear floor section and check the fit keep in mind you may have to do a little bit of trimming to get it just right and once you're happy with it go ahead and tack it in place along with this rear floor section that is fitting a great the last thing we're going to deal with are the toe boards now these are cut just like the original pieces and that is really nice because notice you've got a seam running up the side along the top down this other side now all we have to do is cut down that line and this new piece will weld right in there now notice here we've got a problem got a rust hole in this transmission hump and we don't have a patch panel to fix that so I'm gonna have to custom-make that well now you can see what kind of job it is to replace floors and rockers I went through three shirts put another couple of holes in my pants ended up with some more cuts on my arms and it completely pegs out our difficulty meter now you might be wondering if it's that difficult why the heck what I want to do it it's a good question the reason is with all the parts that I put on this thing today from Jeff's Bronco graveyard and wild horses I got about seven hundred bucks in this thing now I still have some spot welding to do a little bit of fabrication but when I'm done I'm still gonna have seven hundred bucks in it now if you were to pay somebody to do this kind of job provided you could find somebody to do it right and you'd pay upwards of five grand now you just sit there and think about that for a minute we'll be back [Music] today on trucks we are turning up the heat on project crazy hordes as Stacy adds a new rear suspension wheels and tires and then he's pulling off the body and rolling out the chassis to get to work on replacing the front you better keep your rear end planted cuz truck is starting now [Music] welcome to trucks the show where we get down and dirty and show you how to do the stuff that nobody else dares to do case in point last week I dug into this old 66 Bronco and before I knew it I was buried up to my eyeballs and replacing rusty floors but now that we've showed you how to do that we're gonna move on to the next step of project Crazy Horse and that is axles and suspension now eventually we're gonna pull this body completely off the frame to do this project that's really the only way to do something like this right now you may be wondering well why didn't you take the body off first wouldn't it be a lot easier to pull the body off before you started everything well there's a couple reasons I didn't do that first of all the body was not strong enough to take off it would have rotted up like a ball of tinfoil that's why I had to do the floors and rockers first also I'm gonna need to do some modification inside this wheel well when I put the rear suspension on kind of hard to do that with a body off so we're gonna start with the rear suspension now let me show you the parts we're gonna use now for rear springs we got this set of massive rear leaf springs from James Duff enterprises and this has 10 leaves it's got a three and a half inch lift built right in and it's got the military-style double wrap up here for strength and safety now for rear shocks we got their stage two dual shock kit which has the brackets all the hardware and of course four shocks now James Duff had a pretty impressive career as a baja racer himself he ran right alongside Parnelli Jones rod Hall all those guys in the 70s he's also been supplying products for Broncos since about 67 that's a pretty impressive record all right first thing we need to do is get hump the wheels and tires and the old shocks now this old shock mount is gonna be a problem because you can see it's welded on and the new mounts gonna go just about where that's at so we're gonna cut that off with the plasma cutter now make your marks here in the front lower corner of this wheel well according to the instructions finally cut out the piece but make sure you don't cut too far and cut into the interior of the bed all right now we'll go ahead and set the bracket in place and notice we're gonna have to have a body lift to clear this bracket and we're gonna put that on but for now I'm just gonna go ahead and outline this bracket so once they get the body off I'll know where the bracket goes and then we'll just go ahead and drill the holes and mount it okay now we're gonna deal with these old Springs so we'll get this old rear end out of the way sometimes they go easy sometimes they go the hard way ours decided to go the hard way as you can see I had to cut off every single u-bolt because they were so rusty of course you don't want to reuse all u-bolts anyway another thing you don't want to reuse are these old brake hoses you just come in here and cut those dang things off now a prime example of why you don't reuse them notice how that thing is swollen completely shut there is no fluid that's gonna flow through that line after that unbolt the stock Springs then just slide in the new Duff Springs now some of you might be raising an eyebrow about putting this brand new hardware against that rusty frame well I'm just mocking it into place right now once I get the suspension all fit and right I'm gonna pull it all back apart sandblast and paint the frame okay you probably know that the Ford Bronco came with a very stout Ford nine-inch rear end unfortunately ours is completely shot now by the time I upgrade the brakes you can see somebody did some real creative brake line work here stick in a new differential with low gears and the Detroit Locker now I might as well go ahead and just get a whole new axle which is exactly what we did for that we went to Currie enterprises now check this out they specialize in the Ford nine-inch we are in and we're using their heavy-duty housing we had them stuff it with 456 gears and a Detroit Locker to get everything working together the axles are 35 spline axles now those if you break one of those you're doing something hateful the brakes are there explorer disc brake kit now this is a nice affordable disc brake kit that'll definitely get the job done now we also had them extend the housing one inch on either side that way you've got more room to mount those dual shocks now does that mean that this is just a worthless piece of junk no no the street rod guys love these because they're so narrow this will fit right under a 32 Ford so this goes to the swap meet to install at new courier n we'll just jack it up to the spring pad bolt it up for wheels those have to be just right and we're going with a classic rim that also just happens to bear the name of an off-road racing legend you notice a little theme going here the name is Mickey Thompson and these wheels are the challengers now these are not only a forged very strong polished aluminum wheel but they also have that classic style that Crazy Horse's just got to have now the size is 15 by 10 now as far as I'm concerned there is only one tire to use on a project like Crazy Horse the Parnelli Jones tire from dirt grip now this isn't just some weenie tire that's got per Nellie's name on it this is a state-of-the-art off-road tire you can see it's got a very aggressive tread for rocks and mud but it's also designed in such a way that it will be really nice on the highway now the size is 35 1250 and one of my favorite points is it not only has per Nellie's name in the sidewall and little PJ's up here on the top but the tread itself is actually big P's and J's and that was that cool or what now this takes care of the rear end after the break we're gonna tear into the front [Music] welcome back to trucks and project crazyhorse as you can see I've got a heck of a mess going here but that's okay because we're making some good progress I already have a new axle brakes and suspension in the rear now it's time to deal with that front suspension but before we do that I'm gonna pull that old body off the frame and so take a deep breath because here we go now believe it or not there is not a whole lot that holds a Bronco body to the frame you've got eight main mounting bolts and if you're lucky those will just come right out but don't be surprised if they're a little rusty like ours were but either way they have got to come out now you get to hunt down all the BS connections I call them that because these are the connections that most people forget to unhook when they pull a body off the frame and of course that results in a nasty surprise right in the middle of the lifting process and this will make you cuss so these are connections like a gas filler neck emergency brake cable speedometer cables transmission linkage steering linkage hoses wiring harness you can see there is a lot of them now the best way to do this is to start at one end and just unhook things as you work your way to the other end that way you won't forget anything all right come on down alright now that we have everything disconnected it is time to lift this body off now do not even attempt to do something like this on a convertible body style without stressing up the body through the doors to keep it from buckling on you even if you have new floors and rockers now obviously I'm using the lifts and that's the easiest way to do it but you can take a body off using floor jacks and jack stands I've done it it just takes a little longer now when you're lifting the body off it's very important that you watch these door sings if they're wide enough on you're getting narrower stop stop you're flexing the body you need to set it down and stress it up better now once you get the body up in the air I'm gonna go ahead and just roll the chassis out to where we work on it now as you probably guess that whole front suspension and that old stock axles gonna go and we need to put in something strong enough to handle the abuse but we're gonna put on this thing so if you'll follow me over to the table I'll show you what we're gonna use once again we went to James Duff enterprises for our front suspension now the kit we're using is a three and a half inch lift long travel kit now here's what it consists of we've got extended radius arms with a Bend denim four tire clearance all the bushings and brackets that it takes to mount these up we've got their shock hoops and we're going to mount dual shocks on each side new coil springs and of course all the hardware that's going to take them out this up which we're going to do but after the break welcome back to trucks all right a quick update for those of you that are getting here late we've already put a new Currie nine-inch rear end and James Neff suspension in the rear of project Crazy Horse then we lifted the body off and now I'm cutting this old front suspension out now since our new extended radius arms are gonna mount a good bit back from the originals this needs to be cut off so instead of trying to unbolt this old rusty arm shooting I just torched the whole thing also remember you're gonna have to cut off your original shock mounts to then we'll just slide that whole mess right out from under there oh there's very little of this we're gonna be able to reuse as a matter of fact most of it is just junk so a lot of this is going to the scrap heap okay to mount your new radius arm brackets measure back ten and a quarter inches from the stock bracket and then just drill your holes and bolt it on now since this is your main suspension mount I strongly suggest running a weld bead around this to for strength the new shock hoops are next and they just slide right onto the frame and bolt up here to the spring bucket now to mount them on you just drilled a hole and bolt them down but I strongly suggest running a weld around there because these parts are under a lot of stress just like the radius owners alright now we're ready to put these big old radius arms in place and notice they've got a big heim joint back here to allow them to move and flex not getting any kind of bind these are a heavy-duty notice they've got the bend for the big tires and they also have shock mounts already built in he sings all ready to go now I know you're wondering about the front axle man we got to have something cool to match that 9-inch forward in the rear so we went back to Currie enterprises and had them put together a heavy-duty dana 44 now it's got 456 gears just like the rear but it's got a true track limited-slip which is a great application for a front axle now from here on out it's all James Duff stuff we've got their knuckles we got their steering arms and the crowning jewel is this massive disc brake kit now that'll get everything stopped in a hurry now there's no doubt that this is an awesome axle when it's gonna be a mother in the front of that Bronco but we're at a time for this project for today so we're gonna have to continue it next week [Music] today on trucks project crazy horses kicking in the barn as Stacey's Bolton on a new front axle spring shocks wheels and tires and that old straight six it's headed straight to the glue factory there's only one place to learn how to build stuff like this [Music] welcome to trucks and our growing pile of junk now a few weeks ago we started to build up on an old beat-up dilapidated old Ford Bronco to see if we could resurrect it from an old rusty piece of junk and in the meantime show you some how-to that you can use on your project whether it's a Bronco or not so the first thing we did is put in new floor pans then last week raise the body up off the chassis and then put in a new rear suspension we got new Springs three and a half inch lifts a dual shock system and of course a new nine-inch Ford we're in then well then we ran out of time so this week we're gonna finish up the front suspension but not just that we're gonna take this old engine and [ __ ] out of here deal with some steering issues so strap on your tool belt because we are gonna finish laying out the chassis of project Crazy Horse all right the suspension front and rear is from James Duff enterprises like I said before we got a three and a half inch left on the rear we're gonna do the same thing on the front now you can see we've already got these new extended radius arms in we did that last week so now it's time to put in this new axle now just in case you've forgotten this is a Dana 44 from Currie enterprises 456 gears just like the rear the arms and the brakes are all from James Duff best part is this will slide right into place like a stock axle now we're using these new polyurethane bushings because that gives us the right caster and also it will last a lot longer and work a lot better than these stock rubber ones just make sure you use some grease on these or they're gonna squeak on you one of the few original pieces that we have to reuse or these old caps now these actually bolt to the front of the radius arm and they hold your axle in so if you'll hit them with the wire brush on a coat of paint check this out they will look like brand-new now I know you're gonna be tempted to reuse all this old mounting hardware now don't do it they actually hold your axle in it cost you about 10 bucks to replace some and that it's not where to get cheap now we're ready for the new coil spring now you're gonna love this notice there is a huge difference between this new spring in this old stalker now they were trying to do something with spacers but we'll go ahead and just roll that away to the trash heap now a couple of original pieces that you are gonna have to reuse is the lower spring cup and the lock so go ahead and set those in place then rotate the spring into the lock I can just seat the spring into the pocket up here on the top then it's held in place with this little clip man it's nice when they fit like this next we're gonna bolt on these dual shocks now they run all the way from the shock hoop down here to the radius arm now you have a couple choices here you can mount two shocks behind the spring like we've done so give you a little softer ride a little more axle flex or you can mount one shock behind the spring and one out here in front it'll give you a little firmer ride now if you do it that way I'm gonna need to take this tab that comes with the kit and weld it down here on the cap just make sure you take the cap off because you don't want to melt that urethane with the new shocks in place it is time for the drop bracket for the track bar now you have to use one of these if you're using a three and a half inch lift because that is what's going to Center that axle when you're all done now it just slides onto the stock bracket tap it into place then just bolted on now I strongly recommend that you run a weld around that just like you did the shock oops and give you some extra strength now we come to the last part of the original suspension that you're going to have to reuse and that is the track bar and we went ahead and cleaned it up painted it put in new urethane bushings and heck this thing is ready to go in now for those of you that don't know any time that you have a coilover suspension and a solid axle now you need some sort of track bar to keep that axle from moving side-to-side and what happens over time is that these bushings will wear out or the hole will get sloppy and that will allow the axle to move just a little bit that causes the vehicle to dart to one side or the other of course what do you do yeah you go to correct it now you're wandering all over the road so having new bushings in your track bar is very important okay we're gonna follow that up with the wheels and tires now you may remember from last week that we put Parnelli Jones and Mickey Thompson on the same team now we did that by using Mickey Thompson challenger wheels because they look so cool and they're very strong and we wrap those with the Parnelli Jones dirt grip tires and these have a very aggressive tread for mud and rocks and stuff like that they'll also do it well on the highway now why don't you step back and take a look and kind of digest and what we've done looks pretty good doesn't it all except for that old engine I'm gonna do something with that but after the break welcome back to trucks the last time I push this thing in well it was a major piece of junk now it's starting to really look like something alright now that we've got a new suspension underneath this chassis front rear we're gonna deal with an area that's almost always bad on a whole four-wheel drive and that's the steering now I'm not even gonna attempt to rebuild this whole steering box for a few reasons first it's a manual unit second of all this old stub shaft is completely stripped and it's got a hole drilled in it and check out that slop now I'm just gonna go ahead and unbolt it from the frame and retire that for good right now for our new steering system we went back to James Duff Enterprises got one of their new power steering boxes now this is a must you are running 35 inch or bigger tires now to go with that we also got their dropped pitman arm the drag link and of course the tie rod to hold everything together to install the new box all you do is set it into the stock location here and bolt it in I wish it was all that easy now a little tip here for you behind the box is real susceptible to rust on the frame so it's a good idea to take a little paint and paint it back there now obviously I'm not gonna do that because I'm gonna sandblast and paint this frame when we're all done now once you have your box in place go ahead and put on your pitman arm drag link and tie rod and you are done with the steering okay now that we've got the suspension taken care of it is time to say goodbye to this old six cylinder three-speed and transfer case combination now before you come in here and just start ripping things apart you need to take some time and remove the parts you might reuse and set them aside like this old clutch linkage then you can start tearing things apart once you got it all disconnected unbolt the engine and the transmission from the mounts and lift sucker out of there now anytime you start changing engines well that usually means that your motor mounts are gonna need to be changed and our old Bronco is no exception these mounts for the old six-cylinder are in completely the wrong place for the big old v8 we're gonna stick in here so they've got to come off out comes the plasma cutter we'll follow that up with a grinder to dress up this frame rail get it nice and smooth for our new mounts now it is very important that those new mounts fit nice and flush against that frame so do whatever grinding and trimming that you have to to get it right alright for our new motor mounts for our v8 we went to James Duff enterprises and got these motor mounts and they fit right here all you do is measure back 9 inches from the crossmember weld them in now these take away all of the guesswork all the measurements that go with converting to a v8 matter of fact when you get ready to put that new motor in boom it should fit like a glove now I know it's time to take a break but after the break I'm going to show you what else we're gonna do to this frame you're not gonna want to miss that man what a show so far now we've got new axles and suspension and project Crazy Horse big old tires we upgraded the steering then welded in motor mounts for a new small-block Ford v8 now you may be thinking well shoot it pretty much takes care of the chassis what else is there well there's a little bit to do to the frame and it's right up here in front now remember how these old frame rails were all buggered up somebody welded this junk on there so I went ahead and cut it off and ground it down to where they're like stock again now this is very important because the bumpers that I'm gonna use are gonna bolt right to the stock frame rail now I don't let the mention of bumpers that your eyes probably lit up and you're thinking bumpers what kind of bumpers you're gonna use lay on it right over here let's go check them out now there's a lot of different styles of bumper out there for the Bronco but one of the coolest are the pre runner styles like this from James Duff now the features of these is they have the tubular design so it's lighter weight but they're still very strong now this particular bumper for the front has mounting points for off-road lights and of course a winch you've gotta have a winch and the rear bumper already has a receiver hitch built right in okay to mount the bumper to the frame if you were just to bolt it on here well you would Bend this part of the frame because it's not boxed in here it's not that strong that is what these inserts are for they slide into the frame give you a fully boxed end that you just mount the bumper to that is very strong all right that takes care of the chassis the only thing we have left to do now that all the grinding and fitting and welding is done is take it all back apart sandblast the chassis and paint it but all the hard work is done now some of you might be thinking man that's that's a pretty happenin chassis but what about this old body at least from the firewall forward this thing is pretty rough Oh what are we gonna do well I made one call to Jeff's Bronco graveyard let me show you what I got now see how these panels are all rusty and beat up here well check this out brand-new replacement panels now you say you got some damage or some rust in the wheel wells look at this just like the factory how about the core support area that supports the front of the truck and the radiator you're gonna love this it doesn't get any better than that how about exterior pieces like the grille they're always beat-up well how about a new grille and all the trim pieces and the lights now you're probably thinking that I have a ton of body work to do to beat those old fenders back into shape and if I was going to reuse them that's exactly what I'd have to do heck for about a hundred and fifty bucks you can get brand new all steel fenders and check these out they are stamped just like the originals and they fit perfect that is one of the good things about a Bronco almost every piece that came on that truck originally well it's available at places like Jeff's Bronco graveyard that just goes to show you that old Broncos don't really die they just keep going and going and going but we can't do that we got to take a break [Music] today on trucks project Crazy Horse's back in the stable and ready for some horses of its own [Music] welcome to trucks we have got a kickin show for you today now the last couple weeks we've been working on project Copperhead which is a very cool very hot 67 Chevy Street truck well this week we're gonna turn our attention back to our old 66 Ford Bronco known as Crazy Horse we're gonna stick in an engine and drivetrain so this thing will kick some bootay out on the trail but before we do that let me bring you up to date on what I've done with this chassis so far if you've been following this project well you saw us install the James Duff suspension and the Currie axles and steering and the motor mounts etc etc then I took it all back apart had the frame sandblasted then I shot on a good thick coat of house of colors epoxy primer followed by house of colors passion pearl purple for color and a lot of coats of clear now some of you might be thinking well shoot aren't you just gonna scratch that paint up well yeah probably so I'll just fix it the point is whenever you take something down this far it really is worth your while to spend a little extra time and money putting on some good quality paint materials trust me you won't regret it later on now the engine we also showed you that a few weeks ago now it's a 302 stroked out to a 350 dyno'd at 390 horsepower by Keith Dourdan and automotive specialists now today's project is not just how to put an engine in it's the whole drivetrain that goes behind it and it needs to be strong and it is it's right over here let's go check it out since our Bronco originally had a standard shift well we wanted to keep it that way it's a lot more fun but we want more than three forward gears so we went to advance adapters got one of their in the 35 55 speed kits now this comes with a center force clutch and pressure plate you've got the all-important bellhousing adapter got a new crossmember all the hardware transmission mount and of course an Envy 35 55 speed now the reason this is such an excellent swap for the early Bronco is the length it's almost exactly what your stuff three-speed is the weight almost exactly what your stock three-speed is it will also handle around 450 foot-pounds of torque in a 5,000 pound rig so strength shouldn't be a problem the best part is you got five forward gears the first thing we're gonna do is mount that new crossmember into the frame and it bolts right to the stock holes so it's a good idea to take a tap and clean out the threads now here is something that you see a lot on an older vehicle notice that we've got a stud broken off in here so to get that out take a punch stick it right in the center of the stud this will put a dimple right in the center of the bolt now drill a pilot hole down the center of the bolt then we'll step up to a bigger bit to enlarge this hole just make sure you don't get into those original threads then we'll take a tool called an easy-out or a screw extractor which is basically a hardened piece of steel it has little teeth in it that'll grip the bolt when you remove it you just slide that in the hole and tap it in place now carefully rotate the EZ out you want to make sure you don't break these things off because if you do they're almost impossible to get out and once it starts to turn like this usually they start to come out pretty easy make sure you use plenty of penetrating Lube on them and it's also a good idea to chase these threads once you get everything out there you go all right there you go finally with all that taken care of we can set the new crossmember in place and then just finger-tight the bolts okay now it is time to get this new engine ready the first thing we're gonna do is bolt on this new flywheel that we got from Ford Racing now here's a couple tips for you if you are thinking about reusing an old flywheel well first you need to check it for any kind of stress cracks then have it resurfaced and make sure that you check the starter ring gears you can see this is buggered up pretty bad that would need to be replaced if we were gonna reuse this now something you should never reuse is a clutch plate pressure plate or a throw out bearing I don't care how good they look that's not the place to get cheap so replace them with a flywheel in it's time to put in that new clutch a pressure plate now this clutch alignment tool does not come with the kit but it is definitely worth the extra five or six bucks to go get one because it lines everything up so when you go to install the [ __ ] it just slides right in okay now we're ready to turn our attention to that transmission the first thing we'll do slide on this aluminum adapter plate from the kit then take a pen and Mark around these upper bolt holes on either side then we'll take a grinder grind a notch here in this mounting flange so we've got clearance for our mounting bolts using Loctite on the supplied hardware we'll go ahead and both the adapter to the transmission moving on it's time for the bell housing now this is just an old stock bell housing that I picked up used cleaned it up and painted it now notice when I set this thing into place uh-oh we got a problem it's gonna hit this shift rail so what we're gonna have to do is modify this vent hole now the best way to do that is to drill some pilot holes and then take a die grinder with a rotary file on it and just open this up just remember when you have to do this you don't want to cut all the way down into that indexing ring all right we're gonna go ahead and take a break while they finish this up but after the break we're gonna put all this stuff together we'll see you then [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome back to the truck shop we are right in the middle of putting a tough little five-speed behind this hot 302 and it is all gonna go in that old 66 Bronco now we've already got our bell housing modified which means it is time for the clutch fork now you're gonna have to use an original clutch fork on this application so you're gonna want to check it make sure that it's not damaged on the ends now if you need a replacement fork you can get one from Jeff's Bronco graveyard now some other things that you want to get from Jeff's is a new fork boot bushings for all the linkage and of course any linkage pieces that might be destroyed for example look at this cobbled up piece of junk now I hope I don't have to tell you not to reuse something like this okay now that we've got the fork and the new throwout bearing on we'll take the whole bell housing assembly slide it onto the block and bolt it up alright Barry you about ready just about now it is time to bolt this new five feet up to the engine now it just slides into place but you're definitely gonna need an extra set of hands because they never just slide into place all right you ready yep easy okay careful through the throw it Barry okay now really there we go alright there we roll that thing in here alright now with your motor mounts and your transmission mounts in place it is time for the moment of truth to set this thing in the chassis where it belongs okay go ahead and lower it down slowly slowly hey looks good looks good right there a little further transmissions it yes looks perfect there you go Barry thank you now as you can see this thing literally just dropped into place all the mounts were exactly where they were supposed to be I love it when they fit like that now we are ready for the four-wheel drive part of this project which means a transfer case so for that we went back to advance adapters and got their bulletproof Atlas to transfer case now the Atlas is a gear driven transfer case with a one-piece body for superior strength now you can get these in three different ratios the 4.3 for super low gearing a new 3.0 Highlander for higher gearing or the one like we've got which is the 3.8 it's right between those two and it's gonna work perfect with our axle ratios transmission gearing and our tire size now the Atlas shifts with twin sticks so you got a lot of control in your axles and you have shift on the fly capabilities to put it real blunt the Atlas 2 is the toughest transfer case on the market period end of story now remember what I told you earlier how I loved it when things just popped into place well that's because they don't always do that I know you know what I mean well the James Duff suspension stuff works perfect on a stock bronco all the advance adapter stuff perfect on a stock bronco now when you add components together though sometimes they don't mesh perfectly let me show you what I mean you notice I can't push this transfer case all the way up against the transmission got some clearance problems down here so I'm gonna go ahead and notch these holes slide the crossmember forward and I'll take care of that I also notice over here when I rotate the transfer case up I'm gonna hit this Duff mount right here so I'm gonna have to grind a little notch there so that'll clear and that'll take care of it unfortunately I don't have time to do all that today so that's a project for another day but after the break now we're going to show you some more cool stuff welcome back to the shop where I'm doing some of the final fit and finish on project Crazy Horse and it is gonna be awesome as you can see you've got the engine the transmission drivetrain pretty well taken care of now it's time for the gas tank now the tank we're gonna be using got from wild horses and it's EPA approved 20 gallons as you can see it's got all the vents and tubes so you can rent fuel injection or a carburetor now it also comes with all the hardware and the hoses to put it in but we forked out a little extra got this really thick skin plate to protect the bottom of the tank from rocks and trees and things like that now the first thing we're gonna do is put in this sending unit make sure you use some sealant on the gasket then install a sender so the float goes out into the body of the tank you don't want it over in here I'll just slide it in and bolt it on take some thin rubber strips lay them on the skid plate so you don't have any metal metal contact then take the gas tank set it down on the skid plate and then just Jack it into place the tank is held in place with these straps and these J bolts they come with a kit and go right into the stock holes on the frame now you will need to take a rotary file kind of open those holes up a little bit because there's new hardware's a little thicker than the stock stuff now when you tighten everything up it lifts that tank until these little feet come in contact with the body of the truck and the tanks mounted now one other thing that you do have to permanently mount to the door jamb is this little sticker now this certifies that this tank meets all the safety and emissions requirements of a new tank very important well there it is project Crazy Horse the chassis what do you think well I can't wait to get this thing out and get it offroad now you're probably wondering well what about the body well the next time we work on this truck we're gonna deal with the body and the interior but not today that's for another show but we're not done today we got more trucks right after this [Music] welcome to trucks today we're gonna deal with a subject that every enthusiasts professional and amatuer it doesn't matter you're eventually gonna have to deal with this and it's how to strip a body and get it ready for paint now I'm talking about all over top bottom wheel wells everything you got a couple choices here you can have it media blasted or you can have it dipped but either way you're gonna have to take it somewhere this is not something that you can do in your driveway so today we're gonna deal with media blasting what you should expect what it costs we're gonna answer all those questions but before we do that we're gonna give you just a little recap of the build up of this old 66 bronco project Crazy Horse and how it came to be in this condition it all started with an old beat-up 66 Ford Bronco that I literally had to push into the shop the first order of business was to cut out the old rusty floors and rockers and replace them with new metal then it was time to do something about the suspension axles and the wheels and tires of course we've got to have a hot drivetrain so 400 horsepower and 5 forward gears was assembled and laid to rest in the newly painted chassis finally we tore into the rest of the body and when the smoke cleared I had replaced everything but the rear fenders and a piece of the firewall now that we're all up to date here's what you need to do before you go see the stripper you need to completely disassemble the vehicle now I'm talking everything tail lights weather stripping all the little rubber grommets everything's got to come off then you need to rig up some sort of a rotisserie like this so you can transport the vehicle down there now we got this from a place called accessible systems believe me this is a lifesaver on this kind of project now once all your prep work is done well it's time to hunt down a stripper we've got the perfect place for you it's in Lebanon Tennessee it's called blasts from the past and people literally come from all across the nation to see the stripper named heavy-duty take it a-hole off I started collecting them I said you know what I'd like to have some sleeves [Music] now normally you wouldn't think that a lot of people would to see a stripper named heavy-duty but obviously you're thinking of the wrong kind of stripper heavy duty is the owner of blast from the past and has been stripping and blasting for 29 years we're gonna get him to walks through the process they all want to be stripped they all want to come back to life again put some brakes on here for this thing we run you right through the wall the first question that pops into people's minds is isn't this just sandblasting something that anybody can do with a cheap blaster and I'm ass and for me to achieve the kind of finish that I want that my customers want this is what I use right here this is aluminum oxide we use this media on bodies that have a lot of surface rust a lot of undercoating things in the nature that's that's combined and it puts a real slick satin finish on it this is a hundred and twenty grit aluminum oxide this is a t5 acrylic plastic that we can strip fiberglass cars with you know any kind of Corvettes whatever it feels like beets and it is it's just you know it's just real it's just real ground-up fine stuff and I opted to use this over this product right here this this being so coarse of a plastic this Believe It or Not cuts cuts more paint than this does we mainly stick with these two products right here this these two right here are the ones that we that we use the most of with all the preliminary work done and crazyhorse resting comfortably in the blasting Bay it's time to start stripping welcome back to trucks when we are showing you what's involved in the media blasting process as you can see we are a blast from the past and they are getting ready to start blasting so let's get to it in mechanical stripping safety is a major concern because it could easily destroy your lungs without proper ventilation it could also do some serious physical damage if you accidentally get a finger or a leg in front of the nozzle the operator needs to be completely protected with a full helmet and fresh air supply and very thick clothing and gloves to protect his body all right check out how easily the media peels off about six layers of paint and leaves the metal with a nice rough surface that's perfect for fillers a primer also notice how much dust this thing kicks up another good reason for not doing this in your driveway stripping the advantages to it is you're right there you can you can you have control over what you're doing of the area if you see that something's blowing apart you can stop you can work around it you know that that area is gonna be cut out and gonna be brand new metal in it so you go out on the outskirts of that and blast it chemical dipping you know it's like you dip it in the tank and you pull it out it's what it is one of the key techniques of a good operator is to strip the metal and not overheat the panels and warpin that is where knowing your medias and how to handle the nozzle are extremely important yet another reason for not trying this in your driveway with a bucket of sand here is where a rotisserie is worth its weight in gold it allows you to roll the rig up on its side to get to the fender wells on the bottom without it the heavy would be rolling around on his back underneath this thing and that would definitely put him in a foul mood one of the major problem areas on any vehicle and especially the early bronco the inner fenders and wheel tubs they hold mud and water and they rust the fender from the inside out believe me there is no way you're gonna be able to get up there and get that out yourself a media blaster like this is the only way and it makes it look easy I love doing this right here this it's like every day to me is like a holiday when I get when I get up and come out here it's like a Saturday oh man look at that completely stripped completely clean top bottom wheel wells everywhere look at that pure virgin metal now anytime you have something stripped though do not be surprised to find all kinds of little nasty things that have been hidden over the years like this creative bodywork here no that's easy to fix though that won't take very long matter of fact this whole body is in excellent shape now this is ready to go now a lot of you were probably thinking well shoot you know Stacy that's great but I just want to strip my tracks so I can paint it do I have to do all of this well the answer is no if you're just gonna have it done like that you can roll it right into the shop they'll tape it off and they can strip it like that if you're gonna go to a dipper you know you're gonna have to do this hopefully that gives you an idea kind of what's involved in the media blasting process we'll be back after this [Music] welcome to trucks if you've watched this show at all in the last year or so you probably have a pretty good idea what is on that rotisserie now if you're new to the show or you don't get a chance to watch it very much let me bring you up to speed this is the body of a 1966 Ford Bronco budget Crazy Horse and I've completely reconstructed it here on the show replacing everything but a piece of that firewall and those two rear fenders this is how it went it started out as a three hundred and fifty dollar piece of junk that I pushed into the shop and the first thing I did was replace the floor pan crossmembers and the rocker then I chopped out the door strikers and the inner structure and replaced those with new metal finally finished it off with new inner fenders wheel tubs and a core support and of course new fenders giving me basically a brand new body now it's no secret that my paint booth is literally stacked to the roof with other projects and junk so the next deal was to find somebody to paint this for me now remember I'm building this to pay tribute to big Olie the Bronco that Parnelli Jones won Baja with in the 1970s so I knew exactly how I wanted the paint scheme to be and it had to be special you're not gonna believe who I had paint this this was painted by the Nashville Auto diesel college that's right a bunch of students now I know what you're thinking you had a bunch of students paint crazy horse what are you crazy no I'm not and here's why first of all they have some of the best instructors in the nation and they keep a watchful eye on the students and teach them in tools and techniques second in a few months these students are going to be working in shops all across the nation on your vehicles so somebody needs to take a chance on them and I figured now is as good a time as any to see if they know what they're doing and as you can see you really did a great job now the two colors that I picked for this project both come from house of colors and this purple is called passion pearl and this silvery white is called snow white pearl and they work really well together this two-tone look is very similar to what the original big Olli had of course Olli was gold down here and white up on the top now the students did a really good job laying out this line getting it straight and burying it in the clear now big ole he also had a big horseshoe on the door for its sponsor Olympia beer so I needed something special on the door of this project now this airbrushed crazyhorse was not done by a student this was done by airbrush artist Johnny Watson and the amazing thing about Johnny is he doesn't use any patterns he does it all freehand I basically said I want a horse's head in the door back into flames over the rear tire and boom this is what he layed out let's take a look at the details you have a snort coming out of a flared nostril with bared teeth you have a glint in the eye check out all of those individual little hairs then of course it flows into flames each flame has its own pinstripe and then of course it's buried and clear so you won't feel an edge anywhere okay how about a hood no you Bronco guys are gonna love this this is brand-new from wild horses it's called their high country hood it's a fiberglass cowl induction hood got a big cowl induction scoop here in the center and then two smaller scoops out here on the sides and of course it comes with all the hardware the pins the hinges everything to mount this on now the hood was painted once again by the students and striped then of course the word Crazy Horse was brought out by Johnny Watson now just in case you think that Crazy Horse is in danger of becoming a trailer Queen oh no man think again the whole idea behind this project is to show you how to build something that looks really good but it'll also handle whatever you can throw at it on the highway or in a hardcore off-road situation and if I scratch the paint which I will heck I'll just fix it if I break the axle or hurt the motor I'll just fix them that's what you want to learn how to do this kind of stuff it gives you true Mendes freedom with your vehicle you're gonna find there's really nothing you can't fix once you know how now the moment of truth mounting that body down on this chassis now for the mounting points we went to James Duff Enterprises got this 2-inch body lift it comes with a urethane bushings and the two inch spacer set it down there put the body on top bolt it on when you go to set a body back on a chassis having an overhead lift or a hoist can really be nice however if you don't have one about six healthy guys can manhandle a Bronco body pretty easy either way you'll want to go slow and make sure that everything's fitting properly now you can see why I kept telling you how important it is to keep checking your alignment and your clearance and all your measurements when you are reconstructing a body if you mess up any of these measurements when you're rebuilding one of these things when you drop the body down on the chassis it's not gonna fit and the last thing that you want to do at this point is to go back and cut and fit and weld on a freshly painted body now what you wanted to do is drop straight down on all the holes the line up like ours just did this is where all the time that you spent when you were building it really pays off this is what it should look like check out the fit around the steering box the firewall the headers the front shock hoops even the rear shocks okay to get the full effect I put on the grill put on the hood and rolled it out to where you can get a really good look at it man that is sweet I love it when they start to come together like this now obviously I have got a lot of reassembly to do but not today in a couple weeks I've got something for you two wheel drive guys after the break [Music] you know there comes a time in every project when all the fabrication and fitting is done and it's finally time to start putting things back together and doing something with all these parts you've been accumulating for who knows how long now of course the amount of time you spent fabricating and fitting will directly affect how easy it all goes back together but one thing is for sure this is where it all starts to pay off because this is where you really start to see the fruits of your labor so follow along as we jump into the final stages a project Crazy Horse first things first when you're working on an older vehicle one of the worst jobs to have to do is to try to restore and reuse old hardware what a pain in the butt so investing in a new hardware kit is one of the smartest things you can do now this is made by totally stainless specifically for the early Bronco and you can get it from auto crafters now look at this this is literally every nut and bolt and screw that you're gonna need to reconstruct the body of that Bronco it's all 100% stainless steel and it is all marked and labeled exactly where it goes this is a huge time saver now we also got some other stuff from auto crafters hardware weather stripping new dash pad fire wall cover headlight and taillight trim look at these mirrors this is a bullet style mirror that was on the early Shelby Mustangs and they look great on an old Bronco if you've got an early Bronco Auto crafters probably has some parts you need since this is a half cab truck the first thing I'm gonna do is bolt in this bulkhead and notice I've already drilled my holes for my roll bar that's because it's a lot easier to do with that bulkhead out now we're ready for the roll bar we got this dual bar from wild horses and it pretty much just slides into place and this brings up a safety issue don't just go the bar to the floor it's not strong enough you're gonna have to use some sort of backing plate behind there so the bolts don't rip out if you roll it over a Reckitt most bars don't come with backing plates so you're gonna have to make them so with the pattern marked on some steel plate cut it out then drill your mounting holes finally bolt the bar in back inside the cab got the metal dash in place and those new digital gauges that we got from wild horses now it's that cool or what now the new dash pad slides over the metal dash and it's held in place with some of those stainless steel screws we also got these pro car rally seats from wild horses and since I've already built on my bracket tree it's just a matter of bolting these in next up is the restraint system and you need something good especially if you're gonna be wheeling the rig hard now I'm gonna use a complete five-point harness so that I got from Crowe enterprises and it consists of big three inch wide lap belt three inch wide shoulder belts and a two inch wide and a submarine belt to keep you from sliding out from underneath and of course they're all connected at a quick release latch now the good thing about using a kit like this is you don't have to use it all all the time if you're just going down the road to the store just use a lap belt things are a little more serious use the shoulder belts if you're running Baja you're probably gonna have to use all five okay where to bolt them frame or body well if you've got a vehicle that's got a body bolted down onto a frame you need to bolt to the body and here's why even though they're bolted together that frame is gonna move and flex a little differently than the body especially if you've got a body left and if your seat belts go all the way down to that frame you can actually get pinched in your seat by your seat belts in some extreme situations not good so we're gonna go to the body but you need a strong mounting point not just to the floor pan you want those bolts to come pulling out so I'm gonna have to use a backing plate just like we did with the roll bar all right up to now everything has been pretty much sliding right back into place now it is time to cut the hole for the new shifter in these brand new floor pans that's pretty much a matter of just lining up the cut lines with the transmission underneath now notice I have drilled some perimeter holes from below so we know exactly where that shifter opening needs to be a jig saw sawzall or a cut-off tool worked best for these type of cuts for shifters of course our atlas to transfer case comes with its own shifter levers but for the transmission we're gonna go with BM short-throw sport shifter to give a shorter firmer shifts and it just bolts onto that NV 3550 [ __ ] using four bolts on the Bronco the transfer case shift levers come right up under the driver's leg but notice that these levers are custom bent so they clear while I'm under here it's a good time to put in these massive drive shafts that I cut from high angle drive line now they not only build ultra strong drive shafts but I've got a pretty severe angle kicking out of the front of this transfer case and this shaft has a CV joint that'll go up to 42 degrees that's plenty and this is next we're gonna turn our attention to the body now obviously this body has been cut for fender flares and we're gonna put some back on there but your average fiberglass bronco fender flare is just not enough flare for that big attire so we made a call to James Duff enterprises and got these huge 4-inch triflex flares that are gonna look absolutely smoking on the side of this Bronco and there are more flexible than you can imagine you can absolutely punish these things on the trail and never have to worry about breaking them or ripping them or tearing them ooh that's nice to mount the flare clamps a fiberglass mounting flange to the fender in the proper location then just mark inside the flange now cut out the fender with a jigsaw make sure you protect your paint with masking tape with your flange screwed into place take your flare and set it over the flange then just mount it on with the supplied hardware and that is it now look at that looks really good doesn't it I told you would and you guys can quit cringing that I cut into that really nice paint I know you were now while we're here what about this gas cap no you're gonna love this because I wanted something cool I had kind of a competition look so I went to moon eyes got this four and a half inch polished aluminum flip cap looks like it came off of an old Shelby Cobra it's gonna look awesome on that Bronco and mounting it up it's just a matter of cutting the flange to fit the body line drilling a few hole that is sweet now I told you when we started we were gonna go fast and we have but you can sit back now take a break and relax because we have to take a break but don't go too far because when we come back more crazy horse [Music] [Applause] welcome back to trucks if you're just getting here oh you got some catching up to do because we are reassembling Crazy Horse and we're going pretty fast so let me bring you up to date and what we've done so far first we put in the roll bar the seats seat belts shifters - drive shafts and then we put on big fender flares and a really cool gas cap yeah I told you it was a lot but we're not done yet now we're gonna move to the front of the rig and deal with some issues under the hood now obviously we're gonna run power brakes on this thing and you should too if you're running any kind of a big tire or doing performance driving where that power assist can help you get things stopped now the kit we're using is from James Duff includes the master cylinder the booster the mounting bracket even the proportioning valve now you're probably wondering about this kind of weird-looking mounting bracket and that pivot shaft well it's got a purpose check it out since the engine compartment on the Bronco is so tight you really don't have any room here where the stock master cylinder was to run a power booster what this bracket does has relocates everything off to the side here so you can run a booster you can still get your valve covers off work on your headers that's really nice but the best part is it bolts right here to the stock holes all right onto the engine now obviously it looks really good but it is a little naked meaning it doesn't have any accessories on it but we're gonna change that if you will follow me over to the table first let's talk about brackets and pulleys now you can spend forever hunting the salvage yards trying to find the right stuff and if you do find it well you got to clean it up and paint it make it work no a much better option is to go to March performance get some of their aluminum brackets and pulleys in this case we're going with a serpentine system this is the setup for power steering this is the setup for your alternator and this is the setup for air conditioning of course you have your crank and your water pump pulleys alright they look good now how about after I get them really muddy well marsh performance puts a poly coating on all their stuff so you don't have to polish them all the time and they'll always look good all right how about accessories well we knew we needed to have something tough so it was only fitting we went to tough stuff performance for those now the alternator is a powerful hundred amp alternator with a one wire hook up the starter is a justice powerful gear reduction starter so we don't end up stranded on the trail for those of you that have ever burned up a starter you know exactly what I'm talking about for power steering we got a Saginaw power steering pump that will work really well with that James Duff box down on the frame and to keep everything cool we got a super cool water pump now don't let this fancy chrome finish here fool you these are tough high-performance parts first they just happen to put them in a really nice package installing the brackets it's just a matter of bolting them on using the supplied bolts and the spacers and the accessories just bolt onto those now here's what we've got got a dual serpentine system one belt runs from the crank over the alternator over the water pump the other belt runs from the crank over the power steering over the air conditioning compressor if you're gonna use that under the idler and back down simple clean and when they get muddy all I have to do is hose them off now take a look at those those look good the last thing I'm gonna put on today is just as simple as those pulleys and brackets and it's a radiator and a fan shroud because one of the biggest problems you run into when you're four-wheeling is overheating so we got these from James Duff enterprises this is a nice thick aluminum radiator made specifically for the Bronco and it'll handle a high horsepower engine and keep it cool you know all your fittings are welded into place you even have bungs for automatic transmission since we're using the 5-speed we'll go ahead and just plug those fan shroud is always a good idea because this focuses your air flow through the radiator keeps the fan from pulling air in from the sides and of course these just mount up in the stock location using these brackets that come with a kit and that's it no really that's it we need to take a break [Music] hey welcome to trucks I've got a great show for you today is this cool or what now we got some four-wheel drive stuff got some classic truck stuff even have a really sweet bike but before I get sidetracked let me show you the first thing that we're gonna work on today I'm gonna take care of some of the details on project Crazy Horse as you can see this thing is almost finished it's almost ready to take down the trail but after today it's going to be even closer the first thing we're going to put on it are these James Duff tubular prerunner bumpers now these not only look good these are a true off-road bumpers so they are very strong now this powder coating we sent them off to a place called color coded to have that done because powder coating is a lot stronger than paint to install the bumper slide in the frame supports followed by the bumper and then finally just bolt them on while I'm back here with the tailgate off it's a good time to do something about a spare tire you've got a couple choices here bumper or bed and either one can be a little bit of a challenge if you're using a 35 inch or bigger tire now since our bumper doesn't have any place to mount a tire we're gonna put it in the bed because that looks really cool on these half cabs and also this little bronco bed is perfect for carrying all your four-wheel drive gear so to mount the tire in we went to a place called RJR products got this tire mount it's a lightweight design but still very strong and it will allow you to mount big diameter tires now of course it comes with all the bracketry and hardware to put it in now this will not only allow you to pull out the tire in just seconds but it'll also allow you to pull out the whole mount in just seconds if you want to use this bad for something else first decide where you want to mount the thing by centering it up in the bed then mark your holes for your mounting plates and then drill your holes now with the brackets bolted on this is how the mount slides into it finally just mount your tyre now I told you that looked good in a bronco gives it just a little bit of desert racer feel Parnelli would be proud now while I'm back here in the bed I have something else I need to put in here a battery or two since the engine compartment on most vehicles is a little tight it's always nice to be able to relocate the battery and get it out of there in the bed of that Bronco is gonna be a perfect spot also if you do any kind of off-roading having dual batteries it's a really good idea especially if you use a winch or any kind of off-road lights so I've put together a system let's check it out first thing we're gonna do is put in a couple of Optima yellow top deep cycle batteries because of their quick recovery time these have 950 cranking amps each you got the option of side or top posts and the Optima is sealed so you can literally mount this thing in any position with no problem to connect those two batteries we're gonna use a dual battery kit that we got from wild horses and it includes cables and wiring and hardware and relays and switches everything that you're gonna need to hook up a dual battery system and get the most benefit out of it now you don't want to just mount these batteries out in the weather you want to put them in something so for that went to mr. gasket got a couple of these battery boxes and these will not only protect the battery but they also come with cables and hardware and all kinds of stuff to help you hook it up matter of fact putting this whole system in is as simple as bolting in the box and making your connections now that we know where the spare tire is gonna go we can mount the battery boxes around it up against the bulkhead is the perfect place okay now it's time to deal with some questions you might have about a dual battery setup now in this application I'm gonna run them in parallel now what this means is the positive of one battery will connect to the pie the other the negative will go to the negative this will double your amps but still keep everything 12-volt now if you hook them up in series here's what you have negative out this positive connects to this negative then you have your positive out this gives you 24 volt and will burn down all your 12-volt accessories and probably your wiring harness yeah you don't want to do that so make sure that you hooking up in parallel unless you're specifically building a rig to handle a 24 volt system all right with all this talk about batteries let's move up here to the front and see why I'm gonna need all that extra power obviously this is a winch bumper so let's talk winches I got this baby from mile marker and it is a Haas it's a 12,000 pound electric winch has a powerful five-and-a-half horsepower motor line holding brake power in and out 3/8 inch cable yeah this is the good stuff comes with accessories roller fairlead remote and for a few dollars more you can get this wireless remote system so you can control the winch with the push of a button no wire hookup pretty slick but the best part about this is this is a true 12,000 pound winch it will bolt into the same spot of the smaller 9,000 pound winch and it's only about 20 pounds heavier installation is as simple as bolting on the winch the fairlead and making your electrical connections now there is one other thing I'm gonna put on up here and it's gonna suck some power to that's these off-road lights now these big old boys are from extreme suspensions and they are basically a redesign of the old dixie Peck c 900 super off-roaders now they feature a hundred and thirty watt halogen bulb that kicks out three hundred and ten thousand candle power now they have a dual design lens that not only throws a light long like miles long but also throws it wide so you see what's around you now to hook these up I also got one of their dual relays and dual switch kits because using a relay is the only way to hook these kind of lights up properly well that finishes off what I wanted to do on the front the lights the winch the bumper and the rear the spare tire the batteries the bumper now obviously I've got a few more things to do on here I've got wiring to put in and glass and the roof needs to go on but I'll take care of that later because after the break I'm gonna show you what to do when those new parts you're putting on aren't quite fitting the way you want them to sometimes you need to persuade them a little bit [Music] welcome back you know some of the comments that I get when I'm at it shows or wherever is man you make this stuff look easy it just falls into place and you must have a lot of people helping you right well the answer is no no and no no it's not that easy no it doesn't just fall into place and no there's not a lot of people helping me just me and a TV crew the reason I tell you this is because one thing I like to do on the show here is show you some of the problems that come up when you're building a rig and how to deal with them it's why they call it do-it-yourself sometimes you have to make it work got a prime example here for you follow me okay you may remember on Crazy Horse that this bnm shifter is exactly what I wanted to make this thing really shift right unfortunately this is the only handle available with that shifter for that transmission and since this is a custom application it's not in the most ideal spot it's a little forward up toward the dash a little bit of a reach you'd be much better if it was right back here because you want to be able to come right off of the steering wheel boom right down onto the shifter so what are you gonna do well you could heat it and bend it but you've already got a bend here that would have to be straightened there's a better way to do it I went out and got this chrome Hurst handle and it will put the shifter exactly where it needs to be so I cut off this stub off of an old her shifter now all I have to do is set it in place and make a cut mark then cut off the old bnm handle and true-up the end now will the new stub onto the shaft now this is one area that I prefer the TIG welder because of the small precise welds great strength and penetration but a mingle work too with your welding done go ahead and paint the part so it doesn't rust and then bolt on the shifter and then put on the handle now here's what we've got have our performance shifter now we have an arm that comes up exactly where we wanted it it's sweet now we're gonna finish it off with one of these low carb boots and that will be that now this was pretty easy this didn't take very long and hopefully this shows you that you don't have to settle for what comes out of the box if it's not right take a little bit of time make it fit your application perfectly [Music] hey welcome to trucks you are gonna love today's show because today's the day that would take crazy horse out and put it through the paces now you may not recognize it yet but yeah this is crazy horse covered with a beautiful coat of mud but before we show you how it got into this condition here's a reminder of what we showed you last week with the buildup of the grinding and the welding and all the work that went into this rig and what it looked like before we got it money [Music] check this out [Music] all right now that the reminder is done and everything's bolted down for the last time it's time to see what this thing's really made of in air every kind of driving situation imaginable the first thing we needed to look at was the drivability in the road man we're buzzing along here about 65 miles an hour rpms are about 2500 that is right where we want it this Saints toulon right down the road notice that there is no shimmy in the steering wheel take the hands off drives right down the road this is what we want not only did the rig track down the road well at freeway speeds but the dirt grip tires didn't make near the noise I thought they would pretty amazing considering the aggressive tread you may notice that my steering wheel is not exactly trued up you know that that is a pet peeve of mine but with this bronco you've got one gauge off to the side and the type of steering wheel I've got here that puts the spokes right out over my gauges so I've purposely cocked it just a little bit so I can see my gauge as well when I'm going down the road now that may drive me crazy after a while they right now I'm gonna leave it like that okay with our steering and our suspension all checked out and our gauges reading where they were supposed to it was time to uncork this thing and see what kind of power and performance we had on tap this is Kirby [Music] not only does the truck have an awesome sound but also the power to throw you back in this seat whenever you stomp on it now add to that the joy of shifting your own gears and you've got the ingredients for one incredible driving experience are you guys that I've ever wanted a muscle car that was four-wheel drive you need to look into an early Bronco that are sweet of course all this ripping and hot rodding revealed two things [Music] first our power steering belt took a holiday due to a slight Foley misalignment which of course was easily corrected the second well the seconds not quite so easy to fix it's a thirsty little sucker now to make sure crazy horse isn't just some [ __ ] fair-weather rig we also ventured out on some cold rainy snowy days just to see how it handled it this is actually a really good test because we're out here on a bad weather day doing a pay up on this rig to see if it's really Road worthy looks pretty Road brother to me tip for those wipers somebody needs to develop a kit to synchronize the windshield wipers on a Bronco [Laughter] and one thing's for sure if you ever want to live to father children big Shirley to install your heater before you do a test drive in the middle of a winter freeze it and other than being a little drafty and that's up to par with anything running down the road however high horsepower a five-speed and a locker in the rear can make this thing a little squirrely when things get wet slick one thing that a lot of people don't know is if you're running a locker or any kind of limited slip and bad weather you need to be careful because that rear-end will come right out from underneath you quicker than you can imagine okay okay enough of that how about handling even though it's pretty obvious that crazy horse will never be mistaken for a sports car we wanted to see how it did in everything from some twisty turns to freeway off-ramps now while it does have some body lean it never felt excessive or tipping [Music] however if you push it a little bit like we did around the cones the hardcore off-road suspension becomes evident pretty quick but what the heck it's a Bronco so after subjecting it to the embarrassment of the slalom course we decided to run a different kind of slalom course one specifically for 4-wheel Drive rigs [Music] of course that's just a hint that wants to come because now it's time to get off the pavement let this horse run so hold on we'd go off-road after the break you welcome back to trucks and the long-awaited payoff of project Crazy Horse now so far we've looked at the on-road capabilities of this little 66 half cab Bronco and it's been great but that's only part of what it is the other part begins when you get off the paper [Music] now there are a lot of different aspects of off-road driving [Music] we're gonna look at all of them just to see how well-rounded this rig is and since it's paying tribute to par Nellie's legendary Baja racer big Olie stability at speed is a must now running this rig down a dirt road or across the field with a pedal down is a major rush as the suspension absorbs the rough terrain like it's not even there and if the bumps are too big what we'll just fly right over [Music] now you've seen what it'll do a two-wheel-drive now let's see what lose all wheel drive with the rig locked into four-wheel drive it was time to start wheeling and the first thing I wanted to look at was the approach and departure angles of the vehicle as well as the overall flex and movement of the suspension so far this little Bronco has pretty much made a joke of everything I'm telling making it real easy [Music] with that done and everything checked out we moved on to the rocks where we could really flex this thing and see what it was capable of the big fender cutouts and high ground clearance kept the tires and rocks from ever hit in the body and we flexed and walked our way through the rocks without any problems the low range crawl ratio was good but there were a few times I wish they had a little lower first gear now as far as traction goes if I was going to use this rig as primarily a rock crawler I'd put a locker in the front instead of the limited-slip that would solve this problem and we would go over the rock instead of pushing another obstacle that's pretty common when you go off-roading is the steep hill climb not just the short little quick ones but also the long steep ones that require a rig that's not gonna puke out and die on you halfway up the hill this kind of Hill is what makes the guys running carburetors cringe and use the bypass trail however Crazy Horse went up it like it was out for a Sunday Drive coming back down was another story as it revealed one weakness that will have to be fixed now due to the type of oil pan I'm running and the steepness of the grade all the oil ran to the front and uncovered the sump which starve the engine of oil because I had no oil pressure my my sump got empty no oil meant I had to shut it down to prevent damage and free will the rig down the mountain which is never a good thing a different oil pan or an oil accumulator will solve this problem we'll be back with more Crazy Horse after this hey welcome back to trucks and the crazy horse payoff now you've seen it on the road in the rocks on the hills we still got a lot more to do so strap in cuz here we go at this point it was time to get this truck a little wet so into the river we win to play on some wet rocks and of course the crew always comes prepared and Chris thought that those waders would be enough to keep him dry but I just couldn't resist we've all been here anybody who's worked with Stacy for any period of time has been where I am right now well Chris was drying out we decided to test the suspension yet another way and even with a heavy winch on the front nothing flies like a Bronco [Music] of course the final muddy obstacles for this truck are the toughest because they involve a little bit of everything we've seen so far and they will do some damage if your rigs not up to it and the only way to drive them is to attack [Music] and the only real casualty of the day was the poor spare tire mount whose mounting brackets just weren't up to the abuse and finally decided it had had enough and exited the rig in a big mud hole I guess we need a new one of those and well you know there was that thing with Moe's camera [Music] yeah most great but no matter what we threw at it crazy most took it and just begged for more what an awesome trick now some of you may be thinking oh man I can't believe you just went out and thrash this truck believe it because you deserve to see what it's capable of but I didn't thrash it no man I built this thing to be able to do exactly what I just did to it and more trust me this thing wasn't even breathing hard and as far as the way it looks yeah we'll just roll it in and clean it up it will look just as good as when we started and that is a well-rounded vehicle but the best part about this buildup is hopefully now you can see that it's possible to take something that is a total piece of junk and turn it into something really special if you add your time your skill your money and some aftermarket parts so the ball is in your court get out there and build something expect to see you on the trail [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] trucks is an RTM production

Channel: POWERNATION

Views: 329,622

Rating: 4.8346109 out of 5

Keywords: Car, PowerNation, howto, how-to, diy, automotive, cars, trucks, automobile, do it yourself, automobiles, auto, ford bronco, bronco, ford, ford bronco rebuild, bronco rebuild, bronco rebuild crazy horse, 1966 ford bronco, 1966 ford bronco restoration, 1966 bronco, early bronco restoration, early bronco

Id: DC6NeA_XeHg

Length: 104min 38sec (6278 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020