My Classic Bronco Build: F8 LUBR

UPDATE: If you want to skip ahead first and see it done, here you go: The Bronco is Home!

Im starting to make actual progress on my build so I figured its time to start a build thread!

Little bit of a back story first, my car addiction began about 28 years ago when my Uncle pulled up in this North American Fiberglass Cobra he had built and taken me for a ride. When I got out of the car my leg hit the side pipes and I was hooked! Crying, but hooked!



The Cobra was actually used in the movie Listen To Me with Roy Scheider/Kirk Cameron. It had a Keith Black Hemi and it was parted out after filming. My Uncle bought the shell in Phoenix and had a local shop build a 351.

Fast forward to 2011: My Father and I have always been Ford owners from Mustangs to Cobras to Trucks and Broncos. We always knew we wanted a Classic Bronco and we finally decided to get serious about it. We had the garage built but nothing to occupy it besides daily drivers.

Im scouring Craigslist, ClassicBroncos.com, and eBay for what seemed like 9 months. I bid on a few but missed out on some projects under $4K, really kicking myself now of course. I wind up finding one 30 minutes from my front door. I head over on a Saturday and there it is idling in the driveway. A running fairly complete Bronco! We chat for a few minutes and he tosses me the keys and tells me to take it for a spin. My first time sitting in a Bronco let alone driving it so I took it around the block grinning ear to ear while the exhaust purs! There's nothing quite like looking out the windshield at those front fenders.



I head back and tell him I want my Dad to come check it out as well since this is going to be our project. We head back the following weekend and luckily he still hadn't sold it. We drive it and we're both on the same page. This is ours. We pay the man, load up parts and hop on the frontage road and take it up to 65mph only to realize we need gas. Stop at the gas station and 2 people comment on it, nice Bronco!

He bought it in 2008 and it was a red half cab. He converted it back to a wagon which was a ton of work, painted it in his garage, rebuilt the motor, C4, transfer case, steering box, discs up front, built a bumper, moved the glovebox, suspension, etc. He did a ton of work! Heres what it looked like



Which eventually became this







Tucked away at its new home



I did not plan on having 2 yellow cars, I just couldn't pass up the Bronco!



Checking out the undercarriage and what needs attention. A few typical leaks but nothing that prevented me from driving it to work that Friday!



Picked up some bigger tires/wheels on Craiglist which didn't last long



Over the next 2-3 years we drive it on weekends and have fun with little projects here and there. 2.5" to 3.5" lift, another set of tires and wheels, sold the cage/hard top, bumpers and a ton of parts to buy more parts.



Some light trail running 10 minutes from the house to flex out the new suspension. Wound up gashing a tire on the inner fender









Starter motor went out on me in 2014



Bought a custom cage and Black Rock Yuma wheels

 

Notice the new plate. LUBR is a Bronco term that means Lifted Uncut Bronco or Left Uncut Bronco. This is how they came from the factory but the majority of owners cut the rear fenders wider for larger tires



Bought some Protofab Rock Solid bumpers, sold the seats, pulled the tanks and this is where we stopped driving it



Did the Bronco script valve covers





Ive made it a mission to track down every Bronco owner near me so I had some Bronco brothers over to help with some suspension, driveshaft items. Hopefully this was only the first of many project days to come as these guys were much more knowledgeable than me!









Found some 2005 Mustang seats at a junkyard, bought a fold and tumble from Toms and a Rampage center console off Amazon







The front seats sit very low, recline and tilt so I can get in the back from both sides. Bought the Wildhorses seat box for an easy passenger seat mount and I will probably mount a marine amp under it for the speakers



Bought some fiberglass interior quarter panels and already had aluminum door panels. Tried my hardest to find matching material to the fold n tumble and its impossible. So I took them all down to an upholstery shop who wrapped them in two tone vinyl.





I have some extremely strong neodymium magnets that will go on the back of the inner panels and Im planning on putting 6.5" speakers in those up front. I wanted to be able to pull the panels back so I can hide tools/parts in the rear sections



Had them cut the Mustang seat head rests down to match the fold n tumble height a little better





Sent the speedometer out to Kevin at Classy Gauges who did a fantastic job. Speedo got a full rebuild

 

Ordered a Bronco Design fiberglass mid rise hood





Decided the old dash was beyond repair so we ordered a Bronco Hut Dash











Found my first bit of rust behind the speedo. You can see the original Limestone Poly Green as well



Ordered a Kenwood double din stereo and some tire tread knobs and have been playing the orientation for months







Leaning towards this setup below if I can get my heater working again. Its been capped off for 7 years. No plans for rock lights or any other accessories, just a nice clean dash with upgraded knobs and stereo



Removed the windshield, tailgate, grill and fenders and sent them to a blaster.





No rust and minimal damage to those panels



Also took the cage in and had the powdercoating removed. He smoothed a section of it up top where it made contact with the door frame



I also had him add some hoops to the Protofab front bumper

 

Did the "Alice" turn signal mod which are much smaller than the '69+ turn signals.



Old signals:



Figured we could sand the rest of the body to save on labor costs. That was a tough, messy job with 2 small orbital sanders. Never again...



Doors appear to be from a different body as they only had yellow on them. The body has the original limestone poly green, red and 2 different yellows on it as well as numerous layers of primer/filler



Had an amazing fabricator come by and roll the rear fender lips for some more tire clearance. He wound up doing it by hand which was an art form to watch. Rob Cochran from Bonzer Customs (Bonzer Customs (@bonzercustoms) • Instagram photos and videos)



I cant seem to find an after photo but here is what they looked like before. That edge is now completely tucked so it won't slash the tires like it has in the past





Sent a bunch of pieces to rydog1130 (www.lubr4x4.com) to blast and powdercoat satin silver to match the door handles, mirrors and wipers. He did an awesome job and the price could not be touched in town





More sanding and not finding any rust







One last little section to clean off and then its naked! Still shocked how good of shape the body is in but its been in Arizona for a long time



So we're digging all the filler out of the rear body seam. The prior owner filled them in and they obviously cracked but we wondered why he did that. The pick Im using to clean the seam out gets caught in a piece of metal in that lower section. Im real confused so I get the sander back out and find this



Hello first major issue! What a horrible fix haha. The body side is completely rotted out but the taillight panel is pretty solid with just some surface rust



So Rob Cochran calls me back up while we're working on this patch and has a body/paint guy he wants to bring by. 30 minutes later he shows up and takes a good look over it and gives us a price that was hard to believe. Basically told us to stop right where we were, drop the Bronco off and we will get a finished product back. He even agreed to knock the price down if we came out and helped get it prepped which is exactly what I was wanting to do. So we got all the parts out, laid out a build plan and had the Bronco over to him the following weekend. Shannon Schierer of Schierer Customs (Behance). He has done all sorts of classic vehicles and also works with investors to make paint shops profitable.

My new garage mate is a '71 429 Torino



There'a also a Scout in there from time to time which is going to be an amazing rig



So we head out the first weekend and we get right to work sanding the door jams, the cowl and tight spots we didn't have the right tools for. This guy has every possible body tool you could ever need. He welded up every hole in the bedrails as we wanted a smooth look

 

We welded sleeves into the frame to beef them up for the rock solid bumpers





Original green and a teaser...



POR15 on the fenders, cage and bumpers







Raptor Liner done





He cut out the rusty quarter section and instead of fabbing a piece I just ordered a new quarter. That took almost 3 weeks to show up





He was pretty impressed with the quality (CJ Pony Parts) I have 90% of a new quarter in case anyone needs a piece!



Also cut out the rust behind the speedo in the cowl and formed in two new pieces











Spent an entire day getting the bed liner and paint off the cowl which was much messier than sanding the body. We were filthy from head to toe





Then we started pulling some dents out with this amazing tool. It arcs itself to the body and then the fulcrum handle pops the dents out. It also had several different types of attachments. He could not believe how solid that rear taillight panel was. He beat the crap out of with this rubbed tipped air hammer and it didnt budge one bit.

 

Dad and I got to weld for the first time, sealed up the antenna holes. It wasn't pretty...



Shannon welding up some grill holes



Filled in the hood openings for a smooth look



Cut out the fresh air vents, still needs some sanding



Attached the fenders to the grill and put it back on to check fitment/gaps. That was tough to put back together! We might do it in separate pieces after paint goes on



Doors on



Fabbed the hood strut brackets to the fenders





Shannon started smoothing out the bedrails and cut the seam line back in up top. Old school methods and does everything by hand



I picked up a Bronco cutout from member sk1nw4lk3r a while back. We knew we wanted the Bronco green but, like the wheels, we spent several months looking at options before both agreeing on one. Late 2017 I noticed a new color option on the Demons/Hellcats called F8 Green(pfq paint code) and I knew right away this was our color. I stopped by a local shop who mixed me up a sample and figured we might as well spray the Bronco! Before:



During:



And after. There is a lot of flake in it so depending on the light source it can get very light or very dark





Shannon found his classic paint book and they had the original F8 paint sample from the late 60s early 70s Plymouths/Dodges. It is a very close match but has more metallic in it





Here you can see how light affects it



Picked up a Spectre air cleaner and a new passenger air vent from Toms



and a 14" Forever Sharp Steering Wheel



We had always noticed the body or bumpers leaning slightly to one side and Shannon noticed the passenger side frame rail was slightly tweaked. I was on vacation and he said I need to take it to a frame shop to get straightened. Great...



30 minutes later he said, "nevermind, I fixed it." He put a bar through the bumper holes and was able to get it back into spec. Now have an even line between the body and bumper and the bumper fits better

 

New quarter piece welded in last weekend



Cleaned up the tailight panel as well







He has spent a lot of hours getting the doors to close smoothly and the gaps/lines right







He also took apart the hinges and got those working smoothly



I was up in Oregon 2 weeks ago and just so happened to be within 30 minutes of Toms so we stopped by to pick up a couple things. Wound up picking up 13 small items and getting a mini tour of the property. Wish I could have bought more but still had 2 flights to get them home









Claussen ZChrome ready to go on which is a non-shrinking rust preventer/primer/filler

 

That is where we're at today ^ He is going to block it this Saturday and then we take the Bronco over to his buddy's shop where we will tear apart the undercarriage, degrease it, clean it and then second skin everything visible. Also going to cut the dash holes, see if the heater works and rip the old wiring harness out as we decided to rewire it with the American Autowire kit. Picked up some dual wiper motors as well. Then it goes back to Shannon for primer/seam sealer and its ready for paint

Shannon has been making progress on the Scout build as well: