October 2000 Playing by the pond on 44's

July '02 Photo Shoot with Four Wheeler

July '02 Photo Shoot with Four Wheeler

October 2003 Flexing on 3' trailer deck

October 2003 Playing in the parsley field

Bloomsburg 2003

About the Bronco:

I bought this truck in the fall of 1996 as an alternative to driving my 1992 Toyota 50 miles to work everyday.  We also planned on eventually building a full size SUV to show, as well as compete with at stereo competitions.  At that time I had 8" Skyjacker kit and 3" body lift with 39.5" Mickey Thompson Bajas.  During the spring of 1997 we started working on the truck.  First we beefed up the suspension by replacing the stock rear leaf springs with 11" custom National Spring leaf springs.  Since I was still using to drive to work, the process was slow at first.

We started getting serious in the winter of 97/98.  At this time, my wife and I started the "clean up".   It For 3 months we spent our nights and weekends taking apart the truck and preparing to paint the undercarriage.  After months of power washing and wire brushing off the buildup of mud and clay, we sanded and primed and were ready to paint.  Originally, the undercarriage was supposed to be metallic black and cobalt blue metallic.  Against my better jugement, I let my wife talk me into painting it white and cobalt blue metallic (which I have to admit looks pretty good - even though I'm not crazy about cleaning it).  By that summer I had put the National Spring  coils in front with a custom 4" body lift and 44" TSL Boggers.  

During the winter of 99 she underwent some more enhancements, including the installation of the stereo.  What was originally planned to be a 2 week project ended up taking over 2 months.  It was done just 1 1/2 weeks before Bloomsburg, just in time to have the cowl hood installed and painted.  3 days before leaving for Bloomsburg the new Dynatrac Dana 60 arrived.  We finished installing the rear and a new 4 core radiator the day before we left for our trek through the mountains.    Since we felt that the truck was not finished, we decided not to get judged.  Since a friend of ours won a Participants Choice Award the year before, we decided to go to the awards ceremony to see if he would get anything again.  Needless to say we were shocked when I was announced for winning the Photographer's Choice award!   As if it weren't thrilling enough to have been in a photo shoot the day before for Off Road the day before, I was totally shocked to hear my name called for an award at Bloomsburg.   

In 2000 I did the straight axle swap with the Fabritech 12" conversion kit and a front dana 44 and rear Dynatrac Dana 60.  The frame was also filled and repainted.   After breaking my steering during a photo shoot with Four Wheeler at Bloomsburg 2002, I swapped out the stock steering for full hydraulic.

In the spring of 2003 I tore it all down again, which brings us to the following...

Specifications:

Engine/Trans:  HO 5.0 EFI, mild cam, MSD ignition, K&M intake, BBK Ceramic Coated Headers, Flowmasters single chamber race mufflers, AOD transmission with shift kit and B&M deep aluminum pan.

Lift:  16" suspension lift composed of King coil-overs and National Spring 16" rear leaf pack and custom billet aluminum 4" body lift.

Front Axle:  '79 Ford Dana 60, reverse rotation with 35 spline Chevy outers, Warn Premiums 35 spline hubs, 5.13 gears, Detroit locker and Poison Spyder Rock Ring diff cover.

Rear Axle:  GM 14 bolt full float, 5.13 gears, Detroit locker and Poison Spyder Rock Ring diff cover.

Steering:  Custom hydraulic steering with Shakerbuilt tie rod.

Drive Shafts:  High Angle Driveline drive shafts front and rear.  1350cv shafts with 1410 lower joints.

Tires & Wheels:  46" Goodyear Softrac II's on 16.1" x 20" custom wheels.

Undercarriage:  Frame filled and custom painted Ultra Bright White with Cobalt Blue Metallic accents. 

Body:  Bushwacker cutout fender flares, custom cut front bumper, flipped gas filler door, 10" rear drop bumper, Dick Cepek light bar with 5 KC lights, Lund visor, cowl induction hood, custom painted headlight and taillight covers, custom painted Lund grille inserts, custom painted SVO white.

Interior:  Custom tweed throughout, Autometer pillar gauges, Autometer monster tach with shift light and low oil pressure light and Cobra 29 Classic CB.

Stereo:  Sony Mobile ES head unit with TV tuner, Video Casette Player mounted in center console, Sony Playstation 2, DVD Player, overhead 6.5" LCD flip down monitor mounted in headliner, 5" LCD monitor mounted on side panel of subwoofer enclosure, Phoenix Gold TBAT line driver, Phoenix Gold bass cube, EQ232, ZPX electronic crossover, two Phoenix Gold zpa0.5 amplifiers that run eight Kicker Solo Baric 12" subwoofers mounted in a custom enclosure with a bronco etched on 5/8" thick Plexiglas, one Phoenix Gold zpa0.3 amplifier that runs all MB Quart mids and highs (eight 6 1/2" component sets), MB Quart Music Comp crossovers, 200 amp large case Leece Neville alternator feeding three Optima yellow top marine batteries and one red top under the hood and five 1 farad capacitors.  All panels are fully Dynamatted in multiple layers.