1973 Bronco Project - Yes, it will be Coyote powered!

[bansheekev]

Well after having my Coyote powered MKIV on the road for a year, I was feeling the itch again! This time around my wife's only request was that it have 4 seats so all the kids could go at once (hit hit - take them all with you!) and that it is something that I wouldn't care if she scratched while driving it. Note my wife will not go near the Cobra but this one she is all over. After going through a 10 year period with trucks and Jeeps with a whole bunch of high school buddies and not wanting to deal with smog it came down to early Jeep CJ, International Scout, or a Bronco. As if that decision was hard - Bronco! Problem is that was just the beginning. On the west coast these things are like gold, I couldn't believe the money people wanted for a basic survivor that was pretty much worn out ($12k-$18k - wtf?). Shopped high and low for 6 months until I finally pulled the trigger on a 1973 I found in Placerville, CA.

Everyone says '69 but after doing a bunch of homework I decided on a 71-75 due to it already having a Dana 44 in the front vs the Data 30 everyone swaps out for a 44 anyway. So here is the plan - all I'm using from what I bought is the body, doors, tailgate, hood, frame, 2 axles, and the Dana 20 transfer case (yes that is it). I picked this one up for $4500 then immediately sold the 1993 Mustang 5.0 (converted to carb) / C4 automatic combo, seats, and fiberglass hard top. After selling stuff my cost is down to $2800. All I wanted was a bare shell. I came to the conclusion that going to nothing and simply building what I wanted was cheaper and I'd be happier with the end result with a resto-mod approach.

So, drivetrain - what is the plan? I am so happy with the Coyote in my MKIV I decided to use a F150 Coyote dropout from a 2012 - 2013 F150. I have inquired locally and for the engine and transmission (AC and all) my cost is $3500 with less than 35k miles. Can't even rebuild a 302 with fuel injection for that. I am going to use the 6R80 6 speed automatic from the same truck - yes a Bronco that can actually be driven on the freeway! No brainer after understanding how to wire this thing from my MKIV experience and the fact that there finally is a stand alone 6R80 controller on the market (its only taken almost 6 years). Here is the kicker - the F150 has the console mounted shifter with the manual shift mode. The Bronco will have no shifter at all! Just buttons for P/R/N/D/Manual Shift settings with the buttons mounted in the center console then paddle shifters. Yes paddle shifters! I can envision a steep climb and needing a gear - bam one finger. Modern stuff is so much fun in old rigs.

Suspension and brakes will be complete end to end 3.5" suspension / 2" body kits from the aftermarket with new everything possible - springs, shocks, shock hoops, long arm radius arms, every nut, bolt, bushing, link you can imagine in a box. Same with brakes, 4 wheel power disk conversion front and back. Linex the whole interior, add suspension seats front and back, family cage, soft top, lots of body armor, LED lighting, grizzly locker diffs, and 37" tires on bead locks and we are off for some adventures.

Picking it up (BTW - I just picked up this trailer in November and the in-box mounted 5000lb winch works awesome!):
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Motor and transmission out and gone within a week:
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Now for the bad news - getting it cheap means labor! Rust is the name of the game right now. I have to replace the kick panels, front floors, and A-pillars. A-pillars have me a little nervous but I've talked to some guys about it and I think I will be fine. Lots of OEM reproduction metal on order right now. Just finished installing the 2" body lift required to clear the 6R80. Plus now the body is where it will be when all the rust repair is done. To let me know what I was in for, 4 of the 8 original 45 year old body mounts needed to be cut out with a sawzall. Oh, the smell of burning rubber. BTW - yes that is the wheel of my wife's commuter car you see peeking through the gaping A-pillar rust hole! The area behind the front wheel is the only significant rust area, the rest of the body is salvageable (other than a couple of places that I will splice in reproduction sheet metal to avoid fixing previous body damage with a ton of bondo.
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Dash and wiring harness coming out. I'm going to sell the original dash and cluster and get a blank dash and modern electronic gauges. Stock dashes you can't open the glove box since any cage you put in it blocks the stock glove box door.
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Just waiting for its new drivetrain. Cool thing is I can use the headers and intake that came with my MKIV crate motor - good thing I kept everything!
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More to come! This is something new probably spending a year fixing rust and body work to get it to the point where I can start building it up. So much different than the all new FFR! New challenges....

Kevin