1969 FS Bronco

[bnl44]

After days of measuring, I have come to the conclusion that Ford didn’t make a square truck. Neither the 69’ pickup or the 78’ Bronco measures out square.
The right door had been changed before and could not be raised high enough to get the bump to line up without the window frame hitting the cab frame. I changed it out with a spare door, Its better, and will work for the build, but I will find a better one for the final.

Removing rear section for final trim.

Here is a picture of the surface rust on the roof header panel. Now this truck is a pretty clean truck as far as rust goes. It’s evident that Ford didn’t do much for rust prevention in 69’. I can imagine what some of your trucks look like that live in rusty country.

Loose rust cleaned off and coated with POR 15.

POR 15 soaked through the seams of the door frame.

Extension welded on rocker panel to better fit to the lock pillar reinforcement on the Bronco side.



Up Next, Glued on roof.

[69twotone]

What a cool project, Keep the updates coming.

[bnl44]

Trim away more of the floor.

Floor cleaned for welds.

The roof is to be Metal Bonded. (Glued together)
Fusor makes 3 different cure rates for metal bonding. This is the slowest with a 70 minute working time. It is plenty of time. I had everything done from start to finished clamping in 65 minutes. I had 5 minutes to spare.
This is applied with a special cartridge gun (dual plunger caulking gun), the tips on the left mix the two components till it exits the tip.

The bonded area is cleaned to bare metal.
Inside of Bronco roof,

And the mating surface of the original pickup roof.

Roof is in position ready for bonding.

A thin layer is troweled on both sides making sure all bare metal is coated. Then a bead in the middle to squish out. This adhesive also contains tiny glass beads to prevent over clamping.

The bonding will only go to the upper roof seam. The sail panel will be MIG welded.

Body jacks are used to push the roof back to make the front of roof tight. Cargo straps are used to pull the roof down into the drip rails.

Special high tech clamps were used for bonding pressure and keep the gap in the drip rail trough correct.
Most of these clamps cost me 5 to 6 cents each.



Left overnight for cure. Only used one complete cartridge of adheasive.

[1967AceStroker]

Wow, I've always been really interested in seeing this done. Good progress, cant wait to see her all finished. And keep them pics coming, we like pics here.

[1971ford]

Coolest build I've ever seen. I get so excited when i see this thread bumped up!

[averagef250]

Amazing work! I admire the thought you've put into this and how well you're documenting it!

[bnl44]

Thanks for all the interest. I am really excited about this project.
I enjoy the head scratching and making the puzzle fit together.
I have a hard time weeding the pictures down to enough to tell the story without overloading the thread. (if I haven’t already?)

[bnl44]

Here is a close up of the drip rail trough. You can see the adhesive that oozed out.

This diagrams the cross section of this part.
The black is the original pickup roof.
The blue is the Bronco roof.
The gray is the Bonding Adhesive.
The yellow is the 2k self leveling seam sealer to be added later. This will seal the seam to prevent moisture from getting under the edge.

The Bonding Adhesive is funny stuff. It bonds metal together but nothing else sticks to it.
All excess will have to be removed from the outside. The underside doesn’t matter.

All my drip rail clamps removed.
Better than McD’s, I got change back.

Except for this one.
Net cost of drip rail clamps…. 1 cent.


Had to put the top on just to check it out.



Kinda looks like a pickup that got rear ended by a Bronco.
That’s Ok…. It’ll get there.
Using a Craftsman lazer level to check for a straight line. I can still adjust this till the floor is welded.

If you look hard, you can see the red line on the door.

Added a tab to the back side of the lock pillar to weld the reinforcement to.


Floor welded.

Seems like I can never have too many tools in my way.

[Fordnatic]

That's awesome! Can't believe all the floor grooves even line up. They must not have changed the floor pan for years! Looking fwd to how you handle the quarter panels.

[Ranchero50]

Yep, looks great and you can't put too many pictures in on a build like this. In reference to the floor I wonder if it would be easier to cut the cowl section and door opening out of the truck and just add it to the bronco body. I'm curious how much longer the dent doors are vs. the bump?

I used '78 bronco floors to repair my '71 cab mounts and other than the door seal seam being different it was the same.

Jamie

[bnl44]

Thank you for the positive interest.

The floors are very similar. All but one of the strengthening ridges in the floor lined up. I opted to cut here as I wanted to use the Bronco cross member right behind the transmission cover. One- it was redesigned to not trap as much dust and dirt, less rust, and two – it has and “H” shaped reinforcement to the next cross member back which is the rear cab mount. I would of rather had the flatter floor of the pickup but additional strength won that decision.

The door frames are similar in size, but quite a bit different over all. Measuring the door opening at the striker height, both openings are the exact size, but at the windows, the bumper is shorter.
The bronco sail panel was cut right in the drip rail. If you look at the pictures you can see how much shorter and different shape the bump door is to the dent door.

The dent door is 2” longer at the body line than the bump door. Most of that is added to the front to cover the hinge area as dent doors tuck into the fender when opened and bump doors open to the outside of the fenders. You can see the diffence if you look at the side of the cowl panel just above the fender. The front of the cowl panel is in the same place for both body style trucks.

The roof would have been simpler to section thru the windshield pillars but that would have eliminated the front drip rail. It was important for me to keep it.
My underlying goal is to make this Bronco look like Ford could have built it. It may end up with some custom modern convinces. But on the body, I keep asking myself “WWHD” (what would Henry of done?)

[trukcrazy]

I like the way you are doing this build. You make it look easy.

[BigBlueF250]

Awesome job so far!! I vote to leave it a 4x4 though!!

[UNCLE BOO]

This is the most interesting build I have seen yet! Truly awesome project bnl44!

It's a shame your shop is so small and poorly equiped!

Can't wait to see the end result!

[bnl44]

I have been working very hard on this project.
My wife snuck in and took these pictures of me working hard.
She threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t come clean and share these photos.

Boy, do I feel like a congressman.

So here I used tape on the quarter panels to give me an idea where the bump body lines will be.

Can you tell I had experience as a senior NCO in the Army. I know how to get the mission done.

Apparently not much gets done without constant direction.
I think my production assistant is slacking.


Coming back from break time, you would think they were Union!
Cookies and Milk of course.

Pride in workmanship.

Displaying proper use of safety gear.