RetroMod Bronco Build

[emkayw]

More progress.

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[Cbiggs]

Totally awesome, Joe!

 

[Roll Sound]

Very impressed!

 

[ITLRUN]

Looks great! I love the illusion of the B pillar slant by painting part of the top black. I'm glad you didn't paint over the window as you posted earlier.

Don't get too excited just yet. LOL I'm still trying to pull it off. I made two closeout panels out of carbon fiber and painted them. I don't think I made the white stripe big enough. I'm still working on it though. I just got these back from the paint shop. They still need to be wet sanded, polished and wrapped with xPel Stealth film.

Two pictures: The first one is front and back of close out panel. The second pic is the panel mocked up in the Bronco.

 

[jaeggernaut]

besides the bronco from sema that had the independent suspension swapped out for a solid front axle (image), this is the most complete and fully realized build I've seen. looks awesome.

I'm going to 'borrow' some ideas . front bumper looks awesome. do you think I could get away with using some sort of light clamp to the pre-runner bar instead of welding actual tabs on to the bumper?

Also, I was torn between building mine up like an overlander or an off-roader. I landed on leaning overlander and ordered a gobi rack (image)
But love the look of the pro6 bar hanging lower on the front like yours. i actually really like the old-school look of the RTR 5 lights (image)

@ITLRUN, being someone who obviously has a good eye to bring a bronco project together, I'd like your opinion before I start buying parts. do you think the lower hanging RTR light bar or kc pro6 light bar would work with a big gobi rack on top?

More progress.

 

[jaeggernaut]

another question, assuming you had the automated cruise control, do you think removing the grate in the front of the vanguard bumper (revealing the ACC sensor) would make it still functional?

 

[ROCKO]

Don't get too excited just yet. LOL I'm still trying to pull it off. I made two closeout panels out of carbon fiber and painted them. I don't think I made the white stripe big enough. I'm still working on it though. I just got these back from the paint shop. They still need to be wet sanded, polished and wrapped with xPel Stealth film.

Two pictures: The first one is front and back of close out panel. The second pic is the panel mocked up in the Bronco.

Awesome build. It’s just me bing picky but on the top maybe look into something that can fill in the crease of the window to give the look of a split piece so the pillar looks like one piece. And lastly where the paint “45s” and transitions vertically at the top kind throws me off. Maybe would have been better to make that transition were the top has its horizontal contour line.
All and all looks great though.

 

[ITLRUN]

Awesome build. It’s just me bing picky but on the top maybe look into something that can fill in the crease of the window to give the look of a split piece so the pillar looks like one piece. And lastly where the paint “45s” and transitions vertically at the top kind throws me off. Maybe would have been better to make that transition were the top has its horizontal contour line.
All and all looks great though.

This whole close out panel (that's what I'm calling it LOL) is always going to look like an after thought without spending a fortune on it. I had calculated that the panel I made would leave ab out 1/16" gap. Apparently my math sucks LOL

Our inspiration was a late 80's early 90's Bronco. It's hard to put the illusion of the body lines that don't exist on what you're working on. I'm with you though. I like it, but it's not 100% for me either.

 

[ITLRUN]

besides the bronco from sema that had the independent suspension swapped out for a solid front axle (image), this is the most complete and fully realized build I've seen. looks awesome.

I'm going to 'borrow' some ideas . front bumper looks awesome. do you think I could get away with using some sort of light clamp to the pre-runner bar instead of welding actual tabs on to the bumper?

Also, I was torn between building mine up like an overlander or an off-roader. I landed on leaning overlander and ordered a gobi rack (image)
But love the look of the pro6 bar hanging lower on the front like yours. i actually really like the old-school look of the RTR 5 lights (image)

@ITLRUN, being someone who obviously has a good eye to bring a bronco project together, I'd like your opinion before I start buying parts. do you think the lower hanging RTR light bar or kc pro6 light bar would work with a big gobi rack on top?

Thank you very much for your most generous complements.

I thought about using a clamp on bracket, but the tubing is at an angle and in my opinion would be very difficult to make the clamp work. I ordered the bumper and the pre-runner bar uncoated because I knew that I'd be welding tabs on. I bought the tabs online and had a buddy weld them for me.

My wife and I bought a SxS just before the pandemic got "out of hand" in 2020. We spent a lot of time in the N GA mountains on forestry roads "socially distancing". We have a 90 mile loop that takes us 5-6 hours to complete. The SxS is NOT legal to ride up there as these are still considered public roads. Two years of riding a SxS taught me the things we did need to carry. You definitely can't have too much light in the middle of the woods, miles from civilization. I added the three lights down low so that I could add yellow covers to see in fog/rain. We got caught in the clouds one night and literally couldn't see 15' in front of us. If I used the KC's on it, all we could see was the glare / reflection of the lights on the fog. We need winch and a chainsaw to move trees that may fall over the road. I'm not sure what you would call our build type, but it suites what we intended to use it for.

As far as your lights and rack go, I'm not sure I have an answer for you. I wanted our lights to not block visibility out of the windshield, but I also didn't want them to stick up too tall.

Here are a few pics of the SxS and where we ride. (Yes, I run 33" tires on my General) LMAO

Trees do fall. If we were forced to turn around it could turn a 90 mile trip into 120 mile trip.

This is a screen grab from a video clip. This was all we could see one night with our regular head lights.

 

[ITLRUN]

another question, assuming you had the automated cruise control, do you think removing the grate in the front of the vanguard bumper (revealing the ACC sensor) would make it still functional?

I don't think that would work. It would sit too far back and I'm sure the steel of the bumper would keep it from working properly.

 

[ROCKO]

This whole close out panel (that's what I'm calling it LOL) is always going to look like an after thought without spending a fortune on it. I had calculated that the panel I made would leave ab out 1/16" gap. Apparently my math sucks LOL

Our inspiration was a late 80's early 90's Bronco. It's hard to put the illusion of the body lines that don't exist on what you're working on. I'm with you though. I like it, but it's not 100% for me either.

Don’t sweat it looks great!

 

[jaeggernaut]

@ITLRUN what rear bumper did you end up using?

I don’t like the one from JCR.

 

[ITLRUN]

@ITLRUN what rear bumper did you end up using?

I don’t like the one from JCR.

The rear bumper is still stock. I want to like the JCR bumper, but I’m with you. It’s not my favorite.

 

[ITLRUN]

Are they ever really "finished"? I believe that I'm ready for the big reveal tomorrow at the Super Celebration. One last teaser pic.

 

[haighter]

Someone saw you driving

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