Salvage 2 Door Badlands Gets a Second Life. Restoration & Modified Rebuild Planned

[Tricky Dick]

Dammit Eric now you have me eyeing the 37x14.50x17 blems. I went ahead and bought some Squatch wheels.

I was bummed also when I got my tires. I might sell these and get some 38.5/13.50/17
Boggers.

Did you end up getting the 38.5s?

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[Bikeric]

Dammit Eric now you have me eyeing the 37x14.50x17 blems. I went ahead and bought some Squatch wheels.

LOL Glad I could help!!

I successfully got the Title changed from Salvage to Rebuilt today. I didn’t even have a working light for license plate yet or a mount to put the plate on the back bumper….. Just paid $25 for the “inspection” and I was out the door.

 

[Mudlight]

Dammit Eric now you have me eyeing the 37x14.50x17 blems. I went ahead and bought some Squatch wheels.


Did you end up getting the 38.5s?

Not yet, still planning on it though. I am going to sell these small TSL/SX2. I had 38.5 Boggers on my 96'

 

[Bikeric]

I was not impressed with my paint and body work so I decided to put band aids at the corners. The Bushwhacker trail armor did just the trick. I never liked the looks of these in the pictures I saw, and I just scoffed at them in the Build & Price tool, but they work for me now and don't look half bad in person.

 

[Bikeric]

Next on the agenda is getting it lifted and installing the 37" tires. Removing the front shocks was a bear!! I did remove the sway bar disconnect to remove to the lower rear control arm bolts. I bought a VEVOR tool to help compress the springs for the preload collars and the tool worked exactly 1 time..... I had to go back to my old school Harbor Freight all thread versions to get the second spring compressed. I was able to get the fronts' done and reinstalled with the Zone 1" level kit as well.
I have done numerous front strut replacements on Toyota 4Runners, Tacoma's and Tundra's. I can do each side of those in under 30 minutes. Performing the same job on the Bronco took me 2 hours/side. Everybody should be aware of that fact and understand why some shops will charge you 3 to 4 times the hourly rate than you might be used to on Labor.

 

[Bikeric]

I was able to get SPORT mode programmed into my Badlands via FORScan. I drove it around the block in the neighborhood and GEEZ it makes a difference. I have the Steeda blow off valve adapter because I like to hear Turbo sounds, and I'll just say it is 10X better when in SPORT mode!! It seems like the Turbo spools so much higher and I get a much louder "phssshhh" when shifting gears.

 

[Bikeric]

I got my first wheel with 37" Swampers installed. I've got 2 more wheels getting the tires mounted today, so I will mount 1 on the front and begin working the rear. I just hope I can get this bad boy out of the garage when I'm done.

 

[Bikeric]

Well, I moved on to put the perch collars on my rear shocks last night. I discovered that I have ZERO preload on the factory rear springs....... I could remove the top hat without using any spring compressor tools. That just doesn't seem right to me. The perch collar I used barely required me to compress the spring in order to get the top hat back on. I marked the top hat and bottom holder for alignment, but that really wasn't necessary because I could still spin the coil bucket around after it was assembled. I ended up with my rear being 1" lower than my front. I think I need to buy some heavier rate springs so I don't have the "Carolina Squat" look. That issue was due to me tightening the lower control arm 4 bolts when it was in the air. The Bronco needs to be on the ground and weighted, and THEN adjust the cam washers and tighten the control arm pivot bolts.
My Bronco being the 2.3 Manual 2-Door Non-Squatch No Tow must have the weakest springs Ford makes. I want to buy springs (MB3Z-5560-C) from a 4-door Sasquatch 2.7 auto with Tow package or get the Eibach Pro Truck springs and do the rear again.

Driving Update: My rear springs are still super soft, but the lift is just fine. I still think heavier rate springs will be on my future list because the rear drops like a boat when I give it the beans in Sport Mode.

 

[Bikeric]

False alarm!!! I did some YouTubing and realized I tightened my front control arms while it was in the air. I loosened those 4 bolts when the Bronco had its weight on them and then retightened after realigning the cam washers. Now I'm at a 7" gap between tires and fender flares all around. I gave it my best tape measure with an eyeball alignment last night so I could drive it today. I'll get a real alignment tomorrow. I'm only running 22psi in the tires for now. My experience with these Swampers is that they are hard as a rock at normal pressures.

 

[NVCowboy]

I was not impressed with my paint and body work so I decided to put band aids at the corners. The Bushwhacker trail armor did just the trick. I never liked the looks of these in the pictures I saw, and I just scoffed at them in the Build & Price tool, but they work for me now and don't look half bad in person.

I think the trail armor works on your Bronco for various reasons: 1. They compliment the black bits with the VB paint. 2. Not sure, they might be a mistake on a 4 door. 3. They sucked on build and price. 4. There may be more.

 

[NVCowboy]

I'm re-purposing my old orange winch to use on the Bronco. I had some leftover velocity blue paint, so I figured why not make it match? I'm letting it fully cure for a few days before I try and reassemble it. If I don't like how it looks on the Bronco, Satin Black is easy enough to cover it up with. It was cold in the garage and I over sprayed the motor a bit and it got runny. Lucky for me the paint run will be the bottom side and not seen after being mounted.

Feel like I’m back on the antique power tools website, now I’m trying to imagine this in other colors / configurations (motor housing only, etc.). Painting that winch is a minor detail that made a stupid big difference.

 

[Bikeric]

I think the trail armor works on your Bronco for various reasons: 1. They compliment the black bits with the VB paint. 2. Not sure, they might be a mistake on a 4 door. 3. They sucked on build and price. 4. There may be more.

Thanks for the compliments. I just looked again at the B&P and Ford charges $500 for these. Bushwacker is $99 for fronts and $99 for the rears +S&H+Tax.

 

[Bikeric]

I took the girl off-roading on Friday and it did Fantastic. I put it in Rock Crawl mode and just had fun. I played around with the "Crawl" gear, but it was way too low for anything other than vertical. Rock Crawl mode really holds the revs high which makes shifting from 1 to 2 unusual. It took some getting used to. Anyway, here are some pics of my Bronco in its natural environment.

 

[Bikeric]

I have a confession to make, and I'm not proud of myself. A Bronco Sport was behind me at a stop light over the weekend. Their roof was about the middle of my back window. The light turned green and I zoomed off in Sport Mode ....
How many Hail Mary's are required of me?

 

[Tricky Dick]

I was able to get SPORT mode programmed into my Badlands via FORScan. I drove it around the block in the neighborhood and GEEZ it makes a difference. I have the Steeda blow off valve adapter because I like to hear Turbo sounds, and I'll just say it is 10X better when in SPORT mode!! It seems like the Turbo spools so much higher and I get a much louder "phssshhh" when shifting gears.

Interesting, I noticed zero difference when I added Sport. I chalked it up to having a manual but your experience rules that out.

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