2023 Azure Gray Metallic WOLL Badlands Build

[John Auer]

Yeah, same but I'm caught up in the idea that the Heritage must be a 2DR. This would be a third vehicle and designated as the recreational vehicle. I think a roof top rack would let me get by with a 2DR.

If the shoe fits… I can see how a 2dr would make a great extra vehicle. Personally, I need the room.

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[‘21OBX]

Nice! I seen an Everglades in the new azure color Saturday at our club toy drive. The color was lighter than the A51 parked next to it. It’s a good color can’t wait to see in in the sun! Keep us updated on the build. Watch the install video before you put on your hammer built setup. I didn’t and cause myself some grief!

 

[Seahund]

Update: I want to clarify one thing, and thank you for those who have tried to redirect this thread back to it's original purpose. There are many threads debating AGM vs A51 and their dislike/like of the color selections from Ford. I made a personal choice on my color that suited me. Everyone has that option and it should suite who you are. I'm not here to debate or persuade you one way or another. If you have any questions about it, more than happy to answer. End of the day, it's your rig (or in this case, my rig) and no matter your flavor, enjoy it!

This is the start of my build Journal.
That's about all I have right now. Just picked her up last night, couldn't have been more excited. I'll probably re-title this once I pick a name for my ride. I'm one who likes to get to know what I'm about to name before I randomly pick a name.

Parts ordered/on order

• Bronco Rear Emblem - Black
• RC Triple LED Fog Light Kit with Amber DLR
• Hammer Built Modular Tailgate Reinforcement System

Future Parts (3-6 months

• Stubby Antenna (not sure which one or even if this will happen as I use BT audio source majority of the time)
• Rock-Slide Engineering Power Deployable Steps
• MagnaFlow - Overland Series Exhuast

If I make that list any longer now, my wife will eat me alive!

As with all build guides, here's the stock version of her. As the weather lightens up around here, I'll get some better sunlight pictures.

All of my sons have been waiting for this that when we first saw her they both went up and gave her a giant hug. My middle kid kissed square center of the hood (then prompted wiped his mouth clean!). They have done nothing but show off, beg to ride in her, and overall enjoy this.

Congratulations!!! You're gonna love it! Stubby antenna is nice, especially in low hanging branch diving or the occasional drive-thru car wash.

 

[FilmcoBronci]

Have an A-51 and love your color. Have not seen one in the wild but held the AGM paint chips next to ours and the difference is notable, unless you are color blind... then you are likely screwed by 1/2 the 6G tones. Well done and look forward to watching your build.

 

[DorlanJ]

2 week and first off-road trip update. Couple of quirks to report on first, both good and bad.

• Not sure if I missed this/was unaware of it, but the zone lighting feature is amazing, especially at night. There are two buttons (over by the light selector) that allows you to engage the wing mirror "spot" lights that make things easier at when the nights get longer!
• Hardtop with sound deadening liner at high speeds (70-90 MPH) is actually really good. I've ridden in several hard and soft top Wranglers and would put it on par/slightly better than those.
  • Microphone for calls is great, people I'm talking with say they barely hear the wind noise.
  • Doesn't impact sound when listening to music either. Overall, worth it.
• Heated steering wheel and seats.
  • Seats are amazing. Holy cow do those suckers get hot on the highest setting. Kept my butt toasty this weekend in mid 30s while on the trails. Highly recommended!
  • Steering wheel is great for the first 5-10 mins. Once the wheel is warm, there has to be a "setting" that has it produce less heat or something. Leaving it on indefinitely produces quick diminishing returns before you cannot even tell it's on. After thinking about it though, I believe this may be by design.
• Washout flooring, obviously this only applies for the models equipped
  • Just down right easier to have the hard plastic flooring with those drain plugs. Both while on the trails and water comes in and at home for easy clean up. Taking the hose to it is a lot easier than what I've had to do in the past.
  • The grooves are not designed intelligently. At all. If you do not "move" the water with either the spray of or with a brush/cloth, it pools up in areas and doesn't make it to the drain hole. @Ford Motor Company please fix or update that.

Taking her off-road was just down right a blast. The park we went to isn't as well maintained, especially this time of year. It's primarily frequented by a lot of "toys" (razers, sideXside, etc.) and they do not take care of the trails at all. Too many times did we get about half way through a trail before we had to turn around because there were 4-5 feet deep ruts we did not want to try. Overall, the ride was smooth easy and extremely enjoyable. Here's some of my thoughts for those who are interested.

• Rear Diff truly is the only hiccup on the undercarriage for easy-moderate trails. Was slightly off on one of my lines and got hung up on it (thankfully was at extremely low speeds and did not force it). Going to have to either find a way to armor it or just be a lot more cognizant of it.
• 1-pedal is truly an interesting and amazing piece of technology, another driving factor on why I got the 10-speed versus the 7-speed. Just do not try to familiarize yourself with it while hitting an obstacle that requires extreme finesse (see below picture going down a nice rock face slide).
• G.O.A.T. modes are great and amazing to use when you're just wanting a set it and forget it. But I found myself switching between a mode and then doing it manually majority of the time because of habit? or something that made it hard for me to leave it in that particular mode. Not sure what, maybe I just need to get used to how each mode works more. I just found myself switching into mud/ruts then about 5 mins later manually switching back to 4H with just the rear-diff locked. Either way, I'd recommend either spending a lot of time familiarizing yourself with the modes and getting comfortable with them before you hit up any trails.
• The seats, damnit if they are not comfortable as all hell on the trails. I've been in mid '00 Grand Cherokees, all manner of Wranglers, 4Runners, Tacoma's, and military vehicles old and new, but the seats in this thing are comfortable as hell. Same park, same trails, but about 3 hours less in my '18 TRDPro Taco and I was stiff and sore and worn out before even hitting the exit of the park. In the Bronco, I didn't feel how exhausted I was until 30 mins into the freeway drive back home. Without a doubt, great choice and quality!
• Rear seats heating/cooling. Without a doubt this has been hit on countless times. It sucks back there. On a positive note though, I noticed the "vents" or what ever you want to call them are actually "attachments" that I'm thinking I may rig something up that can be used seasonally. Not sure yet, but I'm sure something simple can work.

End of the day, holy cow do I love my Bronco. Still haven't named her yet, but damnit if I do not smile bigger than I ever did with my TRDPRo. I'm a Toyota guy through and through, and getting the TRDPro Taco was my holy grail and I never thought I'd feel differently about it. This Bronco though, without a doubt and bone stock, makes me truly appreciate everything @Ford Motor Company was able to accomplish with this thing. Well worth the 541 days of waiting (yes, I know, not as long as some).

Yes, that's a Jeep Commander and an F250. Yes, that 250 is a beast. Yes, the Commander was more than cpable.

 

[DorlanJ]

June 2023 Update

It's been a long road since picking up my Bronco. A lot of ups and downs, some good some really bad but at the end of the day it's still parked in my garage and not somewhere else.

I will say this to anyone still interested or paying attention here (updating more for myself, as I originally started this off as a build thread for me), the Bronco lives up to it's name. It's a wild vehicle. Off road, it'll take anything I've thrown at it and ask for more. The engine is peppy and gives you what you ask for and then some. Stripped down, it's a wild ride either to the grocery or the local off road adventure. I have a love hate relationship right now because it's turned into more of an expensive toy vehicle than a true secondary vehicle, but if I'm honest with myself that's why I wanted one in the first place.

Okay, some updates on what I've done with her so far. While I haven't been able to get everything I've wanted (damn inflation), I've been able to do some small updates here and there.

The B&O sound system is a decent upgrade and addition to the vehicle with the hardtop on. Driving around buttoned up, I figured I could get a year, maybe two before the itch hit to replace everything. Sadly, soon as spring hit and I had her fully topless, the rear pod speakers become useless and the front dash started to show all of it's flaws. I couldn't drive above 20 mph without having the volume up to 20-25 and even then it was hard to hear everything. After pouring over many threads on here, decided to go with the following:

Mabett replacement pods (installed)
JL Audio C1-650x 6.5" speakers in the pods (installed)
JL Audio C1-650 speakers in the front kick panels (waiting on time to do kick panel modifications)
Focal ACX 100 4" speakers in the FL and FR dash (waiting on adapter that's been back ordered)

I do not have any installation process pics of the pods as those exist plenty. I did modify the Mabett pods as the C1-650x tweeter interfered with the grate. I have to say the look turned out pretty good and the yellow comes close to matching the badlands yellow.

The tweeters in the C1-650 are 3/4" and I should be able to drill a slot for them near the kick panel, which I'm hoping to get done over the next 2 weeks. We'll see how that goes.

While not major modifications, I've also go the stubby antenna and black rear Bronco emblem on there.

Next up should be the Hammer Built Modular Tailgate Reinforcement System and the RC Triple LED Fog Light Kit with Amber DLR.

 

[Lowcountry Bronco]

June 2023 Update

It's been a long road since picking up my Bronco. A lot of ups and downs, some good some really bad but at the end of the day it's still parked in my garage and not somewhere else.

I will say this to anyone still interested or paying attention here (updating more for myself, as I originally started this off as a build thread for me), the Bronco lives up to it's name. It's a wild vehicle. Off road, it'll take anything I've thrown at it and ask for more. The engine is peppy and gives you what you ask for and then some. Stripped down, it's a wild ride either to the grocery or the local off road adventure. I have a love hate relationship right now because it's turned into more of an expensive toy vehicle than a true secondary vehicle, but if I'm honest with myself that's why I wanted one in the first place.

Okay, some updates on what I've done with her so far. While I haven't been able to get everything I've wanted (damn inflation), I've been able to do some small updates here and there.

The B&O sound system is a decent upgrade and addition to the vehicle with the hardtop on. Driving around buttoned up, I figured I could get a year, maybe two before the itch hit to replace everything. Sadly, soon as spring hit and I had her fully topless, the rear pod speakers become useless and the front dash started to show all of it's flaws. I couldn't drive above 20 mph without having the volume up to 20-25 and even then it was hard to hear everything. After pouring over many threads on here, decided to go with the following:

Mabett replacement pods (installed)
JL Audio C1-650x 6.5" speakers in the pods (installed)
JL Audio C1-650 speakers in the front kick panels (waiting on time to do kick panel modifications)
Focal ACX 100 4" speakers in the FL and FR dash (waiting on adapter that's been back ordered)

I do not have any installation process pics of the pods as those exist plenty. I did modify the Mabett pods as the C1-650x tweeter interfered with the grate. I have to say the look turned out pretty good and the yellow comes close to matching the badlands yellow.

The tweeters in the C1-650 are 3/4" and I should be able to drill a slot for them near the kick panel, which I'm hoping to get done over the next 2 weeks. We'll see how that goes.

While not major modifications, I've also go the stubby antenna and black rear Bronco emblem on there.

Next up should be the Hammer Built Modular Tailgate Reinforcement System and the RC Triple LED Fog Light Kit with Amber DLR.

Looking good! Glad you decided to keep it!!!

 

[BisSilent]

I love my BOSS'S (wife's) AGM Bronco.

 

[ScLeCo]

Why do people feel the need to post pictures on THEIR vehicle on someone else's "build" thread?
But do a few speakers count as a"build" though?

 

[DorlanJ]

Why do people feel the need to post pictures on THEIR vehicle on someone else's "build" thread?
But do a few speakers count as a"build" though?

Hey, when you have 4 kids, money tends to not go towards the $60,000 hobby!

 

[DorlanJ]

I love my BOSS'S (wife's) AGM Bronco.

That's a nice ride you're wife has. How does that winch affect the fwd facing camera on that?

 

[BisSilent]

That's a nice ride you're wife has. How does that winch affect the fwd facing camera on that?

Thanks!
I remounted the controller with a custom enclosure.

 

[DorlanJ]

Thanks!
I remounted the controller with a custom enclosure.

That isn't too bad of an obstruction up front. How long of an install did it take you? And by yourself or with help?

I've been hoping that a suitable mount option comes out with little to no modifications and/or without replacing the MOD bumper. Sadly, I do not think anyone is going to do that and I may have to look into a rear mount winch and bumper combo.

 

[BisSilent]

That isn't too bad of an obstruction up front. How long of an install did it take you? And by yourself or with help?

I've been hoping that a suitable mount option comes out with little to no modifications and/or without replacing the MOD bumper. Sadly, I do not think anyone is going to do that and I may have to look into a rear mount winch and bumper combo.

It took about 4 hours to take the old bumper off and install the Icon front bumper and winch. I had the BOSS come out and help me get the bumper bolts started(about 5 minutes of her time). Other than that it was just me.

The wiring and custom control mounting took me about 3 hours. I didn't get in a rush and might have drank a couple of Bourbons while doing the work.

 

[GIJoey]

This is just Area 51 with extra steps...

Not even close in person….A51 is a flat color that throws off teal shades. AGM is deeper, metallic and throws off blue hues.

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