New Tires

This week was a busy week and I didn’t have much time to work on my truck.  I did purchase some 33x12.50R15LT Wild Country MTX Radials that I had a tire shop put on for me, I know it's not a backyard job but I don't have the equipment to safely mount and balance tires and they are to expensive to risk them wearing out prematurely, plus with a local shop I had it all done and put on the truck for $46.00. These tires are bigger than the previous tires so I wasn't sure if they would fit. I used a forum called FullSizeBronco.com to find my answers and discovered that a 33x12.5 on a 10” wide rim will fit 87-91 models as long as the backspacing on the rim is 3.75”. My other tires were wore unevenly from the bad ball joints taken care of a few weeks ago, which caused them to be out of balance and caused a vibration through the steering of the truck. I also purchased some new chrome lug nuts from SummitRacing.com  and a black chrome paint kit for the rims from AdvanceAuto.com that I’ll be using on the rims, that came off the parts truck, in the future. When going to a larger tire you will notice a few things like decrease in ride quality, worse gas mileage, and a decrease in power all from spinning the heavier weight of the larger rims and tires. The stock P235 tires on a 7" wide rim that come on a bronco weigh around 45lbs, the 31x10.50's on the 8" wide rally rim weigh around 65lbs, and the new 33x12.50's on the 10" wide rims weigh around 85lbs per tire. The extra weight puts a strain on the stock parts and can cause breakage. You must also keep in mind that the larger tire will cover more distance with every revolution than the smaller tires which will cause your speedometer to be incorrect, mine is showing 9mph slower than my actual speed right now. I’m hoping that I can get a little free time this next week that way I’ll be able to show you the painting of the rims for next weeks post. My apologies for the lack of pictures but it has been a very busy week.

The Old 31x10.50R15LT

The New 33x12.50R15LT

Repainting the Fiberglass Top

Every Fullsize Bronco has a fiberglass top that tends to fade overtime. This video is the repainting of the fiberglass top on my 1989 Bronco. The total cost of painting the top was around $40.00 and I used a 3M scuff pad, 2 Rolls of green 3M automotive masking tape, and 3 cans of Black Duplicolor bumper coating.

Ball Joint Replacement

 

This video is the basic overview of the replacement of the Upper and Lower Ball Joints on the front of my Bronco. This is a backyard build so the methods may seem a little unusual because they probably are. There are some spots that seem to skip around as this was my first attempt to document a build process. Future post will have complete and more detailed how-to videos.

Introduction to the Backyard Bronco Build

 Welcome to Backyard Bronco Build. This weekly blog will be about work done on my 1989 Ford Bronco in my backyard. There will be projects such as ball joint replacement, exhaust upgrades, MSD ignition install, custom fabbed sliders and bumpers, and many others. Many of the parts will be brand new and some will be used from a parts truck that I purchased for $300.00. Most of the earlier entries will be step-by-step installations of bolt-on performance parts or stock replacement parts due to the ice cold winter weather. When the weather begins to warm-up here in Northeast Arkansas I will begin some of the fabrication projects.

1989 Bronco (Project Truck)

Project Truck without top

1991 Parts Bronco purchased for $300

1991 Bronco with 351w (Parts Truck)