Thursday, January 25, 2018

Massive Project Update!

It doesn't take much sleuthing to check the posting dates on this blog and realize I'm terrible at keeping up to date posting things as often as I originally wanted to.  Life and my two jobs always try to pull me away, and it gets even worse in Summer when car shows and cruising start up.  It seems I always try to revive it in Winter new-years-resolution-style.  One of the biggest downfalls in this apparent plan is that there are huge changes that happen to my personal vehicles in the interim. This post is hopefully going to catch you all up to where you need to be for us all to move forward.

Just not touching.  Paper-slipper
Based on the posts here, I'm pretty sure our last chat was when I owned just the '74 Maverick (it never leaves or gets worked on), the '79 Bronco Free Wheelin' Edition, the '02 black Crown Victoria, and the '03 white Crown Victoria (re-dubbed the White Prowler as you'll find out). Well, since then much has changed.  I'm currently sitting at eight cars, but I'll bring you up to date on each of them separately.

This is pretty much how I last left you
Sabotage: '02 Crown Vic
This car has been with me for several years and has had the most modification of all my cars so far, but after much deliberation, I've decided to let it go. If I keep if, it will turn into a much larger project than I really want or need that car to be, so I'm selling it before it gets out of hand.  There is a pending sale on it now, just waiting for him to come sometime this winter to pick it up.  Plans are to reinvest in a welder/plasma cutter combo for future projects.

Almost prepped for shipment
The White Prowler: '03 Crown Victoria P71
This car I bought last Fall in the hopes of making a big project out of it.  I got it running and got sidetracked with a different idea.  I started fixing it up to run an event and soon found it wasn't up to the original project I had planned to use it for.  Then we started calling it the White Prowler.  In the end, I ran it for the event (later to be posted about), and I had no real plans for it afterward. I thought it would make a great body swap candidate, but decided it would be too long before I got around to that, so I listed it on a couple Facebook buy/sell/trade groups saying what a good body swap it would be.  About four months later, a guy took me up on the idea and traded me a '79 F-150 Ranger Larait 4x4 with a 351M, auto, utility bed, 4" lift, and 35" BFG All-Terrain T/As.  It's cool and tons of fun to bomb around in, but in the end, that's on the chopping block too.  It was good motivation to get the Broncos figured out though because that was the same lift combination I was hoping to run on that too.
This had a rough weekend in Michigan last April
Probably the best trade I could've made to not lose money on the white Vic
Project Glory Hole: '79 Bronco Free Wheelin' Edition
Seemed like a good segway.  What had always been the biggest issue with this Bronco while I've owned it?  That's right; rust.  Well, just about the time it was starting to get nice out and I could start working on it, wouldn't you know my friend sends me a link to an online auction saying, "hey, they have a Bronco just like yours with way less rust!"  I would be a fool to not look into it.  Sure enough, clean '79 Bronco with an opening bid of $8.  This is how I spent May and June, watching this auction.  Back to the black Bronco, I just setup a pending transaction, a gentleman's agreement, with a guy from North Dakota who really seems to want my Bronco to rebuild like one his Grandpa had, just like mine but burned in a fire. He's trading me a '94 Bronco that needs a trans, but my brother is looking for one that style, so all good!

Looks good with 35s stuffed in there; won't turn.
The Junkyard Auction: Don't show me a "bid" button
What started as a simple "hey, check this out," turned into 7 pages of old inventory getting purged at liquidation prices out of a wrecking yard out in north central South Dakota.  So many great projects all in one place, all starting at single digit prices!  I could barely contain myself.  I finally got the list narrowed down to eight that I was watching... for two months.  In the end, I wound up with the Bronco (Ranger XLT with no engine and a 4-speed) and a rwd '72 F-100 long bed (302 automatic).  My mom even got in on the fun with a '74 Valiant sedan (slant six automatic).  By the end of the summer, we had a friend with a trucking company bring all three down to us in southeast Wisconsin.  The shipping cost almost triple what the vehicles did, but it was a fun bucket list item to be able to say I saved cars out of a junkyard.

My truckload of toys from the junkyard.  Can't wait to drive the F-100!
Ok, they're home.  Now what are you going to do with them?  The plan for the Bronco is to make it a good looking, fun off-road toy that's fun to bomb around town with too.  Looking to fix it up with a 4" lift, 35" tires, some rock sliders, basic roll cage, off-road bumpers, and a '91 460 and 5-speed (I bought a donor truck) with a stroker kit that makes it a 545.  That should get through, over, or around pretty much anything in its way.  The plan for the Valiant is a fun cruiser that can pull my mom's canned ham camper.  I want to swap the slant six with a warmed over 360 and a newer automatic with overdrive and a Hotchkiss TBS suspension kit.  She's even picked out a set of American Racing Torque Thrust D's all on her own!  This thing will hopefully handle better than it looks, but it'll look good too!  My favorite out of the lot, the '72 F-100, is supposed to be a trailer-pulling muscle truck.  I want to build a Windsor-based 427 stroker to put in it with a ZF-5 out of a F-350 diesel (at least, until I can afford a T-56).  I want it slammed to the ground and handling well but with the ability to pull a car trailer, stop 10,000 pounds of steel, and drive into my steep driveway without worrying it will hit.  Tall order?  Yes.  Will I do it?  You bet your ass!  Long term project?  More than likely.  I can't wait to start on it this spring when it thaws enough to go outside!

This will replace the rusted out black Bronco and will be getting a 460 and 5-speed from my '91 F-250
MFP71: '01 lifted Crown Vic P71
For a short while, I owned three Crown Victorias at the same time (what a glorious world!).  Now I only own two.  The one you haven't seen yet (which needs some build posts) is a '01 P71 that I may have just installed a 3" lift onto and a set of used, take-off 31" Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs.  It is going to take a turn for the Wasteland and get a paint job like the original Mad Max police cars.  It's gonna be pretty cool, and I can't wait to take it to the couple events it needs to be at, but last week, the head gaskets blew on my way to work in -15° weather.  Hooray for my junky cars!  Already looking for a replacement motor.  We'll keep you updated... mostly.

This is how I got it
This is what I've done to it
Not my cars: family vehicles I get to also fix
My brother got an '11 Wrangler, and that got a 3.5" lift and 35s, so I need to show you that.  It also seems to be the only way I got out and took pictures in 2017, so expect some fun off-road shots.  The family F-250 is still down pending rebuild, but I think I found a motor for that too.  Still no movement on the cars still in Minnesota ('63 FC-170 heirloom truck and my '74 Maverick sedan).  There's also a Jeep Commander, Ford Escape, and Jeep Grand Cherokee around, but you'll probably only see the Grand Cherokee since we took it off-roading.  I doubt I'll post basic maintenance on the ladies' rides.
Modded with no lift and 31" BFG Mud Terrains
'11 JK with lift and 35" Nitto Trail Grapplers
ZJ on the JK take-off wheels and 31s in the UP
I killed it and left it in the woods overnight, but that's a different post...
So that's what I've got and where the projects are at.  We'll get to working on those once the snow starts thawing, and I'll make sure to tell you about what I'm doing with them and to them (and in some cases, catch you up on what I have already done to them).  It's gonna be a fun ride to building fun rides.  This will be a year of building engines, but I also hope to revive the Valiant and F-100 with their junkyard-fresh drivetrains to see how bad they are.  Might be able to drive them as is.  If so, I'll be sure to tell you all about it, and what it takes to get them running, right here!

My outdoor storage space is currently well endowed