MY build thread...'88 Bronco II Desert Rat Patrol Edition: 1/26/24 update!

[Peter Griffin]

Defiantly came out good! I wonder how much he used? I've been thinking about doing it to my 89 B2. I really like the way yours came out!

Thanks Sir! 8 quarts of the tintable Raptor liner and custom tint for the body and 2 quarts of black handled both bumpers and the grill...

 

[Peter Griffin]

As far as the Raptor goes, here's where I got it from:

U-Pol Raptor Liner

All products are in stock and ready for purchase. We only ship within the USA from Coast to Coast.

www.raptorliner.com

You can see that they state 10L for a Jeep Wrangler; my guy said 8L was fine and was more than enough. He said he thought it was an older batch as it initially sprayed thicker than what he was used too so he ended up thinning it out a bit which made it go further. You can adjust the texture by varying the PSI; 40 is pretty coarse while 60 is smoother, relatively speaking. Best thing you can do is practice on a piece of cardboard to see which you prefer.

My '17 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon was Gobi which I really liked and looks great in an off-road environment, particularly the desert (duh, Gobi IS a desert...dumb ass!). They can color match ANY paint code you give them, so that's what I did and bought two 12oz packages which was exactly enough to tint the 8L of tintable Raptor liner. I was pleasantly surprised that when the packages arrived the Gobi tint was packaged in 3oz individual bottles which made it that much easier to mix.

Automotive Paint Codes (we only sell in 12 ounce increments)

RAPTOR Liner USA provides tough and tintable bedliner protective coating products to Americans.

www.raptorliner.com

You'll see that Raptor does offer several of their own tints but from a cost standpoint it only cost a few more dollars a Liter/(quart) to have the exact color I wanted. I can tell you that their Olive Green looks VERY mean (sorry that rhymed!) and if it fits your environment and you like that MIL look, you can't go wrong with it...

 

[Peter Griffin]

Ugh...no news, at least in my case, is typically BAD news...

With a handful of odds and ends left to wrap up, all cosmetic basically, I felt confident to take it out of town for it's inaugural road trip that was approximately 300 round trip miles. I was a lil nervous because I had a VA medical appointment, so if anything went south there was a timeliness issue which could have cause me a problem.

The trip was almost all rural state highway, 65 MPH speed limit. The trip was going fine and I was about 45 minutes out from my destination when I immediately noticed a white cloud of smoke behind me. There was no noise, loss of "performance" or anything indicating anything was wrong. Neither my coolant gauge or my fan controller app showed any issues.

I pulled over where it was safe and immediately noticed pink fluid so knew it was the transmission. It was dripping directly onto the exhaust manifold downpipe fore of the converter, not from the pan. I got back on the road and limped it to the closest town and fueled up and bought all the transmission fluid they had. When I checked the dipstick it was bone dry...and adding only a quart brought it up to the crosshatch area, which I thought was a lil goofy, but anyway I got back on the road and made it to my appointment on time...barely.

There was an O'Reilly's directly across the street from where my appointment was so I bought more fluid and a funnel since the disposal paper one the gas station gave me wasn't going to cut, but was better than nothing. So I began to limp it home. I would occasionally see smoke again, I'd pull over, top off, and keep going.

I made it home BARELY. It shifted fine and was giving no outward indication of anything other than a leak being an issue. When I settled down and the car cooled off I gave it a closer look and noticed there were no tool marks on the transmission's pan. I thought that was rather strange as I had paid to have it serviced which SHOULD have included dropping the pan, changing the gasket and adjusting the bands.

I asked the mechanic that did the service TWICE if he had done that, and while my previous services with him had gone well, his tune didn't change but he didn't answer me either time. I kept my blood pressure in check by not pressing the issue and asked him to inspect it to determine the cause of the issue. It was also at this time I noticed a clunking in the transmission on the short trip from my house to shop.

His inspection revealed that the fluid pump seal/gasket had blown out, thus puking fluid onto my downpipe. Replacing the seal/gasket would stop the leak but there was an obviously bigger issue. He stated that the noise was play in the torque converter from either the needle/thrust bearings being worn. I'm hardly an expert on transmissions, manual or automatic, and liken the later to Swiss watches, which is why I wanted him to service it instead of me just changing the fluid, filter and pan gasket. He told me he had the machine to completely flush it which was going to be better, faster and way less messy for me, and since he was charging my A/C, I thought it was a good idea to have him do it.

He referred me to a local transmission specialist, which I knew of being THE go-to place for anything transmission related. The FIRST thing he asked me was if I had it serviced recently, which I obviously had. He asked me if I had any issues prior to the service, which I hadn't, but I also hadn't taken it on a long trip either. His insinuation was that the services was half-assed and improperly performed and likely caused the issue(s) I'm now experiencing. The gentleman I spoke with was extremely familiar with the BII platform and had previously owned a pretty built out '84, and was very interested in my build, so we chatted that up for a minute.

Fast forward to this past Friday, when at this point they've had it since the previous Monday, so going on almost two weeks, which I had expected as they told they were very busy.

They pulled the pan and found metal and indicated there was likewise an issue with the transfer case and found metal in it and the chains very loose. They asked if I was interested in a complete removal and inspection, which they would need to properly diagnose everything and would count towards the repair if I choose to have it done.

He stated it would be $700 and that would cover the labor for to R&R the transmission and transfer case and inspect it. It is what it is as they say and I'm WAY to into this vehicle at this point to drive it around with a janky ass transmission and transfer case, adding fluid and waiting for it to blow up. I'm NOT equipped to do it myself, by any stretch of the imagination and I'm confident that the right people have their hands on it right now, I'm just preparing myself for a repair bill that will rival the cost of the vehicle...

Did I mention...UGH...!

In other, seemingly insignificant news my wife and I managed to get the new headliner material laid on and installed and while there's a few creases and whatnot it's a MASSIVE improvement over the sagging, fading and cigarette burned/stained one that was in there...I'll post some pictures, when I get the news on what it's gonna run me to get the transmission/transfer case fixed.

 

[RobbieD]

Damn; sorry to hear that. Hang in there, and I hope that repair estimate isn't too bad.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Thanks @RobbieD! It is what it is as they say. I have SO much time/work/money in it at this point it's not the time to do it 1/2-arsed. If the transmission shop can tell me unequivocally that the transmission service I had done actually caused the issue, I'm gonna go back to them and make a claim on their garage keeper's insurance policy...provided they even have one. I was an insurance adjuster a million years ago and I'm extremely familiar with the process. Majority of my claims were oil change related where the customer's motor seized and was found to be bone dry shortly after the service...

That being said and considering the transfer case is in the mix too the repair could approach that of the purchase price of the vehicle...no joke. That terrifies me but everything else on the vehicle is so dang near perfect I feel like I owe it to myself and the truck to do whatever it takes to fix it. The shop it's at has a legendary local reputation; they're family owned and solid Christian American-type folks, so I feel like it couldn't be in any better hands.

On the bright side I put together my return to LMC Truck together and I have over $700 of parts so that'll help offset the cost. I have some parts and supplies that need to go back to O'Reilly's and ACE Hardware too. I have those two radiators (one with the e-fan) that I'm looking to sell here in the TRS marketplace in addition to the 3-inch body lift and some other odds and ends that I hope will help me recoup some of the money I've spent...wish me luck!

 

[maddyn]

ugh bummer about the trans. on another note, raptor job looks great, do you happen to know what spray gun it got done with? Just the stock raptor schultz gun? or something like a harbor freight HVLP gun? Would like to see a close up of texture. Planning on doing something similar, would like to keep it like the factory two tone, but do a smoother finish on the top, more like a bad orange peel paint job and then go with a more typical beadliner texture on the lower rockers. Rig is looking great tho

 

[Peter Griffin]

@maddyn I'm sorry I don't have that specific info for this Raptor job that my buddy did for me since he needed some work to do, but I can tell you from doing it before that the Raptor Schultz gun works just fine, you just need to (1) experiment on the PSI for the texture you're looking for, (just spray a large piece of cardboard (2) use a sufficient air compressor (a pancake isn't going to do it and it might slow you down to the point where the Raptor starts to cure/harden and make life difficult on y'all.

A third tip is to make sure your compressor stays on/plugged in...! I was doing the fenders on my Jeep JK Rubi and the Raptor start coming out REAL thick when I noticed the compressor was off and the PSI had dropped below 40.

My buddy mentioned that he did end up adding some thinner to it which had the effect of stretching out what I had, but we weren't worried about running out of Raptor, just for a finer/smoother texture...

 

[Shran]

A4LD front seal blowouts are a pretty common thing... I would not blame your first service guy for that. Maybe his insurance would cover some cost... but the root cause is worn out parts... is it worth burning up a relationship with your service guy over something that wasn't really his fault?

ugh bummer about the trans. on another note, raptor job looks great, do you happen to know what spray gun it got done with? Just the stock raptor schultz gun? or something like a harbor freight HVLP gun? Would like to see a close up of texture. Planning on doing something similar, would like to keep it like the factory two tone, but do a smoother finish on the top, more like a bad orange peel paint job and then go with a more typical beadliner texture on the lower rockers. Rig is looking great tho

You're not going to shoot Raptor, even with a thinner in it with a Harbor Freight HLVP gun. I use one of the HF "purple" HVLP guns for primer and I have the tip hogged out to 2mm - it's still not enough for some of the thick high build primers. Raptor is much thicker than that. I would look for a gun with a tip much larger than 2mm - 2.5 or 3mm might work - or you could try thinning the product and shooting it with the Raptor gun and play with your air pressure to get the finish you want. I bet you can dial it in and make that gun work.

Trick is going to be getting your mix ratio right. I found that it was not easy to add hardener and have any time at all to work with it... you would need to dump your Raptor, hardener and a thinner into a mixing container, mix it up, then dump it back into an empty Raptor jug and plan on wasting some or stopping halfway through to refill. The Raptor system works pretty good but it's only designed to have two parts in one jug, not enough room for thinner.

 

[Peter Griffin]

A4LD front seal blowouts are a pretty common thing... I would not blame your first service guy for that. Maybe his insurance would cover some cost... but the root cause is worn out parts... is it worth burning up a relationship with your service guy over something that wasn't really his fault?

I'm not the one that's going to determine fault; the transmission shop will with their diagnosis. One of the first things the transmission shop asked was if it had been serviced recently; like they knew. The truck was fine before the service and if the service wasn't properly done, which it sure doesn't seem like it was, then yeah, I'll burn up a relationship because it was his fault. The fact that there were no tool marks on the pan hardware and he obviously didn't change the filter AND won't answer my questions all seem to add up to this being his fault. People lied to me for a living for the better part of almost 25 years and I know when someone is ducking a question, and why...

People make mistakes and if that ends up being the case here, I expect him to own it. I'm not gonna eat a MASSIVE repair bill because I don't want to hurt his feelings; that's what insurance is for and if he doesn't have that then I'll take it from there.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Man, that’s a rough one…

If they do fix up the transmission, I would highly recommend doing a shift kit and valve body work and a bigger transmission cooler, that stuff will significantly help the transmission in the future, although it will mean an even bigger expense now.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Update...

The good news is that my completely rebuilt transmission and transfer case along with a new drive shaft are in and I got the truck back the other day. The better news is it was significantly less expensive than their initial quote, which exceeded the purchase price of the vehicle...but with that being said it still cost me a fortune.

Sooooo yesterday I decided to take it on an almost 350 mile round trip, all interstate, and see how it would go, after running it around locally for about 60 miles. The shop wants it back within the first month or so with at least 500 miles on it to make sure everything is solid, and to maintain the 2-year/24K mile warranty.

Interstate speed limit is 75. The sweet spot for this truck seems to be 65-70 on level ground. The first leg of the trip is "up" and the return, "down". It handled right around 70 well on the way up, although any sort of incline would require a downshift to get the revs up and hold the speed; on the way back it was quite a bit better and it was humming along at the speed limit with an occasional downshift required. With that being said it did NOT do well on a pretty significant incline through a local "mountain" pass with a significant grade where it barely held 50, but it was no slower than the large trucks so I was in good company!

So it's Mission Accomplished. With that being said I would NOT take it on a trip like that again unless I absolutely had to, I did it for the purposes of seeing how it would handle it, and at this point if I have any complaint it'd be a lack of power, but I knew that getting in so I'm not going to complain about it. If I'm in a hurry, I have a Challenger Hellcat to get somewhere FAST!

So for getting around town (which does include a 10-mile stretch of interstate if I want to use it) and going off road, to the range, etc. it'll get the job done.

I won't write off looking for MOAR POWAH via a 4.0 swap, I just have to absorb the massive cost of the transmission repair I just did before I go down that road!

The interior is 95% done, I got my sun visor block off plates mounted as the replacement visors I bought from LMC were only the visors; it's the spring/tension mechanism that is smoked and won't hold them in place so they needed to go! Also, my replacement powered subwoofer for the first one that was DOA has inexplicably stopped working, fortunately it's under warranty and Crutchfield is going to send me another one once it's back in stock, I'm hoping the third time is the charm.

Likewise the exterior is nearly finished, I just need to get the windshield trim blacked out (it's flaking) and some other odds and ends including some custom bucking bronco emblems that I need to mount.

In the interim I'm gonna research the 4.0 swap heavily. I would go with all new/remanned components since I'm into this ride for so much money, relatively speaking, at this point I wouldn't want to roll the dice with a junkyard engine. Honestly if I could get another honest 30 or so RWHP over what I have now I'd call that a HUGE win and it'd be dang near as perfect as it could get, a 5.0 swap is NOT possible since NO A/C is NO bueno here in the summer when it's pushing 120...!

 

[Peter Griffin]

* I'd note that when I say an honest additional 30 RWHP, I mean over what I have now....while the motor compression tested well within factory specs I'm sure it's short of it's original "glory"!

In a vehicle this light I think you'd likely notice 10-15 HP pretty easily, 20-25 that much more. My VERY early research in the 4.0 swap revealed I'd have to swap out the dash, which is honestly a non-starter for me with the money I've already spent on it and instrument/gauge cluster.

So looking at Tom Morana's website I was thinking that a set of heads (stage...?) with a 60mm (?) throttle body (apparently the one on my '88 is smaller than previous model year 2.9s) and a cam (?) OR roller rocker upgrade would do the trick and should give me the boost I'm looking for at a fraction of the material and labor cost of a 4.0 swap.

I'm well aware that the 2.9 is hardly a hot rod motor and I'm not looking at turning it into something it's not, the heads are definitely a soft spot in these motors but the bottom end seems to be solid. I'm going to message Tom and see what he thinks would be the best for my application; thoughts, opinions, insults and death threats are all welcome!

 

[Uncle Gump]

Not sure what gear you're running... a better gear sometimes helps with keeping the power up.

Be careful going down the 2.9L rabbit hole... while you could see gains... they're pretty expensive ones and you still have a 2.9L at the end of the day.

 

[RobbieD]

An '89 or '90 would make for an easier 4.0 swap . . .
which leads one to the thought that
. . . the only thing better than one Bronco II is two Bronco IIs.

They're kinda like potato chips.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Not sure what gear you're running... a better gear sometimes helps with keeping the power up.

Be careful going down the 2.9L rabbit hole... while you could see gains... they're pretty expensive ones and you still have a 2.9L at the end of the day.

I checked it before and I'm pretty sure it was 4.10s...?

When you look at the HP ratings of the 2.9 versus 4.0 and it's a 20 HP difference, and I can see that I should be able to readily get that and arguably more than that for WAY less than the cost of a swap (for ME; I have to be myopic when it comes to this, while it's all fine and dandy that so and so has done the swap himself for less than $500, that's nowhere near realistic for myself), I don't see the issue. There's NO way I'd get a junkyard motor for a couple of hundred bucks and roll the dice, never mind the ancillary bits and pieces and the dash; it makes more sense to give the 2.9 a mild kick in the pants. I don't have the ability to readily pull a motor, etc. and it'd be cost prohibitive labor wise where, a cam, or heads, etc. are far more straightforward to install.

An '89 or '90 would make for an easier 4.0 swap . . .
which leads one to the thought that
. . . the only thing better than one Bronco II is two Bronco IIs.

They're kinda like potato chips.

It is WAY easier with an '89/'90 but I have to play the cards I've been dealt and I'm WAY more into this vehicle than I thought I'd ever spend, and while I'm OK with that I'm not able to entangle myself in another project where the price of my recent repair would literally be enough to buy one. That's why I much rather continue to work and tweak what I have...I'm exhausted and broke (not really, I just said that to be dramatic!)!