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I tore the engine apart for resealing and deferred maintenance on or about 10 April. Seven weeks later, I've mostly wrapped it all up. Here's what has transpired since then:
Cleaned prior years of oil leak grunge.
Replaced gaskets and seals - oil pan, valve covers, intake manifold, etc.
Replaced timing chain and gears.
Replaced water pump, t-stat, t-stat housing, etc.
Replaced temp and oil senders.
Converted to Duraspark II ignition.
Painted various engine externals.
Full power steering conversion - OER box, Saginaw pump, etc.
So this morning I went out, gave everything a last check, re-connected the battery and turned the key. Took a few revs to fill the float bowl, but then it started up with little-to-no drama. Timing was close enough, and obviously I got the Duraspark wired correctly. One lifter was pretty clicky for a bit, but has quieted back down after a few minutes runtime. After pumping the oil all around, it is almost a quart low. Steering pump was pretty noisy until I ran the wheel back and forth a few times, now it's totally quiet and works great. No leaks anywhere so far. Looks like a successful refresh at this point. Tomorrow I'll back it out of the garage to get it completely warmed up, add some oil, and check the coolant level after the thermostat opens fully.
And then I can move on to another part of the project. Not quite sure what I'll do next.
Finally getting around to the rest of the brake work/upgrade. The entire system is now new—hoses, hard lines, all hydraulics, the works. Upgrades are front discs, and power assist. This should complete all the major mechanical work. Moving on to prep for body and paint, including a new tailgate that I didn't know I needed until I poked a finger through a rusty spot...
Screenshot 2025-08-15 at 5.50.55 PM.jpg (348.13 KiB) Viewed 2537 times
Screenshot 2025-08-16 at 11.25.19 AM.jpg (446.6 KiB) Viewed 2537 times
Looking great. Do you paint these cars yourself or take them somewhere? That's always been my biggest obstacle, as painting a car here in the SF bay area often costs more than the car is worth... I was talking to some local dealers with cars entered in Porsche's restoration challenge, and even with their close relationships with Porsche certified body shops, a local high-quality repaint cost them over $35k for a 928...
Paint and body work is not one of my skills. I have to sub that out. And you are correct, finding a shop that is willing and able to do affordable driver-quality paintwork (as opposed to restoration-quality) is a never ending process. Shops that do that kind of work tend to come and go, or sometimes they change their business model and stop doing full repaints. But finding the right shop can make or break a project like mine. The only project that I've lost money on so far was the Bunny Truck, and while the shop I took it to (same one that did fantastic, almost show quality work on the '72 911T) claimed that they understood the goal and such, they ended up going farther than necessary and $2k over budget. The truck looked great, and the slab sides were probably straighter than when it was new, but the extra $2k was about how much I ended up in the hole at the end.
I actually took the Capri to Maaco, and they did a really nice job since I pulled all the glass and trim off. I may try them again with the Bronco.
After finishing the brake upgrade, it was time to actually drive it (more than simply backing out of the garage) to road test all the recent changes. The upgraded brakes, power steering conversion, new electronic ignition and rebuilt carb were all mostly untested, other than while sitting in the garage. Now that I was comfortable that I could actually stop it when necessary, a real road test was in order.
The first test did not go well. Or the second, third or even seventh. In all, I spent the better part of 2 weeks trying to track down a serious lean condition when under load. Ran great at idle and revving in the garage, but put any load on it and it bucked, stumbled and popped badly.
Yesterday, after removing, disassembling and reassembling the carb who knows how many times, I finally was able to drive the Bronco around the block and not have it stumble, stall, pop and make me think I'd never make it back to the driveway. Today, it pulls smoothly and strong under both light and heavy loads, up hills, etc. Probably hasn't run this nice for 20 years. Plus it now has an auto choke that it never had before. (For any interested, there was a vacuum leak that prevented the power valve from enriching the mixture when the intake vacuum dropped. Cause was a slightly warped cover that wouldn't seal.)
So now I could actually road test the other upgrades. The all-new-from-front-to-rear brakes—with the new power booster and front discs—are good. The pedal is a bit more sensitive than I expected, but not horribly so, and the rig stops straight and true. The quicker ratio (4-turns vs. 6-turns) power steering is quiet and works great. As with the brakes, the steering feel with the original 16" wheel is touchy (almost twitchy), but I have a smaller 14.5" wheel waiting to go on once I get to the interior refresh.
What all this means is that the major mechanical work is now done, same as the rust repair, the electrical rewiring, basic suspension refresh, etc. Time to start looking at the interior, rest of the body and paintwork.
Nice work! I had an old 2 barrel Pontiac in High School, and bet I took that thing apart 50 times, probably making the same mistakes every time. 16 years old with nothing but a Chilton's manual that covered every car made over a 10 year period -- what I would have given for the Internet!
Earlier this week I pulled the steering column and dash out, and installed pre-formed firewall insulation. Then I installed the rebuilt heater box, connected the new heater core using molded hoses, and refilled the cooling system. Started and warmed the engine, and tested the heater successfully.
After the heater was in place, I spent some time doing final tidying of all the new wiring under the dash. The fusebox is mounted so that it will protrude into the back of the glovebox, after I cut a hole for it. The only wiring not done yet is the wiper motor, as I want to paint the windshield frame before fishing the wiring through it.
As for paint prep, I've started stripping the dash panel to bare metal. I hope to get primer and paint on it over the weekend, but there are other things around here that MUST be done before the weather turns, so the dash work might stretch later into next week.
Took longer to get the dash restored than I had hoped, a lot going on around here. (Weather, new grandbaby and elder parent care all at once.) But it's essentially done (stripped, prepped, primed, painted and dressed) and ready to go back in whenever I get the behind the dash area painted.
Tom wrote: Sun Oct 19, 2025 8:18 pm
Looks really nice. I assume that's not spray paint in cans? How did you spray it?
Actually, that is rattle can paint on the dash. Rustoleum 2X Satin Ivory Silk in this case. I've become fairly adept at getting good results from rattle cans on smaller items. This dash is about as large as I'll do that way. But in this case, getting the correct low-gloss paint to spray with HVLP would have meant having a whole quart mixed up. I can't use that much of that paint.
I'm getting ready to paint body color behind the dash, the windshield frame, door jambs and such. I had a quart of body color mixed, we'll see how far 10 oz. of that goes in the HVLP. I've probably already got more surface primed and prepped than that first 10 oz. will cover, but once it's reduced and hardener is added and in the gun I want to use all of it.
