Great Lakes 4x4. The largest offroad forum in the Midwest banner

Black Sunshine *It's Alive- Again!

72K views 584 replies 92 participants last post by  jbsjunk 
#1 · (Edited)
Yup- just like the song from White Zombie.

1978 Ford Bronco Production date: 7/78

A little history on this one. My friend was the 2nd owner of this and it has never seen snow. It has right around 120,000 origional miles on it and the origional paint is on most of it. He had the old yellow/orange/red stripes painted over as soon as he took posession of it.

It was a Chattanuga Choo Choo Custom truck when bought new at the dealership (RE Barber Ford in Holland, MI) so that explains the red shag carpeting and diamond-cut vinyl everywhere.

He installed the 4" Rugged Trail lift and a 3" body lift to fit up to 38's under it. Currently it's sporting some 35/12.5/15 Goodyear MTRs. The 1st generation with the white letters.

In 1992 he bought the 460 that came out of the Cajun Night show truck and in '95, he and I completely went through it and added a nice cam, D0VE heads, Ford Motorsports performance intake, Holley 750, JE 10:1 pistons, and a few other goodies. The heads, intake, and exhaust manifolds have all been hogged out and gasket-matched. It was a good soild build and it ended up somewhere around the 500 HP mark.

After all that he did a little cruising around town and raced it at the Silver Lake sand drags a few times, but never drove it much after that.

It might have 1000 miles on it since everything was gone through.

He moved up north and it never moved once parked in his pole barn. It just collected dust and he would start it from time to time just to keep the motor healthy.

I have wanted this thing ever since I 1st saw it when I started working at the same shop he was at and about a month ago he told me that he was finally ready to part with it. I had to promise to stay away from trees, rocks, and mud and keep it for weekend cruises, the dunes, and sand drags only.

I'll be giving it a little love and fixing up some of the little bits of rusting that occured over the last 10 years it sat. By next spring, it will be show-quality again and I'll have a fun little runner to play in the sand with.

I'll be posting up some of the repairs and updates in this thread. 1st off will be just some basic repairs- new fuel lines, brake lines, full synthetic fluids change over, and some custom anti-wrap bars for the rear axle. I'm working on getting a set of paddles for playing in the dunes the rest of this season once it's back to runable condition.

Here's the pics so far....











yes- that's a ZZ-Top top-gun sticker on the roof. His girlfriend at the time stuck it there after the concert at Val-Du-Lakes. :sonicjay:
 
See less See more
5
#456 ·
Nope- the guy never called. I really didn't expect him to....

Anyways back at it! I got all of the loose ends tied up under the neath last night and bolted 1 of the new bumper brackets on. I can't wait to build it this weekend!


I'm hoping tonight to get the rest of the little stuff taken care of on the topside of the motor buttoned up and we should be lighting a fire in it at some point over the weekend. :rock:
 
#457 ·
Well the bumper is almost done. I just need to make the dimple die'd front plate and burn it in the morning. After that a little finish welding and paint or PC. I'm still trying to decide which way to go with the coating yet. They both have their pros and cons...

Pics before my phone died:




That sure was fun working with round stock again!!!
 
#460 ·
For your standard gloss black, I can send it through my work account for pennies on the dollar. I'm really leaning in that direction. For what I pay, it's about the same money for the materials without taking 3-5 hours of my time into consideration.

I think I just talked myself into it... :teehee:
 
#464 ·
Wellllllll You know how things go.....

We got everything bolted on, hooked up, wired, and ran. Primed the pump and were ready to turn the key and then.....





Stop! Fuel leak! Carb was pissing from just about every gasket and orifice on the damn thing. :eek: :ffs::ffs::ffs:


I guess I'll send it up to Pro Systems for a little tune-up this week- so there goes another damn week down the tubes.
 
#466 ·
probably...

I'm just extremely frustrated right now. Just so that we can fire it up, I'm going to get a rebuild kit for the Dominator and freshen it up.
 
#468 ·
I need enough of them that I need to get the whole kit. I'm just going to let Pro Systems handle it.

I'll dive into the Dommy myself.
 
#469 ·
OK- I picked up a kit yesterday. I know Holley's pretty well, so I'm just going to tackle it tonight. With any luck I'll be able to post a vid of it running here in the next day or two..
 
#472 ·
It looks like I might have to hold off for a night or two. Been shopping for a new car for the wife and we found 1 today. I know that she's chomping at the bit to take it for a spin and honestly I'm pretty excited about it too. This project can wait another night or two.

I'm thinking I'll tear it apart tomorrow night and reassemble and fire it up on Wednesday night.
 
#476 ·
OK- I'm tearing it apart tomorrow night after we pick up the wife's new DD. I should be there around 7. If anyone's interested in stupervising or for legitimate help just text or call me.

Wed night we'll button it up and fire it up as long as there aren't any surprises.
 
#479 ·
If it's a date, then plan on showing up any time after 6:30. I should be there by then.

We are going to pick up the other car tomorrow night instead. :woot:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top