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1978 F-150 Stock Truck & Formula Bronco.

7K views 32 replies 15 participants last post by  Joxracing 
#1 ·
Even though this thread is on 3 different forums already, Im throwing it on here anyway. I figured if we were doing anything "wrong", it would be really pointed out on this forum.:sonicjay:


Racing TORC this year. Making a 2 truck team for our first year out. More work than we expected. Formula 4x4 1978 Ford Bronco (old racer, already caged) and a 1978 Ford F-150 2wd Stock Truck (plucked fresh from the fields of Pelkie)

We're all young kids, none of us exceeding 25. Most of us building the stock truck are in High school. I'll give a quick breakdown of the stock truck build.

Plucked a 302, C4, and fuel cell from this retired gem of a '72.




Decided to pick up a new truck, the 72 was just too toasty. Found this gem in Pelkie.




Got setup with a bender (thanks Todd!) and ordered up an assload of 1 3/4 DOM from Marquette Machining. Took our head fab/math guy a few minutes to figure out the radius's, and we started bending. 3 Highschool kid's with a bender, Harbor Freight Notcher, and angle grinders turned this out in about 2 months.








The truck this past weekend.



Hand fabbed coil bucket.



The start of our suspension set up. Gonna experiment with '05 Super Duty coils, paired with FOX 2.0 shocks out of a Pro-Lite.



Have some more up to date pictures I'll put up a little later.


Now, the Formula '78 Ford Bronco. Bronco stopped racing a couple years ago untill it was purchased by us, and freshened up. Deaver's front and rear, 4 Smooth body FOX's in rear (2.0) and 2.5" Race-Runners up front. 351 Roller Windsor, C4, Dana 20, blah blah.


How we got it...




Clean up time




Remounted Rad



Custom motor mounts after we freshened up the motor.




Bronco is getting re plumbed and wired currently.

First race is June 16th in Crandon. Both of the us drivers have never raced before, so it should be a good learning experience. Looking for sponsors! :beerbang:

If you wanna keep up with us on Facebook, here's our link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Finger-Tight-Racing-FTR/110555945730462
 
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#2 ·
The truck as she sits now. Getting the front mocked up for building the engine cage. Sadly I'll be missing out on some work this weekend because of Prom. Darnit.




Comic relief, found this Rubber Duck in the '72 I think. No one really knows for sure, but in 3 garage moves, he hasnt been lost yet. He's our mascot.

 
#13 ·
Yeah, we have them here too. I try to stay out of that crowd.

Its like, almost a truck!

Front end is going together for good, roof is tacked up, box is just on so we can get an idea on where to go with fuel cell, new crossmembers, etc.



Meanwhile, at the Formula 4x4 garage, we now have a freshly re-built Dana 20 T-case & installed. Shiny.

 
#14 ·
Its really starting to look like a truck now. Tonight we installed the rock shield, got drivers side door on, and halfway finished our radiator mount. The rad is out of a 90's F150.

Here's a bunch of random pics we took tonight. One thing I wish I could change is the top engine crossbar. Engine cage isnt done yet. Still need install the new coils to get correct ride height, so we can do shock mounts and a bar to the top of the coil bucket.





The box is super toasty. Its deff a one season box. If you guys are wondering, thats real rust...






This is my right hand man, Trevor LaCombe. Without him, this truck wouldnt exist. Mad fab skills on this kid.


My office for the summer. Needless to say, im a little nervous.

 
#15 ·
Update!

Bronco runs! sounds real nice, once we diagnosed some fuel & starter issues. She is loud.
Here's a kind-of-proof pic. Video to come soon.



Moved the stock truck to the Formula garage in town. Got floors cut out, boxing the frame, and Stemmy, our team body man got right on the body work.





Started rebuilding the front end with new bushings, king pins, etc. King pins gave us some hell today.



Got my quickner today (Thanks Eshall!) so hopefully gonna start getting my cockpit all set up, along with steering, and possibly starting this weekend.

Figured some of you might appreciate this picture. Here's what the yard currently looks like...



The bronco and long box are both 79's, bronco is on 1 tons and runs a built 400 with that fancy water/methanol stuff, and the long box (Stay Around Brown) has a mild build 460 on Dana 60's. Those are the rig's of the formula driver.
 
#16 ·
Testing pics.























Some Video
[video=facebook;3723498921374]http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3723498921374[/video]

Some more changes will be made to it after the first race, like chopping that disgusting front bumper off...

Pics of the body panels will be put up tmrw... Black&Gold!
 
#19 ·
Race Report:

Crandon, June 16th or something like that:
Took 7th out of 9 trucks on saturday. It was alex's first race, so he wasnt pushing the truck much. After the race, we noticed a small miss resulting in him having to feather the throttle out of corners. Also discovered that the reverse band was smoked out of the C4. Who cares, dont need any reverse anyway. Sunday in Crandon the bronco took another 7th place. Pushing a little harder.






Alex Suits up for the first race.

Little pep talk from brother Eric in staging







Antigo: July 6th and 7th
Super muddy track conditions most of the weekend. Very rutted too. Saturday Alex took a 5th, pushing the truck pretty hard. Blew a tire on the last 3 laps, lost a door skin, and a drive shaft loop, blew a radius arm bushing out, resulting in tweaking the bump can. On Sunday, he took an official 5th, but should have had 3rd. He was a lap down when the competition yellow came out, so he passed to make the lap up and to get in order, which is frowned upon, so they took his lap away. Blew a tire the last 2 laps too. Both tires blown were fronts being rolled off the beads from the ruts. Time for beadlocks. The miss was cured though, and the truck ran great.





The heavy clay/mud literally broke body hoops and crushed panels.

We are now prepping for Bark River, August 10th weekend. Ill be making my Stock Truck debut at Bark River. I'm pretty jacked about that. I'll try to get some more buiild pics up of it soon.

Top plates from Bear Cat Fab for the stock truck...


Bark River prep is upon us... Like our huge shop?!
 
#24 ·
Tough weekend for DSR in Bark River. Saturday in Stock Truck, the 505 Ford had a severe suspension issues in the rear, which in turn destroyed a shock and the rear shock mounts and down tubes. The crew worked all night and rebuilt the whole back half of the cage, and had her going for sunday, only to be plagued by motor issues. In the end, two DNF's for the 505's debut race.

On Saturday, the Formula 4 Bronco, 400, was running strong in 3rd place, when he was hit in the rear half way through the moguls and rolled over. The 400 was airborne the first roll, as he landed hard on his roof, and rolled once more onto her side. The truck that hit the 400 stayed on the gas and ran the Bronco over mid roll, and sky rocketed into the air and landed on its roof. Driver Alex Hinze was okay.

On a side note, Dale Off Road had a rough weekend in Stock Truck, with driveshaft issues. In Super Stock, they made 2 solid runs.

Like to thank the crew of DSR and DOR for helping and wrenching, and a huge thank you goes out to Curry Custom Fab & Welding for the portable welder and torches. Couldnt have done it with out you guys!


Here's some pictures and a video link to alex's rollover.




































The Bronco on the road to recovery for Crandon


Our buddy Matt Dale getting sideways in the super stock, he also drove the 577 stock truck.


If you guys feel the urge to get a Dent Side Racing shirt, PM me. We should still have all sizes left...


Next race is Fall Crandon. The Bronco will be there, but the Stock Truck is still up in the air with funds, and me starting college on monday.
 
#26 ·
I guess I never updated about Fall Crandon!
We left the #505 home, just because the motor was toast and I was straight up out of funds.

The #400 Did well on saturday. Hinze was holding well in 3rd, until he got gathered up with two supertrucks in the corner before the finish line. He spent the rest of the race trying to catch up to the 3rd place jeep, and had the pass in the gravel pit corner on the last lap, where he bit hard and biked it up hard and had to save it. Took a respectable 4th place finish.
Sunday, we were staged up ready to go when we discovered that the Bronco had no rear wheel drive. Instead of racing and risking another set of front gears, we put her on the trailer. Diagnosed it as a broken output shaft on the T-case.

Here's some pictures.









Off season plans include quite a bit. In the Formula class, a 4-link with coilover rule went through, so we could be possibly 4-linking the rear of the bronco. If we do, expect this bored to be tapped dry of 4-link knowledge. Plans for the bronco also include extended radius arms and coilovers in the front.
Plans for the Stock Truck include a stronger Windsor, rebuilt trans, new gears and spool, redesign of the back half of the cage, and more. Just a good clean up of all the rush mistakes we made on the truck. We should have a strong team next year, and we hope to gather up some wins. We are also excited to bring on a new sponsor, Yoopershirts and the new energy drink, Drink U.P. If your from michigan, you'll understand.
 
#31 ·
Thank you!

Here's some more pictures from fall crandon..

Our buddy Matt Dale in Super Stock




Me with Matt in staging. Lots of super rad trucks in Super Stock. These guy's scream.




Jerry suffered a broken back from this wicked roll in Super Truck. Happened in the infamous Corner 1 at Crandon. They cut the cage off with the jaws of life and had to chopper him out from the track to the hospital. He's recovering and will race again.



Alex in the Formula Bronco:





Super Truck and Formula 4x4 in staging








Lock n' load
 
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