Gary Allan's Bronco & Das Bronco Upgrades

Today, we're taking a ride with country music star, Gary Allen in his 1976 Bronco

and we're doing a hydraulic steering upgrade to project do S Bronco.

It's all today here on trucks.

Hey, guys, welcome to trucks. Now, it's been a while since we had this beast in the shop. So we thought we knocked the mud off of Ds Bronco and bring it in for some work. Now, in case you don't remember it, well, it started out as an almost bare frame and body missing most of the drive train. So we dropped in a 460 big block backed by AC six automatic transmission, but we did keep the full time 203 transfer case.

Then we just added a basic four inch lift kit and some bushwhacker cut out flares to make room for our 37 inch super swampers so we could play in the mud

in case we get too carried away. We got a giant 12,000 pound witch sitting on top of a custom bumper to get us out of trouble. Now, the upgrades we're going to do today, we're just going to make this thing a little bit easier to drive on the trail. But before we get to this, we've got the predecessor to the full size Bronco here in the shop, the original Bronco and the one we're going to show you today is the polar opposite of this single purpose off road rig. It's a little bit rough around the edges. This one is pretty slick. It's got a really nice paint job and you just might know the painter

this 76 Bronco better known as an early Bronco belongs to a guy that you may very well know. As a matter of fact, he may be in your ipod country music star, Gary Allen. Now, Gary is a real car guy and he's had this Bronco for a long time and when he wanted it redone when he wanted it special. So come a little closer, take a look at this thing because there's a lot of custom touches here.

Now, customizing and restoring this vehicle was basically the work of three people myself, my good friend Glenn Massey and Gary's guitar player, David Steele

a quick glance will tell you that this vehicle is not exactly stock inside or outside.

Gary definitely wanted the roll bar in the Bronco, but that presented a problem with the original layout of the dash. So Glenn went to work redesigning the dash moving the glove box over. So we have complete access.

The other thing with early Broncos is that they've got a mono gauge. It's a little hard to read. So we replace that gauge with separate auto meter gauges with domed lenses and all the driver communication that you need,

providing solid electrical signals for everything in the Bronco is a brand new painless chassis harness.

It gets rid of the 40 plus year old wiring and make sure this thing is gonna be on the road for another 40

a leather wrapped billet aluminum steering wheel sits on the stock column again with the stock shifter. Some things don't need to be customized and work just fine just like they are.

But the stock seats. Well, that was another story. So we upgraded to some pro car leather seats with heavy bolsters that are gonna keep your butt planted, which becomes pretty important when you're driving a vehicle without doors.

Now, the hand grenade transfer case shift knob, it's just flat out cool and looks great up against a new boot and a chrome bezel. The entire tub is lined with Mercedes pile custom upholstered carpet

under the carpet is a healthy layer of dynamite

styling cues and a real hot rod theme come from several different iconic vehicles like these Shelby bullet style mirrors that look fantastic on the fenders. And you can actually see out of them,

the bushwhacker players frame the wheel nicely and you can see the updated Rancho shocks and mild lift springs, but the real story wrapped underneath the BFG mud terrain KM twos are these custom made one off polished Hali brand style wheels by real Rotters wheels in Fallbrook, California. These are specifically made to Gary's request because he liked the vintage Hali brand look.

We wanted a clean and crisp look on the front end. So we reworked the stock grill and loaded in some H ID conversion headlines. It's clear lenses and amber bulbs from L MC trucks catalog, Gary already had the bumpers on the Bronco so we just cleaned them up and painted them

under the hood. Sits a 351 Windsor with dart heads, comp camp and a period. Correct cobra dress up kit underneath the cobra breather sits a Holly 750 CFM four barrel feeding an Edelbrock aluminum air gap intake manifold.

The entire engine has been balanced and blueprinted and pushes out 400 honest horsepower and Gods a torque

keeping with the Shelby theme. We put a pop open gas cap recessed into the quarter panel and it looks right at home,

multiple hand rubbed layers of clear coat give this Bronco a mirror gloss but buried in the clear are ghost flames. Gary wanted these subtle and tasteful just like everything else on the Bronco

and you can only see them at certain angles in certain light conditions as you can see from the reflected clouds in the sky

and should those clouds produce a little rain while we didn't leave out the windshield wipers?

But these are manual, Glenn Massey reinvented the wheel here, eliminating the giant ugly electrical box that usually sits right here on early Broncos.

And even though this thing probably won't see any real thunderstorm or rainstorm time, they're functional like everything else in this vehicle. It's simple and it's functional and Gary drives everything he owns. And after we come back from the brakes

and have a little conversation with the man himself, you don't want to miss it

up next. Gary Allen joins us to take a ride in this tricked out Bronco. And later, Dosh Bronco gets a little help in the steering department. Stay tuned.

Hey, welcome back to trucks. Well, we told you it was Gary Allen's Bronco. Guess who showed up? We're gonna drive this sucker, hit it, man.

Gary Allen has been at the top of the charts for over 10 years and is one of the biggest draws in country music today.

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Gary's success allows him to pursue a life long passion for hot rods and car culture and his socal roots definitely shaped his love for early Broncos.

I surfed my whole life as a kid

and I think like the and, and we used to sneak down to Mexico all the time and camp on the beach and I think that uh

it, it's just the ultimate baja vehicle to me.

It's uh smoking fast. Uh sounds great. Gets a lot of looks and uh

and it still reminds me of the car I had in high school, his Bronco now is highly modified, but like most long term projects, this one has seen several different

incarnation since he bought it as a teenager.

It was blue then still had the fenders, still had the doors and I decided I was going to keep it stock, I think for about a year

and that was about all that lasted. The next thing, you know, we were cutting out the doors and

losing the motor and putting a roll cage in it

over time. The 76 Bronco has evolved into a fine tuned and well balanced vehicle. And like we showed you earlier, every aspect of this truck has been gone through and improved. But the coolest feature is the bad to the bone 400 horse. 351 wins,

boy, 400 horse. It sounds like a lot, but it's just never enough. Is it

on the other end of the spectrum with half as much power? But just as much cool is Gary's 56 Fair Lane to the hard top, but brute power, it's not what this car is about.

It's actually the car that my dad had. Um, my dad drove that when he was a kid.

Now, it's kind of cool that the car gene has been passed down from father to son. And like a lot of us, these cars bring us back to important and special moments in time.

Now, Gary has a cool collection but these vehicles aren't just investments and as much as he loves to get out on the road and rock the ability to come off the road and jump in a cool vehicle and put it in the wind. Well, it's therapy and it's a way for Gary to seriously decompress and unwind.

Now for Gary, these cars are a big part of his life. So, don't expect to see any one of these vehicles up on the auction block anytime soon.

That one's gonna die with me.

I'll keep that one forever. Probably the 56 Ford will die with me.

And, uh, I don't think I found my next one that will die with me, but I'm sure I will and it'll definitely be something old

up next. A hydraulic boost will help us turn the rudders on our big boat. Does

Bronco stick around.

Hey, guys, welcome back to the shop. And like we told you earlier, we're going to be doing some work to do S Bronco to improve the drive of it out on the trail. Because one of the biggest drawbacks of driving this full size Bronco on 37 S is in the steering department and even with an open differential, well, steering, it was difficult enough. But since we had this thing on the show last, we've installed an air locker and with it activated, well, it's nearly impossible to navigate this thing through the woods

and even with the cooler plumbed into the system. Well, we've already burned up a couple of power steering pumps. So we're going to make an upgrade today to put an end to that and make driving this thing less of a wrestling match.

Now, to do that, we're going to use an extreme duty hydro assist kit from PSC. That way we can harness the power of hydraulics to take some stress off the steering box and the driver and with this system capable of pumping four gallons per minute and producing 1500 P si

Well, it'll make turning those big tires a piece of cake. Now, the kit includes all the hoses, fittings, hardware and rod ends. You're gonna need to hook this system up.

Also comes with the remand steering box that's already been drilled and tapped so we can steal some hydraulic pressure from it to operate the hydraulic assist ra M like we told you, it comes with a high flow pump and a fluid reservoir that frankly looks good enough to fit right in underneath the hood of a high end street rod.

Now, the power steering pump we're removing was already an upgraded Saginaw pump off of a big block Lincoln. And we just told PSC that and they sent us the parts we needed.

And next, when to tear down was the removal of the tie rod and drag link

which took a little persuasion.

Hm.

Stubborn.

Thank you.

And since we're gonna be flipping our tie rod to the top of the knuckle, but we need to make some room so it doesn't interfere with any parts.

And that meant removing the front shocks and the lower front shock mount, which our Miller plasma cutter

make quick workout.

Now, we've already had to cut the lower shock mount off to make room for the tie rod. We're going to make and flip to the top side of the knuckle, but it looks like we're going to have to remove the top of the shock mount as well

and that

will make room for our hydraulic assist lines.

Now, you might be wondering why we didn't spring for the full hydraulic steering.

It's for a couple of different reasons. First off, we're already pushing the limits of our factory Ford Dana 44 front axle housing

and two, believe it or not, this

still see some street miles. So we wanted to retain the mechanical steering linkage

and not rely strictly on hydraulic hoses. And this way, we've got the best of both worlds. We get to keep the truck street legal and steering. It's nice and easy.

The last step of the installation was installing the extra capacity reservoir.

Now with our steering pump mounted so high on the engine, we are limited in our options on where we were going to install this thing. So we put it up high next to the radiator

and that way it has a gravity feed for the fluid into the pump.

We also needed to remove the taper in the steering knuckle to accept a standard three quarter inch bolt.

Now, we've got our knuckles drilled out because we're gonna be using rod ends on the steering linkage we're building and to do that, we're using some builder parts. We picked up from rusty's and some inch and a half dom tubing.

Now, the tubing has a wall thickness of a quarter inch, meaning we shouldn't have to worry too much about it getting damaged and it's got an inside diameter of one inch making it a perfect fit for the threaded insert

that'll just slide into the end of the tube

and get welded all the way around

and that will accept our three quarter inch bore and three quarter inch shank rod end.

And by using left hand thread and right hand thread, rod ends on either end of our drag link and tie rod, we can make alignment changes by simply rotating the tube and tightening down the jam nuts.

Now, by building our own custom steering linkage using dom tubing some rod ends from Rusty. Well, we're not only going to increase overall strength,

we're actually gonna save some weight over the factory for steering hardware. Plus we're gonna eliminate some of the weaknesses like this thin tie rod adjustment sleeve that's already starting to bend. Now, we just need to get the stuff welded together.

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Hey guys, welcome back to the shop. Well, we're coming down the home stretch of our hydro assist install using parts from PSC. Motor sports and Rusty's off road along with an inch and a half 250 wall dom tubing. Now, we've got everything mocked up and tacked into place. But before we burn in the welds fully, we wanna make sure everything clears in here because there's a lot going on. Plus we wanna finish plumbing the hydro assist.

Now, the rule of thumb when hooking up the pressure lines is to hook the port on the steering box closest to the firewall to the driver's side of the assist ramp.

And even if you're confident you've got it right.

Make sure you keep your hands out of the center of the wheel when you first start the engine up because if you do have it backwards, it'll flop back and forth violently. You could get hurt.

The last step is to fill the system with fluid. Just make sure you don't reach for a TF we're using Royal Purple's power steering fluid.

All right. With the system plumbed, including a power steering cooler and most of the air bled out of the system, we can go ahead and give this thing a shot.

Kevin. Go ahead.

Well, cool. Now that we know it works, we can go ahead and cycle the suspension, make sure everything clears in here. There's no contact you doing the hoses in the track bar. Go ahead and fully burn in all the welds. Get everything painted. Do

S Bronco be ready for the trail again.

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