Page 1: Exterior and Engine
Page 2: Interior
Page 3: Other toys

This is my 1985 Bronco II. This is certainly the best vehicle I have yet to own. It drives and rides great, has plenty of room inside, can get me just about anywhere I want to go, and overall is just a lot of fun to own.

Rather than beat it to death, I chose to restore my B2 back to showroom condition, plus a few modifications that actually make it better than new. I've tried to maintain an even mix of off-road capability and on-road performance, and I've ended up with what I feel is how the Bronco II should have came from the factory.

This is my Bronco II in its current form. All of the body work and painting was done in the summer of 2002. I chose to keep it in the original colors because I've always been a fan of the Eddie Bauer trim. The photo really doesn't do the paint justice, as its a very high quality job and the metallic paint with the multiple clear coats has a really deep luster to it.

This photo shows the tailpipes of my custom exhaust. Those are 2.5" stainless tips that connect to 2.25" pipe about 6 inches up from the bends. The pipes come out of a duel exit Flowmaster 40 Deltaflow muffler. It sounds excellent; and even better when you know it's just a 2.8!

I decided to include a picture of one of my tires because not a lot of people have seen or heard of this particular tread. It's a Cooper Discoverer S/T. It is a very agressive all-terrain tread and it performs very well for everything I need it to do, including mud. And it drives nice on pavement as well.
The suspension on my rig is basically stock, but I wanted to tweak it a little to give it a better stance and a firmer feel when I'm driving. I have heavy duty coil springs up front and higher-rate springs with add-a-leafs in the rear. It raises the vehicle up about an inch higher in the front and 2 inches higher in the back over a stock Bronco II. I'm running ProComp ES9000 shocks at each corner.

Here you can see my custom '2.8HO' badges (along with my handsome reflection). They're polished aluminum and fit right in with the Bronco II tag. I had these made because I want people to know that, yes, it's "just a 2.8" under the hood.
Also, on the right is a shot of the Eddie Bauer decals I had made. I wanted to keep the EB logo somewhere but I didn't like the tag that came on the front fender. These were cut from the same color vinyl as the pinstripes, and I thought the outlined letters would be a nice change from the normally solid script.

This is what motivates my Bronco. It's a 2.8 liter V6, bored .040 over. It has the 'stage 3' Comp cam which gives .428 lift; which is pretty big for such a small motor. It breaths through a Holley 8160 series 390cfm carb that sits atop the rare Offenhauser 4-barrel intake manifold. The heads and intake have been port matched, and a little additional porting has been done to the heads as well.

It exhales through a set of Edelbrock headers. I've also added an MSD-6A Ignition and Blaster 2 coil. This actually made a noticable difference in throttle response, and really helped out with low-RPM power.

When I fire this thing up, you know something just ain't right. The lopey cam gives it a really mean snarl at idle and when you hit the gas it just screams. It's an evil, evil little engine. I'm so proud.

It moves pretty quick for a Bronco II as you would expect, and you can really feel it pull when you hit the gas. It's a lot faster than the EFI 2.9's, even according to owners of 2.9 Broncos that have driven mine. Top speed is only around 110, due to aerodynamic restrictions and weight. Computer simulations (like the screen shot to the left) have shown that if I could drop my air resistance by a few hundredths of a point, top speed could be much higher. But then again, it's pretty scarey (or fun, whatever you like) even going 90 in a vehicle like this.

See page 2 for details on the interior of my Bronco II, or page 3 to see a couple other vehicles I have floating around my house.

If you have a Ranger or Bronco II, or just find them interesting, be sure to visit The Ranger Station for all the info you'll ever need. I'm a regular visitor in the forums; the 2.8 forum in particular.