Pirate 4x4 banner

My Centurion, 4 door bronco build

1 reading
79K views 234 replies 40 participants last post by  mustange70  
#1 ·
Well I figured that its time to post something up as I do have a few questions on parts and seeing as I'm slowly starting to upgrade parts.

Bit of a backstory. I've been wanting one of these Centurions for a very long time, ever since I seen a green 90ish 1 ton for sale at a local dealer (wanted 12g then, found the truck again prior to buying this one and they wanted 10g) when I turned 16. About a year ago I started looking (foordoorbronco.com was my main source as the guys keep an eye on all the local adds around the continent and post them up) and found a very nice 90' rig in Seatle in november for 7500, it was a 460 powered rig with 130XXX miles on the clock. I like the truck, just a tad much for a gas rig that old. Then this june the guy dropped the price to 6500, I got the VIN from him, checked it out, truck was a cali truck with all the miles being documented, I was sold.

Flew out and drove it home, then listed my 08' f-150 for sale and got rid of it a few weeks later. The truck is basically rust free (found some in the rear wheel wells seams where centurion spliced in different wheel well's), runs like a top. Had a few items to fix to get it to pass a safety up here in Canada, but it went off without an issue.

Truck currently has a leveling kit in the front, warn front winch bumper, some 10" rear drop bumper that I am not a fan off, 18" wheels (pro comps i think) and i just put on new 325-65R18's hankook dynpro mt's.

Right now its getting the upper/lower kingpins replaced (bottoms are worn out, so I'm doing them all) and its getting undercoated with bedliner by a local outfit to hopefully prevent it from rusting (also doing a portion of the inside of the cab). I have also ordered a spartan locker in the front and I will toss the high steer off my old mud bog truck on it.

Right now the truck rides like a brick shithouse due to the front AAL kit and crappy shocks, front/rear stabilizers bars and rear overloads. So what I would like to do is to ditch the factory front leaf's for a pair of deaver based superduty leveling springs with a sky mfg'ing shackle reversal, and a sky shackle flip in the rear (relocate the hangers as required to level out the height). I don't want to lift it more than 4"

Other near future mods include completely redoing the interior (the cali' sun has done its damage), and upgrade the factory EFI to mass air.

Now I have a bunch of pictures to toss up but my work computer won't let me do that, I'll toss some up tomorrow.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Now my first few questions, going to start with the superduty leaf's.

How much longer are the springrs in relation to the center pin location (just so I know how much fab work I have to do)? Lastly, how much net lift over a set of stock 90' leaf springs do these leaf's provide?

Next question is about the EFI. Anyone have any pointers on converting the 460 to mass air from the factory setup? (i did search, but it was either 351W/302 stuff or people saying to search lol). Looking for the complete lowdown, and I'd perfer to use factory ford parts (mustang most likely), and honestly I have no idea where to start as the only injection stuff I've ever dealt with is mechanical fuel injection on my race truck. Thanks.
 
#3 ·
Most that I know of use California emmissions 97 Ford 460 parts to convert to MAF.
As for the superduty spring question, Sky has a kit to do that all bolt on along with the shackle reversal for the front.
92-97 Ford OBS Super Duty Leaf Conversion Shackle - Sky's Off-road Design
Kit is designed around the V code super duty springs, and will give a 4 inch lift, keeping nearly stock caster angles and much better shackle angle with new hangers.
 
#4 ·
Found a good link at fordtrucks.com: SD to MAF Conversion - Write up? - Page 10 - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums.

My dad actually has the FMS kit for a conversion on a 302 5spd truck, dunno if it'll work, if I do use it I found a company that makes a stand alone E4OD controller which is how I think I'd go, we'll see.

The 97's use a EEC-V, which requires a bunch of extra changes from what I'm finding and its a better option to stick with the EEC-IV.
 
#6 ·
I wanna see your ride. Give you one day before I post a pic of mine in front of yours in your own thread :flipoff2:

Sounds like a good build idea. These are confusing rigs. Mine is so plush inside that it seems like a lincoln till it moves. Then I am reminded that its a tank. I day dream about putting battlement fab radius arms and coils in the front and some some softer riding leafs in the back. Only I dont want more than 1 or 2 inches of lift. I also would like to trade out the 460 for a cummins for better fuel economy. Not that the 460 costs to much for me, but that I can only safely go 250 miles between fuel ups when towing.
 
#17 ·
So where da fuck are these pictures :flipoff2:. And you couldn't be more right, the interior is very plush, they put a lot of effort into these. But they did odd things and a variety of parts. Right now I have my dad (I don't have a shop in Fort Mcmurray to work on it and he's taking care of the kingpins/locker/alignment & tire installs for me) looking for the rear heater bits as they aren't in the normal spot but the vents and switch are still there and the rear panels were orginal. I'm scared that the 20ish feet of heater hose might be bad and leave me stranded 100miles from anything in -40*C weather, not fun lol.

For my interior, I'm putting in a full sound system (have everything already) 2 10" subs with 750watt rms amp, new components & amp, new nifty double din touch screen deck that fits a single din hole. Recover (and rebuild the padding in the front seats) the front seats in leather & include a heat seat option. I've started stipping out the interior to search out and repair ANY rust (as externally the body is perfect including the tailgate), i will then bedline the entire interior, lay down all new sound deadening material (already have this its a generic fat mat product off ebay) and lay new carpet in the front two rows of seat then keep everything behind the 2nd row seats bedliner or some sort of removable bed rug type product as i do plan on removing the top and installing a soft top. The other thing I need to do is install a new headliner which will be interesting.

I'll probably also build a checker plate panel of sorts for the interior panels in the back, and set it up for tool storage or something.
 
#8 ·
Fyi, the Sky kit takes more work than its worth to adapt to the 87-91 frame, as it is completely different than the 92-97 frame horns. This is coming directly from them. Ask Snow Racer on the frame mods. His HayWagon truck is rear shackle up front. I've posted about some ideas regarding a rsk on my 88, complete with paint pikshers, :D
 
#14 · (Edited)
Does yours have the third row seat?

And while I'm at it, I am mad as hell at Ford for not making something to contend with the Suburban until 2000, and then only making the Excursion for 5 years. Its fuckin' bullshit!!! Neither the Explorer nor the Expedition count worth a shit in my book. Could you just imagine? Millions of 77-13 Excursions, three rows of seats, two rows of roll down windows, one ton axles. 351+ cu in engines. Heavy frames. Sigh. They should have been installing diesel engines since back then too. A 79 F350 w/ a 360 IH turbodiesel from the factory? Yes please. Sorry to rant. If you ever wanna sell it, PM me first please.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Yup quite possible, drove it from Seattle to the farm in southern Alberta then upto fort mcmurray, I've been back south a couple times.

Been looking at the mass air conversions, looks like I'll need a stand alone tranny controller and then a programmed mustang computer to keep things easy, and an 80mm MAF along with everything else. I'm going to look at some aftermarket computers and see What they can do, probably going to cost an easy 1000bucks if I use aftermarket parts.

Thanks for the info on the sky kit, I can just build the front hangers I suppose, but I really hoping to keep things as prefabbed as possible, oh well.

Thanks for the leaf spring info link, going to go cruise that site and see what I can find.

EDIT:

The superduties are ~4" longer in the front and within an 1/8" in the back, so perfect, now to find the deavers that I would like to find.
 
#18 · (Edited)
I found mine with 52,000 original miles on it. C350 with a 460 and E4OD. Mine is complete and intact inside hasnt had the roof redone yet and doesnt yet need it. Its been kep under cover all its life so the elements havnt beat it up zero rust. Not my favorite colors and it had these gay running boards on it but couldnt pass it up for what I paid for it. I like the colors on yours a lot more! Funny though that your front doors arent as shiny as the rest of the truck, my front fenders and driver door are the same way.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
 
#20 · (Edited)
I'll buy that one too! Dag gone. Thing is NIIIICE!!! I am in love. I wish I was more of a body man I would build one myself. I know they mate the cab just forward of the Bronco top. They epoxy them right? But why? Do they overlap and epoxy, or roll a lip and butt them together? I'm only interested in the 1 tons. What frame do they use? XCLB? Probably a shortened CCLB right? Still one continious channel?
 
#21 ·
the ones i find are always 2wd 1 tons rotted to hell :(
 
#25 ·
There is an old man up the valley that sells used Jeep parts and he has 2 of these. Both are 4x. One is on about 38" or 40" Ground Hawgs and is dented and beat to shit. The other is in CHERRY condition. If I think about it I will snap a pic or two the next time Im up there. I'd love to have one but Ric just laughs when anyone asks him how much
 
#26 ·
I have seen the roofs of 2 that had the epoxy removed. No overlap or seam, just tac welded and bondo'd. The crew cab roof top has the ribs for structure but the bronco's didnt have that they were smooth tops. So centurion cut rib slots in the bronco side of the roof to mesh the two. What could have been a good joint is barely welded at all and then epoxied over and painted.

The vin on mine still comes up as a crew cab long bed xlt. The frame was shortened right in the middle of the fixed end spring hanger for the rear springs. The hanger is still riveted to half the frame and bolted to the other half welded and fish plated on the inside. You cant even find it unless you crawl underneath them to look. I havent seen the floor joint so dont know what that looks like.
 
#27 · (Edited)
Yeah ditto, roof seam is tack welded (not even cleaned up, mine appears to be welded the entire length) and bondo'd over. the bondo on mine on the outer edges is just starting to go, so my plan is to remove the loose stuff and redo what little i can as its mostly intact (the clearcoat on the paint is bad on my truck so it won't look any different).

Looking for the leafs I've found a pair of superduty springs front and rear, and I've also found a complete suspension out of a radius arm superduty (radius arms, shocks, leafs, coils, etc). If they're are out of a gasser I'm half tempted to go this route instead of leafs, I just need to build lower coil mounts and radius arm brackets and install everything. We shall see.
 
#28 ·
So in all reality they didn't do anything any ol joe with a welder and patience couldn't do. Hmmmm. I might have to start practicing my sheet metal welding skills. I would rather stitch weld the entire body than how they did it. They did it that way due to labor cost I'm sure.
 
#29 ·
If you want to check out everything there is to know about em here is the place to start. Fourdoorbronco forums

I used to want to build one myself to save the money I thought they were worth. Check the classifieds in there and you might find one you cant pass up. Even came as power strokes for 3 years.

But yes you or any skilled mechanic could put one together and I have seen 2 home done builds in person. One 78 FDB and an 85 TTB FDB. Looked way doable. Mine the roof splice is in the rear portion of the rear doors. As in the door hinges were obviously on the original crew cab. But the striker area is the bronco part of the door. You can barely find the seam just in the rain gutters because they didnt grind out enough of the bondo.