This is Part 2 in an ongoing series, to read PART 1 – CLICK HERE

Work began in the spring of 2009 with a complete strip down of the chassis and a repaint to Kal-Tire orange, while the suspension underwent serious changes due to the availability of much better parts.

The Ranger twin traction beam was cut and modified for 4 inches of lift and painted blue, and the factory Ranger springs were swapped out for Rancho 4” lift springs designed for a Jeep Cherokee. To work with the additional wheel travel, shocks were changed from the Motorcraft units to Rancho RS 9000 for a F250 Superduty pickup, still maintaining two per front wheel.

The 4-link rear suspension was modified to match the front 4” of lift by extending the upper and lower control arms and rotating the pinion upwards, then using stock length front coils from a Jeep Cherokee. Installation of California Suspension Techniques 12 inch travel Pre-runner shocks, dampened movement of the rear axle, again mounted two per wheel.

We retained the same transmission and transfer case from previous build as they were undamaged and still a good fit for the power level of the truck. The engine was another matter, due to time constraints and lack of piston availability, we installed a bone stock Lima 2.3L from a 1981 Mustang, it received the 2 barrel carb and header from the previous build. Since this engine did not have the high-rpm valvetrain of the first build, shift points were reduced to 7,000 rpm.

A set of four 31″ Yokohama Geolander MT tires rounded out the mechanical changes for the rebuild.

Visually, we reinstalled Bronco II body panels, with the addition of a hood scoop from Darren’s scrapped 1982 Mustang GT, and painted body panels white with a set of Kal-Tire vinyl graphics over top.

The truck entered its first tough truck competition in Edson AB 6 &7 June of 2009, where on the second run of Saturday I flipped the truck end over end on the last jump before the finish line (video on you tube).

I trailered it back to the shop that night and found that I had broken a front axle and rear axle shaft, bent the front of the frame and the top of the rollcage, destroyed the radiator and fan, and wrecked most of the body panels.

I straightened the frame and roll cage, then replaced the axles and radiator, and had the truck ready to race for Sunday.

After two runs on Sunday, I had set the fastest time of the weekend by a margin of 14 seconds and took first place for the event.

We ran its second Tough Truck competition in September of 2009 where it competed against professionally built tough trucks and with having no crashes or breakdowns it took second place, being beaten by a truck with much more power.

The last Tough Truck competition it ran in was June of 2010, I had a bit of bad luck and broke a front differential during the second run of Saturday. I repaired the differential that night and competed again on Sunday, where the truck took first place.

The truck then got reworked for off-road racing in Nova Scotia where it was moved to in summer of 2011.