Big Oly Bronco Racer WIP

[coopdad]

Gang, I thought I would start posting the WIP I am in the process of building. Read on and find out why this is going to take a while.

I have always loved Broncos and racing so I thought I would combine both in one: "Big Oly." It was one of the first ground up, purpose-built vehicle for desert racing. Built by Bill Stroppe's shop, it went on to win the '71 and '72 Baja 1000s and a few others in the hands of Parnelli Jones.

Since there are NO early Broncos kits other than a few resin bodies, I will have to scratch-build almost totally. I started with a plastic toy made in the 70's. It is almost exactly 1:24 scale.

Here is my first and fourth attempt at casting the sides:

Good enough to work with (hopefully).

The real Bronco has been channeled and width reduced by 3". Luckily my miter saw blade scales out to very close to 3" scale inches so...

The fender shapes and flares were no where near what the real truck has so I cut these out so styrene and superglued on:

Then after A LOT of work sanding, shaping, filling, filing the flares look much closer... we will see after I get some primer on.

I will try to post often. If anyone has questions feel free to ask.

John

[James Flowers]

I like where your going with this build. To me it looks like you need to make the wheel wells higher on the body, as the ones on the real one are above the side body line.

[Rick Schmidt]

Hey How'd he get it back ??!! wasn't it stolen and sent off to wherever ?? Oh wait that was just a movie hehe

[84vanagon]

TOO COOL, John!

I'll be eagerly following this build.

After all these years I still can't

believe the 66-77 Bronco hasn't

been kitted. There are so many

variations that could be spun off of

one basic kit. I have one of the

Gay Toys Bronco's and thought

from time to time of casting it up.

For a $0.50 cent toy it's pretty

accurate.

PLEASE KEEP US UPDATED!

[coopdad]

I like where your going with this build. To me it looks like you need to make the wheel wells higher on the body, as the ones on the real one are above the side body line.

Mustanglover1951, when I originally put the flares on I hadn't notice how high they really were on the real truck. So yes, now I think it will be too obvious to leave so I am raising them up right now.

84Vanagon, yes, hard to believe nobody has made one. I heard rumors Tamiya was going to make one as they were spotted at a show last year measuring and photographing a Bronco but it turned out to be an RC version that should be coming out, well, now.

The Gay Toys is surprisingly accurate (all except that darn grill. Luckily Oly has a different one.)

Again, thanks for the comments.

John

[coopdad]

A few updates... the ends:

The grill on the real truck and the toy are VERY different so I pretty much had to totally hand build it. The only thing I was able to use was the strip across the center with the F O R D on it:

To the rear:

And of course there is no tailgate... built the area where gas tanks will go:

John

[coopdad]

Thought I would update my progress....

The cage is 99% done:

I am purposefully leaving off the bars across the top of the doors and in the center of the roof so that I can get the interior in.

And now working on the interior. It too is pretty close to being done.

Everything should look much better after a few coats of primer and sanding.

Thanks for watching.

John

[Rider]

Fantastic work on the cage and the channeling (sp?). I too have always like that era of the Bronco. Why is the body cut down on the original?

[Foxer]

That is some ambitious and very good looking work!

[Dragline]

HOLY SCHNICKY'S!!!!!

Fantastic chassis, body work et all...........

Ambitious and accurate. Two things that seperate you from standard kit builders [i being one of the latter].

I'll be paying attention.

Bob F

[crispy]

Wow, great scratch work! Thanks for sharing with us.

I'm on the same page as everyone else, why no Bronco of this era? I'm not a Ford man at all, but that Bronco is one of my most favorite trucks ever.

Chris

[coopdad]

Fantastic work on the cage and the channeling (sp?). I too have always like that era of the Bronco. Why is the body cut down on the original?

Thanks all for your kind words... yes, striving for accuracy which makes it a VERY difficult build... have almost given up on many times. Thankfully have little sparks of excitement between the hours of frustration to keep it going.

Plastic Freak, I am not exactly sure why they channelled it but knowing some history of the trucks before it, I will guess that they did it to cut down on weight. The only reason it was built in the first place was that Parnelli Jones was so hard on the modified stock Broncos that they build this one from scratch with as much strength, light weight and race car-like feel as possible. That is the main reason that this truck was so important in history, it was the first ground-up built vehicle for desert racing (rather than just taking a factory truck and modifying the heck out of it).

If you are intersted in Parnelli Jones' desert racing history, here is a cool video with lots of info about Oly.

John

[coopdad]

I just realized I have not been keeping up my WIP here... so here is my next installment.

Obviously have made a lot of progress since last year....

On to the rear of the car:

Added the radiators, and fuel fullers.

I have braided lines and vent hoses ready to put on too. Will post pix.

So, to day date this is all the parts I have hand-made:

And the decals:

John

[RodneyBad]

DAAAAAAAANG!!

That is looking Great.

Really great scratch work..

[Kombi]

I'm very impressed. This level of scratch building is always fun to watch.

[Joseph]

John,

Absolutely fantastic! You really should keep your build up to date with lots of nice pictures for us!

Cheers!

Joseph

[Guest old man]

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW

[crispy]

Excellent! I'm not a Ford man but they sure had a pretty truck there. One of if not my all time biggest wants in the truck dept for a plastic kit. You wait, once you finish it a kit will appear on the horizon!

Keep at it. Great work.

Chris

[highway]

WOW, that is impressive! You have some great scratchbuilding skills. Did you make and design the decals as well?

[lizardlust]

INCREDIBLE - Your perseverance in replicating the original to the utmost degree is astonishing, to say nothing of your craftsmanship!!!

[coopdad]

Thanks much for all the kind words guys. And yes Matthew, I made the decals using Adobe Illustrator. I am a graphic designer for a living so decals were the easiest part of the project.

Getting tired of everything being styrene white and resin tan I decided to treat myself and get paint on something. In this case I picked wheels/tires and under the hood.

The wheels came from RMS Resin (Ryan's a great guy to deal with). They started out very deep so I cut them down to a more realistic depth. Note, fronts and rears are different. Top is the original, left is the rear, right is front.

Ryan threw in the knock offs for free. And after paint I think they look pretty close. The wheel with the red knock off is the spare... not sure why they made it a different color.

Was also able to get some paint on the motor:

I also finished the front of the motor. Scratch built the pump, pulley and belt. Also added mounting brackets to the alternator. The fan in real life looks like it was quickly painted with a spray can so I tried to do the same by painting over bolt heads. Scratches on the blades (and oil pan) showing metal underneath are intentional. They will be mounted later... gotta make sure I can get the motor into the frame with that stuff attached. I would hate to have to take it off.

As always, any questions, feel free to ask.

John

[Romell R]

Hello John As a scratch builder myself i can really appreciate the work you have invested in this project and to watch your build from the start as a toy to progress to a full on scale replica has been a joy. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing your final post.

[coopdad]

Romell has been hounding me for an update (kidding of course) so here it is. And thanks everyone for the kind words.

Been working on all those tiny little things that make scratchbuilds just look home made: seams that don't line up perfectly, rough filler under paint, holes not perfectly round, etc. I really admire the guys that make these things for model companies.

A few photos of the first test fit of the body...

A big problem showed up yesterday. The top wing had, for some reason, become warped/wavy. The thing was no longer flat and since it will be chrome, it will be very obvious.

I bit the bullet and made another... I figure now is the time to make it right rather than after is done. This time I decided to use thick parallel ribs rather that horizontal. Also, used super glue rather than weld as it caused so many issues in the first (technically second) wing. The areas between the ribs were a problem in the first wing so I super glued very thick styrene to them to help with the flatness.

Forgot to post the rear axle before... lots of stuff that attaches to it. It is a three-link system connecting at the top of pumpkin and to the front bottoms. On top of those mounts are the shock mounts connecting to the spring mounts. At the rear are the sway bar connections. On top of those are large plates that hold big rubber bump stops. And there is a Panhard Bar connection on the back too (can barely see it at the top rear).

Also here are some new things... the spare tire mount and a thing that I am not sure what it is (think it holds a highlift jack). The unconnected sway bar can be seen flopping underneath.

Thanks for watching,

John

[coopdad]

And more pix...

The color of the cage is straight-out-of-the-can Acapulco Blue, a Ford color from that time period so I believe it to be the right color.

And with the rear plumbing added (test fitted).

I have not used Testors Model Master Lacquer paints before now. They lay down very nicely, stink though.

Now on to the front plumbing.

John

[RodneyBad]

WOW!! sure glad to see ya still working on it.

The scratch building and details are Great.

Awesome work.

Glad to be watching