OT: Arne’s post-teener projects, Retirement project #8, 1969 Ford Bronco Options

[arne]

I tried, folks, really I did. Since I sold the yellow 2.0 I’ve looked into 3 different 914s. None were good enough that I felt I could refresh them and still break even later. So I had to look at other options.

“And now for something completely different.”

In fact, it doesn’t get much different, really. Japanese. 50+ years old. Not what anyone would consider as “sporty” in any normal sense of the word. But I think it’ll be a pretty cool project, all the same.

1964 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser. All original, with a rare factory PTO winch. I’ve got a lot of new stuff to learn, and I don’t think I can learn it here. It’s been a fun time, 914world is great!

Wish me luck!

[Cairo94507]

Very nice project. Not surprised to hear your comments re the KYB's. They are junk out of the box and the reason they are nicknamed Kill Your Back shocks. The two names that repeatedly come up for Porsches are Bilstein and Koni. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[horizontally-opposed]

The two names that repeatedly come up for Porsches are Bilstein and Koni. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Fwiw, I got talked into Bilstein HDs by a lot of folks I (still) respect last time around, this despite my great experience with Koni dampers in my 914 in the past. They had good, valid reasons, but I wish I had stuck with Konis.

The Bilsteins are fine at speeds of +50 mph, and nicely damped when it comes to low-speed damping characteristics (the way the car transitions as it leans into a bend), but are "busy" when it comes to high-speed damping (think of "patter" as the car deals with small imperfections in the road). They've improved a bit as they've broken in (or I've grown accustomed to them), but I think rebuilt Konis are in my future. That or a revalve of the HDs (have driven some impressively revalved Bilsteins by Craig Watkins, S Car Go, etc). Or perhaps something else entirely…

[arne]

Fwiw, I got talked into Bilstein HDs by a lot of folks I (still) respect last time around, this despite my great experience with Koni dampers in my 914 in the past. They had good, valid reasons, but I wish I had stuck with Konis.

The Bilsteins I had on the '84 Carrera were great. But that was a heavier car with larger torsion bars than this '72. Bilstein calls for the same numbers for this '72 as they do for an SC or Carrera, and I'm more than a little concerned they might be a bit much for the stock '72. Will be driving a friend's '73.5 T next weekend, she has new Sach/Boge in it. Going to pay attention to how it works on the backroads before making a decision.

Nice! Flashbacks to two years ago getting the 914 up and running, I'll bet.

Some, yes. Correcting a prior owner's "work" on the mechanical injection (before he admitted he screwed it up so bad that he put carbs on it) is a different deal. Complicated by finding other issues like this lack of fuel under load. Slowly testing each bit one by one to track it down.

I can tell already, however, that the MFI 2.4 will be great once it is dialed in.