B2 Marauder 1984 Ford Bronco II XLS 4x4

This 1984 Ford Bronco II XLS 4×4 is the only vehicle that I’ve built for someone other than myself. A friend bought this to be their sons first vehicle, but the Bronco II needed some work. It had a bad starter, but since it had a manual transmission, the seller was able to push start the thing so we could test drive it. Making the 1.5-hour drive home with it was fun because I knew if I stalled it would be some work to get it started again.

I had seen pictures of Bronco II XLS models online, but I had never seen one in person, and this was the first one I ever saw listed for sale that still had all of its exterior XLS trim pieces.

Fixing the starter wasn’t that complicated. The teeth on the old starter had stripped but the flywheel was still in good shape. The Ford 4.0L uses a different starter than this older 2.8L, and you can bolt the starter from a 4.0L with an automatic onto the 2.8L manual. The 4.0L starter is slightly smaller, has the solenoid attached to it, and makes more torque. I just had to do a little re-wiring.

The 2.8L V6 is a good engine. They use a timing gearset instead of a timing chain and still use a carburetor instead of fuel injection. These engines used a TFI ignition setup, but somebody had already converted the ignition to an earlier Ford Duraspark setup. All I did to the engine was rebuild the carburetor which isn’t very difficult.

This was going to be a first vehicle for a teenager that didn’t have their license yet, so we didn’t want to put a lot of money into the body work thinking that it will probably get damaged. I removed the XLS decals, cleaned up some areas of surface rust and added a functioning hood scoop to allow air to get to blow in around the air filter. I removed some of the dents, but not all of them. I painted it with Rust-Oleum satin black mixed in a gun with acetone and hardener. I felt like the satin black would lend more to the Bronco II’s rough look with its minor dents and dings. I then recreated the XLS decals and striping with glass black vinyl and added some racing stripes going up to the hood scoop. They don’t show up very well in the photos.

I wanted to give the Bronco II a little better stance, so I added Rough Country 1.5-Inch leveling coils to the front and a new pair of Skyjacker Black Max shocks. In the rear I added a 1.5-Inch Skyjacker Add-A-Leaf and a new pair of Skyjacker Black Max shocks. The only reason I used the Rough Country coils instead of Skyjacker was price and we were on a budget. I also replaced the brakes at all four wheels.

The Bronco II still had its original set of automatic locking hubs, so I replaced them with a set of Mile Marker 427 manual locking hubs using their hub conversion kit.

The original tires were a 195/75/15 (26.5? x 7.7? x 15?) tire. I chose to go with a 235/75/15 (28.9? x 9.3? x 15?) Americus Rugged M/T. Most people building one of these vehicles and adding some lift would have strived for a 31-inch tire. I chose a 29-inch tire because I wanted to retain the XLS flares. Any larger tire would have rubbed against them. The tires are mounted on Crager Nomad II chrome wheels.

The modification that really gives the Bronco II it’s cool look is the Xprite 7-Inch Round LED Headlights. To learn how to do the round headlight conversion check out ‘Round Headlights on Your Bronco II‘. The round headlights are complimented by a set of Nilight 7-Inch Round LED Off-Road Lights. I also found that the Xprite Mini Pro Driving Lights fit the openings in the air damn. It seems odd that the air damn had light openings, but the Bronco II didn’t come with driving lights.

On the inside I added a new black carpet kit, repainted all of the trim, recovered the dash with a Coverlay dash cover, and recovered the headliner. I found a set of power leather seats from a Ford Fusion for sale on Facebook Marketplace and bought them. I had to use some pieces of 1.5-inch tubing as spacers to mount them.

The needles on the factory gauges had turned white, so I repainted using Orange Createx Fluorescent Airbrush paint and a small paint brush. Believe it or not, the factory gauges have a blue filter over the bulbs to give the gauges a blue glow. The problem is that these old incandescent light bulbs put off a yellow hue, so it causes the blue filter to actually glow green. Switching to LED bulbs in the dash allowed the gauges to have the blue color that Ford intended them to have.

I also painted the center console, painted the front panel black, and added a Nilight 2-gange rocker switch panel that has a switch for the driving lights and off-road lights, and a USB charging port. I even added a USB charging port on the rear of the console so back seat passengers can charge their phones.

The stereo was updated with a Pioneer HEH-S5100BT head unit and matching speakers for the dash and side panels. I also updated the Bronco II with a backup camera I purchased on Amazon. I even replaced the factory cigarette lighter jack with a Dual USB 3.0 Quick Charging Port. This is the same charging port that I added to the rear of the center console.

I added a 12-volt outlet / USB charging station in the rear of the Bronco II along with a fire extinguisher and first aid kit.

The Bronco II turned out great and definitely stands out from all of the other vehicles on the road.