UPDATE: 10/25/2002

       Found yet another website. this one has replacement body panels that are stock. They're just stainless steel, but they work fine and are as solid as you get. Check it out.

UPDATE: 8/27/2002

       Hey hey hey! I was rambling about the internet a few days ago, and I went about 7,000 listings into a Google search for "Bronco II." I was surprised how much great stuff is hidden within the e-jungle that is todays internet. I found a place to get some hard core new drive shafts for your lifted B2, you can even order them at certain lengths! Go here!

A pic of a heavy duty drive shaft for the B2.

And my absolute FAVORITE addition possible to a B2. A complete, fiberglass, body repaneling kit! That's right! You can take off all your old, boxy body panels and replace them with the body panels from a '99 Ford Explorer. And the wheel wells are chopped so you could wedge some ENORMOUS tires onto the B2's miniscule frame. I love this mod more than any other mod out there. It is a style statement that is hard to beat. I got my e-mail back from them, and the prices for their shit is unbelievable and it makes these things MUST buys. The fiberglass parts will total a measely 600 dollars!! With the lights only another 375!! That's less than a thousand dollars to make your B2 cuh-razy. You know you want it. Check out their website here..... NOW!

       I also found a nice website that makes custom floor mats with the B2 logo. I think JC Whitney has them as well, but these are really high quality and yet another place to find nice parts. Check it out here.

END UPDATE---

      As with the legal junk on the home page, if you alter your vehicle, you also have to alter your driving technique. You will NOT be able to drive that thing like a car anymore. If you put a 3 inch lift with 33" tires on your B2, your top speed will be around 75. After that the tires become dangerous and the entire car will become squirrelly. You also can't go banging around corners at retarded speeds. The lift will put your center of gravity at an incredible height. And thusly your lateral G capabilities will be severely reduced.

      Other properties lift kits include the harder shocks you'll use. If you make like a baja truck, or an Urban Commando, you'll probably have dual shocks on the front and new springs and shocks on the back. The new setup will limit body roll rather substantially. And larger tires will be much wider, so you will still be a very stable vehicle, as long as you know how to drive it. You'll be very stable if you swap out for larger axles, or decide to make a low to the ground rock crawler. The rock crawler will have softer shocks though, so body roll will be extensive. And always remember, you will NEED new drive shafts. Lots of people forget this not-so-little part. Because frequently, the drive shaft will make the final cut and will connect. But what you end up with is a drive shaft under incredible stress. You'll get odd vibrations, the engine might stall randomly, and in the worst case scenario, the front of your drive shaft falls off while moving and takes the entire rear section of your B2 with it.

      Lifting is the easiest thing to do to your B2. There are quite a few "out of the box" kits that you can buy. Sometimes the kits are just kinda hard to find. And some of the kits that ARE available also suck. Look below for kits listings and how much I like them.

      If you drop your B2, your handling will be increased in relation to how far you drop the suspension. Coupled with harder shocks you'd have quite the street terror on your hands. Stock and lowered, a B2 can take up to 18" rims before running into trouble. And try not to oversize your tires too much on either a lift or a drop, it's a pain in the ass to recalibrate the gauges. Unfortunately there are NO "out of the box" drop kits for a B2. You're gonna have to engineer this one yourselves. If you want it low now, you can just slam it, take the shocks out and put in some smaller harder springs and adjust the rear leaf springs. But your best bet would probably a full lowering spring kit from a company such as Billstein that was designed for a Ranger and simply have someone, or do it yourself if you have the required knowledge and skills, modify the mounts on the chassis. The 4x2 version of the B2 is obviously going to be a lot easier to lower, but you can lower the 4x4 version pretty far too. If you do it yourself make sure to compensate for everything. I don't want to get e-mails from people saying that now parts of their steering are banging up against the chassis.

Skyjacker Suspension (Where to buy- Rocky Mountain Suspensions. --)

      Probably the best that you can buy. When compared to James Duff, Skyjacker is a bit more Expensive, but they certainly perform. I also am not a fan of the color they come in.

"In addition to the standard kits, Skyjacker offers 4" & 6" Class II lift kits which include replacement tubular offset radius arms extended 15" longer than stock offering up to 30% more wheel articulation and less frame fatigue than using radius drop brackets. Newly designed center hinge brackets are both stylish and more rugged than stock or standard applications. Class II also includes a new transfer case crossmember, pitman arm and 4 shocks with boots."

If you buy a Skyjacker system, you will certainly not be disappointed

James Duff (Where to buy- James Duff Enterprises. --)

      My favorite kits. James Duff does nothing but B2's and Rangers, and it shows through with some excellent hardware. If you run down the line of products they have and just buy everything, and subsequently bolt it onto your B2, your B2 will be absolutely insane. Skyjacker has one primary advantage over Duff, higher lifts. Right out of the box you can get up to 8 inch lifts for your B2. And while that's so high it's actually pretty retarded, it IS more room to choose, and that's always good. James Duff has a lot more crap though. And that's why I like it the most. For 1200 bucks, you get the most impressive system of the 3 companies listed. And then you can get lots more bolt on goodies if you so desire. I also LOVE the color. :)

Superlift (Where to buy- Rocky Mountain Suspensions. --)

      Superlift are the worst of the three, like any of them could be bad. They are the cheapest, but you get what you pay for with slightly less sturdy metal and manufacturing, and fewer parts and options. Superlift does make a replacement steering linkage system that I really love though. So regardless of which system you end up buying, you should buy the steering linkage from Superlift. Superlift also makes a speed calibrator that the other two do not. I have not used it, I do not know how reliable it is, but it sounds solid.

Engine Mods.---------

      Engine modifications are a lot easier than the suspension. Since a good chunk of Ford parts for other vehicles are interchangeable with the B2. (Gotta love the assembly line.) As soon as you get your B2 I would recommend changing your induction and throttle assembly. The cheapest route is to just put a K&N in place of your stock filter. But if you want that great underhood growl, find a complete replacement. The easiest way I found was to take an induction kit for something like a Honda Civic and cutting the metal induction pipe to fit. After you remove the old induction assembly, you'll have this big empty space. Put your battery where the Air filter housing was and cut a hole or drill a series of holes in the firewall where the battery used to be than run the new air filter and pipe right up to those holes. Your next step would be to buy a heat shield filter and then run a tube through the firewall and aim it forward to get kind of like a ram-air effect. Make sure to use some kind of firm support for the battery. That is not something you want banging around. With a good filter, you'll probably see 1 ft/lb of torque and a couple horse, maybe more. The real bonus is from the better throttle response and smoother acceleration. The throttle body should be taken care of cause the stock one is not only small, it's also realllly weak. It will start to wear out at like 75,000 miles.

      A new exhaust is a power gold mine. A Flowmaster or Gibson will net you at least 2 ft/lbs of torque, and upwards of 8-10 more horse. There are no known cat back kits out there available out of the box. So your only real option is to hunt for the muffler you want, and have a custom shop bend the pipes for you and do the install. You're probably looking at around a 450 dollar job with all the parts included. And if your catalytic converter is also old, you'll need to add another 200 to that total. The cheapest route is to swap the old muffler out for a new one. If piping is needed buy some cheap-o pipe at Pep Boys or the local store, bend it yourself (You can buy large manual pipe benders for like 50 bucks.) and find a friend with a welder of some sort. Open up the cat, scoop out the honeycomb, or let it fall out depending on how old it is, and weld it back up. You'll save money and get power, but you'll end up on the hit list of every environmentalist in the country.

      After the intake and exhaust are all cleared up, ignition is the next logical step. MSD is the OOONLY way to go as far as I'm concerned. Their kits are well prices, reliable as gravity, and usually come with easy-to-use timing controls.Get rid of your stock ignition, and I mean everything. And get an MSD kit, some Splitfire or Bosch Super+Platinum, and some good wires. This is going to be a REAL problem if you have AC in your B2. Hell, without AC it's nigh impossible to reach one of the plugs, and the cap and rotor are positioned as such to make you contemplate the actual IQ of Ford engineers.

      After that all modifications are at your own discretion. You can just go hang around Pep Boys and see what fits if you want. I would go with a re-build after that, but you might decide you'd rather get a new intake, or headers, or what have you. But always make sure that the basic components are always solid. Pumps, filters, etc... Those are the most important because they are the foundation of the engine. You can't build a mansion on sand.

Engine Swap.------------

      Something that has been gaining some serious popularity over the years are engine swaps. There are three engines that you can fit into the B2 4x4 and 4x2. The 4.0 V6, the 3.9 V6, and the 5.0 V8. Many people will say you can get a 351 in there, but I disagree. It becomes such a tight fit it's silly. And the B2's chassis wasn't meant for an engine that big either. Technically you can also fit a 4.6 V8 from current Mustangs in there, but I don't know the mechanics involved.

      The 5.0 is my favorite. They're plentiful, powerful, and compact. It's a pretty big job, and will require a good deal of knowledge and confidence around engines, but can be done in a couple weekends by a shadetree mechanic. One thing to take into consideration is the chassis and tranny. The stock tranny will NOT be able to handle the V8. Whether you have a manual or automatic. You'll have to swap out, once again the tranny out of a Mustang does the job quite well. The other thing if you really get your engine cranking, is chassis flex. The torque generated during launching could actually twist the frame, and a roll cage might become necessary. If not as extreme as a roll cage, you'll definitely want a shop to reinforce the frame with an additional stainless steel crossmember. Now these are my opinions and may differ from other people, you might want to get a second opinion before you set out to do anything this wild with your B2.

      If you want a real project, go steal an engine from a wrecked 5.0 Mustang GT. You'll have to fix a lot I'm sure, but it's not the destination, it's the journey. Set aside a couple weeks, (And about 5 grand.) bust out a 24 pack of Heineken and steal a couple of friends away from their wives/girlfriends, and get ready to have some fun. Also bust out the Band-Aids... trust me, you'll need them. If you want to go the easier route, it's also the faster more sensible route, buy a crate engine or order one at a local shop and have them put it in. If you order it yourself and put it in, you're looking at around 4 grand, if you have a shop do everything, you're looking at around 5 grand. You should just do it yourself, it's far more fun that way, but to each their own. As long as you end up rolling down the road at the end of it all.

For the crate engine swap, I recommend Crateengine.net.

      They have a wide selection of engines and bored over engines, great prices, and reliable products. If you have a mechanic near you that deals in crate engines, you might want to deal with them instead. At first they might refuse to order the engine for you because they think you are a moron. Just tell them that you are going to order an engine. Somewhere, somehow you will get it, and if they want your business, order the damn engine.

      For the engine mounting hardware, there are two companies that I recommend. Once again James Duff tops the list, and another smaller company called L&L products is also there for their great mounting kit. I recommend James Duff because, again, they do nothing BUT B2's and Rangers. They also have the greatest selection and best instructions. L&L is no slouch either though. Solid components, good documentation, and very cheap, both choices would be a good choices.

James Duff Enterprises. --- L&L Products