zeppelin_71
Jr. Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2017
- Messages
- 56
First post here.
My dad bought a '71 Bronco back in the early 90's as a deer lease vehicle. He parked it in the garage in 1999 after he started using his Z71 instead. It's been sitting there ever since. They got nailed by extreme floods last year, so they're having to tear down their house and rebuild, and he needs to do something with the Bronco. I told him not to sell it and that I would buy it. He told me I can just have it. So, pretty cool Dad.
We're about two hours apart. He's near Houston, and I'm outside of Austin. I love cars, but I'm not a "car guy" or a shade-tree mechanic. While I would love to learn more about cars, I probably just need to pay someone to get this guy running and to change a few things on it. Curious for some advice in that regard.
So, here are the stats: It's an uncut 1971, three on the tree. Olive green with a white top. Luggage rack on top (might be aftermarket?). Black bench seat in front. No rear seat. Spare is mounted in back against a bulkhead that the bench sits against. There is some tiny aftermarket steering wheel (I'd prefer something bigger/stock). He put some aftermarket radio and ran a few dinky speakers to just behind and above the doors (still has original radio). No A/C, no power steering, drum brakes. He had dual exhaust put on; they are pretty small diameter pipes and it also has glass packs, so it is obnoxiously loud. It has some pretty aggressive mud-type tread tires on it with the original hubcaps.
Here's what I'd like to do:
a) Get it running
b) Disc brakes, power steering, A/C
c) New tires
d) Remove glass packs; maybe run exhaust to side behind tires instead of straight back; would love just a throaty V8 lope
e) Remove bench, put in buckets; put in rear bench for my two boys
f) Mount tire on back
g) Maybe just reinstall original radio
I'm curious if any of these are not good ideas or not feasible?
I'm thinking I should probably somehow trailer/tow it up here to Austin and find somewhere local that can work on it for me so I am able to check in on it. Anyone in the Hill Country have any recommendations? I know there's a place over in Kerrville that does EB work. I also really have no idea what I'm looking at as far as cost -- maybe $5-10k? Is that naive?
The end goal here is to have a third car that is a toy for just cruising around Austin in. I have a very short commute to work, so it would be a fun car to drive to work on pretty days, tool around town with on the weekends, etc. We'd probably get some sort of bikini top; my wife has always wanted a Jeep or something of that ilk with no top.
Thanks in advance for any comments, advice, tips, recommendations.
My dad bought a '71 Bronco back in the early 90's as a deer lease vehicle. He parked it in the garage in 1999 after he started using his Z71 instead. It's been sitting there ever since. They got nailed by extreme floods last year, so they're having to tear down their house and rebuild, and he needs to do something with the Bronco. I told him not to sell it and that I would buy it. He told me I can just have it. So, pretty cool Dad.
We're about two hours apart. He's near Houston, and I'm outside of Austin. I love cars, but I'm not a "car guy" or a shade-tree mechanic. While I would love to learn more about cars, I probably just need to pay someone to get this guy running and to change a few things on it. Curious for some advice in that regard.
So, here are the stats: It's an uncut 1971, three on the tree. Olive green with a white top. Luggage rack on top (might be aftermarket?). Black bench seat in front. No rear seat. Spare is mounted in back against a bulkhead that the bench sits against. There is some tiny aftermarket steering wheel (I'd prefer something bigger/stock). He put some aftermarket radio and ran a few dinky speakers to just behind and above the doors (still has original radio). No A/C, no power steering, drum brakes. He had dual exhaust put on; they are pretty small diameter pipes and it also has glass packs, so it is obnoxiously loud. It has some pretty aggressive mud-type tread tires on it with the original hubcaps.
Here's what I'd like to do:
a) Get it running
b) Disc brakes, power steering, A/C
c) New tires
d) Remove glass packs; maybe run exhaust to side behind tires instead of straight back; would love just a throaty V8 lope
e) Remove bench, put in buckets; put in rear bench for my two boys
f) Mount tire on back
g) Maybe just reinstall original radio
I'm curious if any of these are not good ideas or not feasible?
I'm thinking I should probably somehow trailer/tow it up here to Austin and find somewhere local that can work on it for me so I am able to check in on it. Anyone in the Hill Country have any recommendations? I know there's a place over in Kerrville that does EB work. I also really have no idea what I'm looking at as far as cost -- maybe $5-10k? Is that naive?
The end goal here is to have a third car that is a toy for just cruising around Austin in. I have a very short commute to work, so it would be a fun car to drive to work on pretty days, tool around town with on the weekends, etc. We'd probably get some sort of bikini top; my wife has always wanted a Jeep or something of that ilk with no top.
Thanks in advance for any comments, advice, tips, recommendations.