How much to keep Original?

[bayoubronco]

The goal is to keep it original; while abating rust and making it functional. This phase is to do as much as I can without removing major items, like body, engine, tranny. A future phase will be a much more involved effort, hopefully a full frame off. There's key places/components that are in need of replacing or addressing the rust. I know this topic is a major opinion based ask; but that's why it's called a forum, right? (I'm tracking progress under the title "Evergreen Bayou Project") I am looking to incorporate feedback!

Edits in White on 4/3/2022
The Dash. It needs painting; but it's got all the dings and nicks that I remember as a kid when I rode in it. As the "Soul of the vehicle" (thx 67Sport) and with matching VIN, I'm putting it back on cleaned and un-painted.

Engine bay wheel well's. The battery tray is out and the vertical supports are solid but rusted. I can get that done with one of the many products; but back the original goal...So, Patina/body color vs Black vs a muted Primer. I'm going original patina, as much as possible; so now how to clear coat...I ordered POR-15 Clear and I have a can of Flood Penetrol that doesn't seem to be mentioned on this forum. Boiled Linseed Oil seems to be the other popular method. I'm going to test on the floor boards and see how it turns out. Thoughts appreciated!

Floor boards & Firewall insulation: the bottoms will need to be replaced, but the transition to rear floor and firewall is in great shape. I'm ok putting a tar roll on product on the floorboards as sacrificial temp solution. But I don't want to cover the nicer area's with that. I used carinsulation.com 1/4" and 3M 77 adhesive. I did a double layer. It's holding but It doesn't seem to be a long term solution. I also don't have any pre/post noise/heat comparison.

Hub caps: Feedback is not Original. And, since I'm missing one anyway; will add to budget to replace.

And the elephant in the room: The front Bumper. I'm really trying to embrace it as our Family fabrication. The great news is that they did secure it with bolts that are accessible! (unlike the rear bumper) I'll be looking for a painted original bumper for "dress up" days and hang the "elephant" in the garage.

Thanks again for all the help Y'all provide on this site!

 

[Slowleak]

Here’s what I think…. Keep your engine bay the original color. I would not be painting anything any color except the original color. For the floors, I would steer clear of any tar based products. That’s gonna make a mess and will simply cover the rust. Treat the floors with a rust converter/encapsulation product. You will be a lot better off. And those are not original hubcaps.
Nice project!

 

[Rustytruck]

if you don't want to change don't but you have to deal with stopping further deterioration. first step stopping water intrusion. that means replacing seals where necessary and keeping water outside and off any dirt that holds water. plugged drain holes in the door an rockers dirt collect water holds water and makes rust so opening up the doors and cleaning out and make sure the draines are clear, if rust is in these areas the you need to treat them to seal out water and air to stop rust. My favorites are POR-15 and for prevention Boeshield T9 areas to watch for is the back of the hood seal that covers the seam for the cowl panel and windshield support. the cowl has a hidden Chanel that gets rusty inside that is an important place to stop rust. accessed at the ends of the channel. windshield frame the channel under the windshield the hidden sides of the door jambs both front and rear. the tailgate bottom. some of this can be sprayed with Eastwood frame sealer. pressure wash everything on a sunny weekend and let it dry out completely. carpets and rubber mats holding moisture are the devil.

Rust and Corrosion Protection/Waterproof Lubrication | Boeshield T-9®

Boeshield T-9® provides corrosion protection and waterproof lubrication. Rust Free™ removes rust and stains. Blade & Bit™ removes resin, gum and pitch.

boeshield.com

Eastwood Internal Frame Coating Rust Prevention Aerosol

Destroys rust hiding inside the chassis, rocker panels and pillars so it won't rust through

www.eastwood.com

3-Step Stop Rust System

Achieve ultimate rust protection with POR-15's 3-Step Rust System. This rust stopper for metal ensures corrosion protection and shields metal in 3 easy steps.

por15.com

 

[bayoubronco]

Rustytruck, excellent points! I'll be checking out the channel condition! Door's are good; rocker's are weak and plugged with dirt. Undercarrage by antenna, wheel wells and battery area are rusting and needs attention. the heater intake box needs assessment and I think requires the front quarter panel removal. Frame has all kinds of small debris (thinking from rat nests) and some sizable pebbles inside. Can't wait to "blow" that stuff out someday.

 

[DirtDonk]

One thing that covered here, but might come in to play anyway, are the body mounts.
If they are original, great they can be replaced with rubber reproductions down the road. But if they are already sagging unevenly, working on the body and other important things like top and door alignment, could lead to trouble if you don’t fix the body mounts first.
So just look at them with a tape measure in hand and see if they are all the same height. Originally they were 3/4 of an inch tall. If they have all sagged a bit but are still equally high, you should be good to go and can change them at any time later.

 

[DirtDonk]

One of the first things I did when I got my 71 was to stick the garden hose on each drain hole (and rust hole!) to blow-and-flow all the gunk out of the rockers. Did the same thing for each frame rail.
Driveway had a decent slope so I just parked there and flushed everything out. In this environment it dries pretty quickly so I wasn’t worried about making the rust any worse than it already was. And it really did seem to help.
If nothing else though it made me feel a lot better having seen all the junk get flushed out.

 

[BGBronco]

Someone told me a long time ago: 1) Safety; 2) Reliability; 3) Cosmetics. In your case, I would really address things like the floor pans, etc before going to my #1 because you're really building the bronco on that foundation and you have easy access to them.

The elephant / front bumper needs to go. If you're attached to it, use it as a shelf in the garage.

 

[DirtDonk]

I’m on the fence about the bumper. On the one hand I think the Ford stylists completely nailed the look with the bumper design on Broncos. They are sleek slim and very complementary.
Should’ve made them 5 inches shorter of course, but they are some of the best looking bumpers around.
On the other hand, a family project is a sweet memory. And the bad is distinctive a look on an old vehicle as you are likely to ever achieve. Good or bad…

It’s certainly not sleek or slim, but the good news is you can buy a new front bumper pretty cheap as an experiment. Take the old one off, stick it in a corner, put the new one on and see what you think. If you’d rather drive around with the new factory style, figure out a good use around the property for the old one. If you just miss it too much, then you’re not out a whole lot of money for the experiment and you can put it back on.

 

[DirtDonk]

And agree completely with the paint under the hood. For that there are only two choices as far as I’m concerned.
Either clean it up and do your best to spray it the original matching color (or whatever color you plan to paint it in the near future) while things are this far apart, or clean it up the best you can and leave the current paint and patina.
No other two choices in my book.

Primer is just a waste of time and effort at this point because to do a credible paint job over the primer you’ll have to get it this far apart again. And if you wait too long the primer just gets messed up.

 

[fordfan]

I would definitely keep it as original and maintain the 'untouched' look as much as possible. As far as rust protection, POR15 products are top notch and do an excellent job, but I would be careful and not apply so much in visible areas that you have to paint. Let's face it, your Bronco is in great condition as it is, and I'm sure that is has been kept inside at least a shed most of it's life. Let's hope that you are going to continue to garage it and not let it sit in the weather. The reason I'm going here is really, how much rust protection do you really need? Maybe the floors and a few other areas? Maybe a new batter tray.... You aren't going to have this as a daily driver in inclement weather???.. Not!

I caution you on starting to paint under the hood, because it is hard to make it appear that it hasn't 'been painted under the hood!' I've seen many that actually look worse after paint! ...and the dash. Clean it and reassemble it!.. I would focus on just cleaning everything to perfection and less on new paint. New paint is going to look like new paint! It's going to make the original paint look a bit worse than it looks now and it's easy to open a can of worms! ..ie full blown restoration.. One thing that I see is restored or restomod Broncos far out number survivors and that majority is only going to increase. So, your survivor Bronco is a rare breed and the more rare, the more the $! Not that it is for sale, but why spend 50k on a restoration when it is actually going to be worth less in the end!

I'll illustrate my comments with the little "Buttercup" project.. Very little paint and a ton of cleaning!! Before and after.....

 

[67sport]

The Dash. It needs painting; but it's got all the dings and nicks that I remember as a kid when I rode in it.

My feeling has always been that the dash carries a fair bit of the soul of the truck. Leave the dings for the time being, ensure the safety of the truck, and when the truck gets the big frame-off down the road, decide if you restore the dash too, or clear coat it to preserve the dues it's paid.
Dashes can be made to look trick and modern, but you only have patina once.

 

[sprdv1]

I’m on the fence about the bumper. On the one hand I think the Ford stylists completely nailed the look with the bumper design on Broncos. They are sleek slim and very complementary.

well get off the fence LOL

 

[sprdv1]

My feeling has always been that the dash carries a fair bit of the soul of the truck. Leave the dings for the time being, ensure the safety of the truck, and when the truck gets the big frame-off down the road, decide if you restore the dash too, or clear coat it to preserve the dues it's paid.
Dashes can be made to look trick and modern, but you only have patina once.

yeah, make it look old, new school or way out in the owner's land whatever he/she likes

 

[sprdv1]

And agree completely with the paint under the hood. For that there are only two choices as far as I’m concerned.
Either clean it up and do your best to spray it the original matching color (or whatever color you plan to paint it in the near future) while things are this far apart, or clean it up the best you can and leave the current paint and patina.
No other two choices in my book.

Primer is just a waste of time and effort at this point because to do a credible paint job over the primer you’ll have to get it this far apart again. And if you wait too long the primer just gets messed up.

forgot about the bumper and moved to paint in 60 seconds haha luv ya brother...

 

[sprdv1]

I would definitely keep it as original and maintain the 'untouched' look as much as possible. As far as rust protection, POR15 products are top notch and do an excellent job, but I would be careful and not apply so much in visible areas that you have to paint. Let's face it, your Bronco is in great condition as it is, and I'm sure that is has been kept inside at least a shed most of it's life. Let's hope that you are going to continue to garage it and not let it sit in the weather. The reason I'm going here is really, how much rust protection do you really need? Maybe the floors and a few other areas? Maybe a new batter tray.... You aren't going to have this as a daily driver in inclement weather???.. Not!

I caution you on starting to paint under the hood, because it is hard to make it appear that it hasn't 'been painted under the hood!' I've seen many that actually look worse after paint! ...and the dash. Clean it and reassemble it!.. I would focus on just cleaning everything to perfection and less on new paint. New paint is going to look like new paint! It's going to make the original paint look a bit worse than it looks now and it's easy to open a can of worms! ..ie full blown restoration.. One thing that I see is restored or restomod Broncos far out number survivors and that majority is only going to increase. So, your survivor Bronco is a rare breed and the more rare, the more the $! Not that it is for sale, but why spend 50k on a restoration when it is actually going to be worth less in the end!

I'll illustrate my comments with the little "Buttercup" project.. Very little paint and a ton of cleaning!! Before and after.....

There's just something to be said about "ORIGINAL".... Lord knows I wish my crawler was original and a street truck again but then what fun is that... We all need TWO Broncos

 

[sprdv1]

Here’s what I think…. Keep your engine bay the original color. I would not be painting anything any color except the original color. For the floors, I would steer clear of any tar based products. That’s gonna make a mess and will simply cover the rust. Treat the floors with a rust converter/encapsulation product. You will be a lot better off. And those are not original hubcaps.
Nice project!

Definitely a great project. keep us posted w/Pics

 

[bayoubronco]

My feeling has always been that the dash carries a fair bit of the soul of the truck. Leave the dings for the time being, ensure the safety of the truck, and when the truck gets the big frame-off down the road, decide if you restore the dash too, or clear coat it to preserve the dues it's paid.
Dashes can be made to look trick and modern, but you only have patina once.

I really embraced your philosophy on the dash!! Its going back in cleaned, imperfect and even a few new blemishes. I don't know if its how Ford tracked this, but it's just that much more satisfying knowing the number on the back matches the VIN.

 

[bayoubronco]

One thing that covered here, but might come in to play anyway, are the body mounts.
If they are original, great they can be replaced with rubber reproductions down the road. But if they are already sagging unevenly, working on the body and other important things like top and door alignment, could lead to trouble if you don’t fix the body mounts first.
So just look at them with a tape measure in hand and see if they are all the same height. Originally they were 3/4 of an inch tall. If they have all sagged a bit but are still equally high, you should be good to go and can change them at any time later.

Finally getting around to posting some of these measurements and conditions... My ignorant view is some cracking and sagging, but not sure it's within tolerance. Doors will close and latch on their own on any slant. Roof has bolts removed and is resting on body/windshield.

 

[Lewko66u13]

I really embraced your philosophy on the dash!! Its going back in cleaned, imperfect and even a few new blemishes. I don't know if its how Ford tracked this, but it's just that much more satisfying knowing the number on the back matches the VIN.

That’s cool as hell, when we restored our roadster we documented every marking we found. Found some cool wax marking from factory during sand blast.

 

[Rustytruck]

If your a lover of the stock bumpers then slip a 1-1/2" -1/4 wall square tube behind it and bolt it on through the bumperette holes. now the bumper can fend off a trash can