My Grandfathers 1974 Bronco (FOUND!)

[blamejane]

Wow, that's one awesome Grandma! Enjoy, it's what life is all about.

 

[sprdv1]

$35,000 is asking price by current owner. He said he is looking to sell it this spring. That is nowhere near what I can afford. So hopefully this go round I will keep better tabs on it and maybe years down the road God will bless me with the funds to buy it back.

Yikes... I can understand, would be out of mine too...

Glad you had a good trip w/grandpa..

 

[broncoitis]

Man, that stinks! 35k is alot o money. The prices on these are beginning to show sign of exponential growth.

 

[Rox Crusher]

It is a really nice survivor for sure.

I think it could fetch 30k if it hadn't been cut.

Yes, it can be converted back but still wouldn't be the same to me.

Wish you well in your decision with it.

 

[Broncitis]

Sorry to see it was cut and lifted.

Having been the third owner of that Bronco, my dad and I know it well.

It was probably one of, if not the cleanest survivor I know of. For those who saw the 77 Ranger we had that looked very similar, it looked nearly as clean as that one!

As for being upset with Mike, that is your choice, but no one can be expected to buy something and keep it to sell it back at near the same price later unless that is a very clear agreement.

Mike and your grandmother made an agreement on the price which both settled on. I am not sure if he paid the asking price, or if they negotiated at all, but the bottom line is that they both agreed to it.

Mike contacted me when someone made him an offer on it, and he wanted to know my thoughts. I think Mike had initially intended to keep it since he has another Bronco and one he was restoring. He has since sold one or both of those as well since his interest in restoring 67-69 Camaro's and the build of a new larger shop has taken precedence. Through the common interest in Early Broncos, I've known Mike for 15+ years and he is a verygood guy who would not intentionally take advantage of someone. But he, like many of us, will jump on a good deal, and if offered the right price, will also sell it even if our original intent was to keep it an enjoy it for a while.

When Mike told me of he offer made to him, I told him we'd meet or beat that guys offer and would be over that night to look at it. We went over and bought it that night and enjoyed and showed it for a couple years. My dad then decided to sell it since we had a near identical 77 Ranger and wanted to fund the completion of his 66 Roadster.

My dad sold it for 2X what we paid to the guy from KS who drove it back from the Carlisle All-Ford Nationals. I still rag my dad that he sold it too cheap. I could have gotten $22-$25K for that back in 04-05 if he would have let me market it properly.

In today's market that would easily be a $35K+ Bronco the way it was when we had it. Now, being cut and lifted, not so sure how that effects it?

The bottom line is that most all of us have vehicles that we regret selling. Once a vehicle is sold, whatever it is sold for later when the market explodes is irreverent to what it sold for years ago, other than for an interesting comparison of how the market has changed.

I wish you could have kept it, or gotten it back cheaper and the way you remembered it, but that is simply not the way it unfolded.

I really think your ill-feelings towards Mike are unfounded unless there was a very explicit verbal or written agreement that he planned to keep it long term and would offer first right of refusal at a certain price if he decided to sell.

Hopefully you and your grandmother will get to see it again and take that ride and have a great time in it once again!

 

[mbspark]

Sorry to see it was cut and lifted.

Having been the third owner of that Bronco, my dad and I know it well.

It was probably one of, if not the cleanest survivor I know of. For those who saw the 77 Ranger we had that looked very similar, it looked nearly as clean as that one!

As for being upset with Mike, that is your choice, but no one can be expected to buy something and keep it to sell it back at near the same price later unless that is a very clear agreement.

Mike and your grandmother made an agreement on the price which both settled on. I am not sure if he paid the asking price, or if they negotiated at all, but the bottom line is that they both agreed to it.

Mike contacted me when someone made him an offer on it, and he wanted to know my thoughts. I think Mike had initially intended to keep it since he has another Bronco and one he was restoring. He has since sold one or both of those as well since his interest in restoring 67-69 Camaro's and the build of a new larger shop has taken precedence. Through the common interest in Early Broncos, I've known Mike for 15+ years and he is a verygood guy who would not intentionally take advantage of someone. But he, like many of us, will jump on a good deal, and if offered the right price, will also sell it even if our original intent was to keep it an enjoy it for a while.

When Mike told me of he offer made to him, I told him we'd meet or beat that guys offer and would be over that night to look at it. We went over and bought it that night and enjoyed and showed it for a couple years. My dad then decided to sell it since we had a near identical 77 Ranger and wanted to fund the completion of his 66 Roadster.

My dad sold it for 2X what we paid to the guy from KS who drove it back from the Carlisle All-Ford Nationals. I still rag my dad that he sold it too cheap. I could have gotten $22-$25K for that back in 04-05 if he would have let me market it properly.

In today's market that would easily be a $35K+ Bronco the way it was when we had it. Now, being cut and lifted, not so sure how that effects it?

The bottom line is that most all of us have vehicles that we regret selling. Once a vehicle is sold, whatever it is sold for later when the market explodes is irreverent to what it sold for years ago, other than for an interesting comparison of how the market has changed.

I wish you could have kept it, or gotten it back cheaper and the way you remembered it, but that is simply not the way it unfolded.

I really think your ill-feelings towards Mike are unfounded unless there was a very explicit verbal or written agreement that he planned to keep it long term and would offer first right of refusal at a certain price if he decided to sell.

Hopefully you and your grandmother will get to see it again and take that ride and have a great time in it once again!

Thanks for the post! You can see above I cooled down a bit and did mention that I should not get frustrated with former owners, I don't believe in handouts. Everybody has their own side to a story. My feelings come out of talking with my Grandma and her feeling like she got taken advantage of. She always said that Mike told her he would bring it out and show her any work he did to it in fixing it up and that didn't happen. My father has always defended Mike through my own emotions and knows he is a solid person. I have never met him and I'm sure things would be a lot different if we actually got to talk it all out. Throughout the whole process my voice wasn't heard as I was off to college. Also as I posted above, at the end of all this, if I get to go on a road trip with my Grandma, see the Bronco one more time and take it for spin, then I am more than ok with that.

 

[enesset]

Old School

Awesome story, hope you get it. I had a heartbreaker somewhat like this story. Last year after NORRA, Andrew (BajaBronco) mentioned I might find my grandpa's VW Manx.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6023106#6023106

I thought Andrew was crazy but the buyer found me in just a few hours after posting on Samba. The bad news was I missed the car by 3 months as the guy down in Texas had sold grandpa's manx and 3 others to a guy in France.

 

[mbspark]

Awesome story, hope you get it. I had a heartbreaker somewhat like this story. Last year after NORRA, Andrew (BajaBronco) mentioned I might find my grandpa's VW Manx.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6023106#6023106

I thought Andrew was crazy but the buyer found me in just a few hours after posting on Samba. The bad news was I missed the car by 3 months as the guy down in Texas had sold grandpa's manx and 3 others to a guy in France.

Definitely similar stories! Crazy that within hours the guy who had it posted!

France is definitely a haul for you to see it again. I should be happy that the Bronco is only in Vermont!

 

[TN1776]

Very cool that you found it, and pretty interesting to be able to piece together some of its history even if someone cut it up and changed it from how you remember. I have had thoughts about trying to track down a pretty rare Mustang that my dad bought new and sold when I was one year old. My dad basically told me not to bother as he'd long since gotten over it and moved on. I still think it'd be cool to pull up in his driveway with it one day... but I am sure that if it's still around and in reasonable shape that its worth more than I can afford.

 

[matts460]

What an intresting story. Pretty cool all the tracking down and finding it etc.. BUT i just cant resist saying that all owners after the little old lady owned it simply sold it off to make profit on what they consider projects worth even more money to profit later. The market didnt baloon from 2000 to 2005 on broncos. My parents restored and sold an early bronco in the early 90's and made twice what that Surviver bronco was sold for. And it wasent as nice but close. All i picked up out of all this is "needed money to fund first gen Camero's, Rare bronco projects and big fancy new shops in the back yard! LOL Im sure all these people are good guys but it just happend to turn out the way it did, Such is life...pretty typical.

 

[Broncitis]

What an intresting story. Pretty cool all the tracking down and finding it etc.. BUT i just cant resist saying that all owners after the little old lady owned it simply sold it off to make profit on what they consider projects worth even more money to profit later. The market didnt baloon from 2000 to 2005 on broncos. My parents restored and sold an early bronco in the early 90's and made twice what that Surviver bronco was sold for. And it wasent as nice but close. All i picked up out of all this is "needed money to fund first gen Camero's, Rare bronco projects and big fancy new shops in the back yard! LOL Im sure all these people are good guys but it just happend to turn out the way it did, Such is life...pretty typical.

Sorry, but you would be wrong on this.

We owned that Bronco as I pointed out, and we enjoyed it for a couple years, but then decided we did not need two nearly identical looking Rangers. Both Rangers were for sale at the same time, and that is the one that the offer was accepted on.

The market certainly did increase over those years, and since.

The market on Broncos really did not take off and see widespread sales of original Broncos into the high teens-20's and beyond until the time frame that this Bronco was resold for the 3rd and subsequent times.

Yes, when you have other projects, you often have to sell some of the others to fund them, and if you can come out ahead of what you have in it, that is all the better. That is life for many of us who like to build more vehicles and larger shops to do it in. Most of us can only keep so many in the stable, which is why we also eventually sold the 77 Ranger, so we could buy the Stroppe Balloon Chaser Ambulance from James Duff when he contacted us about it.

Sorry, but for collectors and restorers, as much as we like them, they are not children, and are often sold off in order to move on to the next one after you have enjoyed it. The only time to never sell one is if it has true sentimental value, as this one obviously did for the OP.

Someday, we will likely also sell my dad's "40th Anniversary" 66 U13 and also the Ambulance once we have shown it everywhere we can and feel that we have gotten our enjoyment out of it and then want to pass it on to the next collector to enjoy as we have been doing. You can not keep everything forever.

 

[fatboy]

Sorry, but you would be wrong on this.

We owned that Bronco as I pointed out, and we enjoyed it for a couple years, but then decided we did not need two nearly identical looking Rangers. Both Rangers were for sale at the same time, and that is the one that the offer was accepted on.

The market certainly did increase over those years, and since.

The market on Broncos really did not take off and see widespread sales of original Broncos into the high teens-20's and beyond until the time frame that this Bronco was resold for the 3rd and subsequent times.

Yes, when you have other projects, you often have to sell some of the others to fund them, and if you can come out ahead of what you have in it, that is all the better. That is life for many of us who like to build more vehicles and larger shops to do it in. Most of us can only keep so many in the stable, which is why we also eventually sold the 77 Ranger, so we could buy the Stroppe Balloon Chaser Ambulance from James Duff when he contacted us about it.

Sorry, but for collectors and restorers, as much as we like them, they are not children, and are often sold off in order to move on to the next one after you have enjoyed it. The only time to never sell one is if it has true sentimental value, as this one obviously did for the OP.

Someday, we will likely also sell my dad's "40th Anniversary" 66 U13 and also the Ambulance once we have shown it everywhere we can and feel that we have gotten our enjoyment out of it and then want to pass it on to the next collector to enjoy as we have been doing. You can not keep everything forever.

Well said Drew. Similarly, I bought a survivor out of a barn in Vermont several years ago. I could not believe my great fortune in finding such a clean Bronco in New England. My plan was to keep it and drive it as is and possibly restore it in the future. As I worked on it, bringing the interior back with new seat covers and redoing all the brakes etc over, I had a great time. As the years went on I started wanting a lifted cut driver with all of the extras but did not want to cut or significantly modify this truck. I did agree to give the original owner first right of refusal so I called her up and offered her the truck. She graciously passed and I sold it locally for what I had into it so that I could fund my current build.

As long as we stay true to the original agreement, there is little else that can be done.

 

[matts460]

And thats what i was talking about you guys are good guys its just kinda of a shame conserning the fact it went through so many "collector/restorers" hands to be resold somany times. Im more of the car horder type that keeps vehicals for pure enjoment and sentimental value not ever intrested in reselling if trully a special find. Therfore if i had owned it id still have it, Then when a situation came up like this one i would be willing to work out a fair deal to the kid that it trully belongs to. Not that you guys wouldnt have! But it seem its current owner may feel differntly. Around here broncos dont sell for big big money like you described. Its Chevy country around these parts! LOL I guess im just to synical for my age! And i just really wanted the kid to get his Bronco back, my family and i are really passionat about vintage cars so i was just hoping for that pefect happy ending im sure you guys can back me up on that one! We sure get alot of enjoment out of our cars/trucks with the kids and such and all the road trips ive been on with my parents over the years. I still keep an eye out for my Moms lost bronco.

 

[Mono]

my grandma sold it for $3,500

my dad convinced my grandma to sell it. ...she shared how she felt sick selling it back then and hasn't been happy about her decision since. Especially since she feels like she got taken advantage of as a little ol' lady.

Can you share who put the for sale sign on the Bronco, and who set the price?

 

[Broncitis]

Here is a pic of the 74 Ranger that the OP has been searching for when we owned it (3rd owners), and the other 77 Ranger we bought in 98 and later sold in 2011.

This was at the 2002 Carlisle All-Ford Nationals.

Mike had removed the running boards and put stock wheels and hubcaps back on it.

 

[broncobsession]

Hmm. Gotta say I don't care for the belt line trim above the ranger package sticker. Thanks for the pics though.

For my 2 cents, I say build or buy a copycat of it. $35k possibly for the perfect original uncut ranger but no way for the cut and modified version. Cutting out the original metal for those flares is a travesty and in my opinion loses all the character of the ranger :-X

 

[JGbronc]

The Bronco is now on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1974...6789208?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item2a2bff7858

 

[blamejane]

This should be interesting.

 

[okie4570]

Hmmmmm and ouch at the same time.

 

[matts460]

His upgrades didnt help it out much. Its adouble edge sword who's going to offroad such an nice original truck per-say? So why put all the extra crap on it? Now the doors have holes in em from those late model Ford Mirrors. And i agree that it sux that this particular truck has cut fenders and the flares. I could pour a little more money in my bronco and not even be in the 20g range and it would be just as nice. Just not original like this.