Funny stories of how you got a bronco

[Bajabrewer]

1988 was the first time I saw my 73 Baja, it was for sale across the street from the Walmart in Frisco Colorado. At the time I didn't have $100 let alone the $3,200 the guy was asking so I just drooled & drove away. About 5 months later I had made enough money to replace my 1980 Ford Fairmont station wagon with a 2.3 4 speed stick & 4 new snow tires. I was looking at Broncos but not finding what I wanted - little rust - tasteful mods - right price. One night I drove from Breckenridge to Frisco to do my laundry at the laundry mat & I walked outside while the machines did there thing. Across the street and behind the snowboard shop building I saw a Bronco tail light so I went to check it out. I immediately recognized the truck & there was no for sale sign. I went in the shop & wandered around looking like I was shopping then asked the guy working if it was his Bronco & if it was still for sale. He said it was his & was for sale so the next day I checked it out, drove it & we made the deal. $2,800 & the Fairmont & I owned it. I daily drove it for 2 years before it became my summer car. in 1991 Petersons 4WD & Off Road Magazine had an article on the Bronco turning 25 & a section of that was on the Bajas & what they were so that was my AHA moment. In fact the article said "Any of these trucks(Bajas) in existence today are worth much more than there original $7,000 asking price" I'd have to say that's still true today LOL!

I'll tell you about getting my 66 later....

 

[Gsxr7000]

Well a guy down the road had this 73. I ran into him at the store and talked to him. I asked him if he want to sell it because I had been looking for awhile. He of course said no. I told him I wanted to be the first if he decided to sell it.
Fast forward a year and a half. The yard needed mowing and it was getting dark and I didn't want to do it, but my wife said go ahead and do it. So I did, some one pulled in the driveway. It was the guy that had the bronco. He told me he needed money and wanted to sell the bronco and remembered me and I was close. That was on a Tuesday I picked up on Wednesday.
I joked with my wife. I told her if she hadn't told me to go ahead and mow I probably wouldn't have the bronco..

 

[gnsteam]

How did I miss this tread? Great stories.

 

[Cortez]

I found mine for sale in Brighton, Colorado in 2009 for $2k. The seller called me a day Before I was supposed to pick it up and said he decided not to sell it. Then the next week my wife surprised me at my 40th birthday party and had the Bronco key sticking out of my birthday cake. Then 3 years later I sold it in Colorado to move my family to Florida…and after nearly 5 years passed, I found my same Bronco for sale in Florida and bought it a second time.

 

[El Kabong]

I bought mine before prices went totally nuts, but it still took a lot of hunting to find one that fit my budget. I found my 73 about 500 miles from away home (Hmm...sounds like a Bobby Bare song).

I drove up there with a trailer to drag it home. It was advertised as a 4 speed, but in person there were only 3. It had been "Rode hard & put away wet". I knew it was rough before I left home, so that wasn't a surprise. It had been flopped. No windshield frame or doors. Bent hood, bent front fenders with no marker lights, & a bent eyebrow grill. Clearly not stock front sheet metal prior to the flop.

I wanted a project. I knew this one would be a bunch of work. And after all the searching this one was coming home. Odd things found during inspection weren't going to change that.

It was advertised as a 351m, so I knew it wasn't a stock situation. Later that 351m turned out to be a 400. It had an electric fan in front of the radiator, so the hood latch strike was gone. It had hood pins, but no clips holding the hood closed. The latch was kind of grabbing onto the grill.

We had to scoop snow out of the seats. He started out on the test drive, then I was going to take over. He was trying to sell me on its power (It had plenty of scoot), so he screamed it up the road, but I was pretty sure without a windshield frame that poorly latched hood was going to slap us in the face. I spent the next few minutes with my hand on the hood convincing that crazy guy to hop out of the driver's seat & let me drive back. Slower.

I payed an appropriate price for it's condition at the time. Then loaded it up & towed it home. There was a lot more snow inside the Bronco than where I parked to load up.

Poor beat up bronco.

Fancy hood scoop. I'm glad my face doesn't have that imprinted into it.

"Custom" low profile air cleaner. You can see that I grabbed any clips I could for those hood pins.

 

[BOBS 2 68S]

My dad called me one night in 1979 and told me I just bought a 1968 Bronco. I said "no I want a 40's Willys jeep." No you are buying this bronco!" The guy I got it from had new truck and bronco payments and an expensive girl friend that didn't like the bronco. I got the bronco for payments. He had just painted it. I drove to Denver from Colorado Springs with no weather striping around the doors a week after Thanksgiving. Stopped in Castle Rock for gas and to learn how the heater worked. Still a cold drive. I still have Henry.

 

[Yeller]

I told Gordon Bailie that I was going to retire the K5 and build a replacement that was smaller and lighter. He told me I had to build a Bronco, I said it wasn’t in my budget, he asked I give him a couple of days. We went to Darrel Lewis’s and cut down a few trees. I little winch work and I was the proud owner of a tub, fenders, grill, and hood with a title. That was November 2011. Took it on its maiden voyage 4 months later on St Patrick’s Day and to Moab 4 weeks after that. It was supposed to be a 2-3 year project

 

[76YETI]

I found mine at a local swap meet. The owner and his wife were getting deployed and they could only take 2 vehicles on the boat. Well, he chose his old Datsun and decided to sell the Bronco. The guy even changed all the fluids and installed some suspension parts before delivery. He also gave me a box of new & used parts. We have spoken several times over the years and he still kicks himself . The Datsun was cool, just not bronco cool. Did I mention, the previous owner is a good dude. Karma is Real.

 

[66Uncut]

I wouldn't say mine is a funny story but rather documents a point in my life. It was 2012, I was newly single, in my early 40s, and some sort of mid-life crisis was brewing. The only history I had with Broncos was that I remembered them growing up as a kid and it was a car I'd considered in high school but ultimately didn't get. In the mid-80s, where I lived in Southern California, it was surfing and Cal Bugs. Our bibles were Surfer and Hot VWs magazines. My friends all had bugs and I'd eventually get one too.

Fast forward. I remember browsing eBay and there it was. I don't even think I was looking for anything in particular, just scrolling through various listings, but this one triggered something. I placed a bid. I got sucked in. For all I knew, I was in a bidding war with seller. Mid-life crisis was in full effect. At the time, I'm pretty sure I overpaid. And while the seller filled the ad with some creatively angled photos to hide the rust, and took some liberties with his description ("no rust issues"), what showed up was an intact and mostly original 66 (though I didn't know it at the time). Base model, bench seat, bulkhead, radio delete dash. No armrests or sun visors, just dimples where the screws would go. It had seen a respray or two and the rust I did find was typical and not too bad. It wasn't until I started reading Classic that I learned how unique 66s are and that it had most of "the things".

I would've bought any year Bronco and I ended up in a 66 purely by chance. Since then, other than adding some 66 specific parts, I've kept it intact. I briefly considered selling it earlier this year. Even though I've only had it for 11 years, I realized it represents a point in my life that I'm not ready to let go of.

My daughter turns 5 in November -- coincidentally, the same month my 66 was born -- and she loves jumping in "blue car" to pretend she's driving. I didn't grow up with my dad, or even a father-figure that shared a love of cars with me. I am hoping that as my daughter gets older, this is something I'll be able to share with her.

 

[eBronc2]

Found my '71 on eBay - back when they used to have a "salvage/parts car" section. Bid $305 turns out I won the auction. My brother and I loaded up my Jeep Cherokee (XJ) in early September 2001, and headed out for Oklahoma. Picked up a Uhaul trailer in Amarillo, drug the Bronco (no drivetrain, no top, no interior) out of a farmers' field where his kids had been using it for target practice, and towed it back home to Austin, with the trailer swaying and wagging the entire way. Got home late Sunday, returned the trailer to the local Uhaul place on Monday, the next day was Tuesday.....Septermber 11th, 2001.

22 years later, it's still a project, only original parts left are the frame, transfer case, and glovebox door. Everything else is new, or rebuilt. Even the body is brand new.

As far as my New (2022) Bronco, I ordered it (2 door V6 Carbonized Gray BaseSquatch) Day One. Waited over 2 years, got tired of waiting, started searching on the web. Found one at a dealer near my home that was just like what I ordered, but it was a Badlands. Even better - but, I was out of town on business, I was sure it would be sold by the time I could get back home. I called the dealer, told them I wanted it, I was a serious buyer, sent them a deposit. Flew home that night, wife and I got up early and got to the dealer before they opened. It was still on the lot, we bought it.

Naturally, less than 2 weeks later, I get the email from Ford that my original order was FINALLY scheduled to get built. So, when that got built and delivered to the dealer, I bought that one, too - since I was an orignal order holder, I had MSRP protection from Ford. Bought the Basesquatch, drive it home, turned around and put it up for sale online. Sold it a few days later for a decent profit - enough to (almost) pay for the new steel body for my '71.

 

[blade]

I was given my 69 after the previous owner hit a horse. It was stripped when I got it, just a tub , frame, engine and tranny transfer case. I originally was going to chop the tub up for parts to fix the rust on my 74. Never got around to doing that and with current values decided to build the 69. The tub is actually mostly rust free so I could never bring myself to chop it up.