Hello, New Bronco Owner - 1971

[Copper]

I wanted to say thank you to the people here. I've been a "lurker" for a few months and finally pulled the trigger on a 1971 Bronco. Blue with just a little rust. 3 Speed manual with the floor shifter conversion. Tranny has about 1000 miles on it. It has a Ford 289 V8 that was built up and installed about 3000 miles ago. Mechanically the truck seems good. New F-150 power steering system and a new 3" lift. I live in Marietta, GA. The Bronco will be picked up by a transport company from Salt Lake City, Utah and I should have it by the end of this month (Feb.)

I'm sure I'll have some questions once I get the Bronco, but I've done a lot of reading here and on the 'net.

I plan on purchasing the 3-point seatbelt system from Tom's that attaches to the stock rollbar. New carpet, aftermarket bucket seats, Tuffy console with new radio and speakers are also planned. I just need to clean the truck up cosmetically. I'll need a new rear liftgate since it appears most of the rust is located there with a little hole in the left side bottom corner.

Has anyone installed a 3-point seatbelt? Tips or photos would be most welcome. I'll post some pics from the eBay auction once I upload them to Photobucket and take some new ones once the truck arrives.

 

[Carl]

Exciting! Welcome to the club!

 

[66 U14 NICK]

Watch out these things are addicting, but they sure are fun. My wife says that she is a Bronco widow, but who's to say that's a bad thing.
Welcome aboard.

 

[sprdv1]

Welcome, Welcome.. Your's is same year & color as Mine..

 

[ricks77eb]

Congrats on the purchase, and welcome to the forum.

 

[302fix]

Welcome to the group. It's a great hobby!

Blue with just a little rust.

Uh huh :-X

I'll need a new rear liftgate since it appears most of the rust is located there with a little hole in the left side bottom corner.

Lift gate or tailgate? Either is rather expensive. My suggestion before you even get started is to get a little mig welder, learn how to weld and fix it yourself. When I first got my rig I spent WAY too much money having things done for me that I am now doing over (better)...OR (if it's lift gate) going topless in GA shouldn't be much of a problem!

Has anyone installed a 3-point seatbelt?

TJK74 has some good pictures of his mounts here:
http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79576&page=2

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47736&d=1150741862

Enjoy.

 

[JEFF76P]

welcome, you will find a lot of information on the site.

 

[Devin]

Welcome aboard. Let's see some pics!

 

[trlblazr]

Welcome copper. You will love it here. Check the floor pans for rust. They seem to be the first to go.

 

[blazinchuck]

welcome aboard! I installed the 3-points in mine a few years back. The base will mount in the stock hole in the floor, and for the upper mount...I just drilled a 1/2" or 3/8" hole in the roll bar and then through-bolted it. Works great,Chuck

 

[Heus33]

Welcome! I used to live near Marietta (Roswell). Actually I used to live in Salt Lake too. Anyways congrats on the purchase! Take it up in the mountains and have some fun with it!

 

[BronCowie]

Ah... another innocent soul falls victim to the dreaded drug. Welcome, you are trapped now and will never turn back. Bwaa Ha Haaaa! ;D

 

[socalbrandon]

Welcome, Hang on to your wallet

 

[airman]

stock roll bar? did you buy a stroppe? Is it a bar or a cage? If you have any pictures email them to me and I'll post for you since youre a new member. Hopefully that would inspire you to contributor status. Posting pictures to get good assistance is a great tool and very cheap.

Welcome to the site and try to sleep at night while waiting for your Bronco.

If you are married be sure to try to include your wife until she says she is not interested. Then be sure you get approval for your mistress once in a while. My wife hated my Bronco for a long time. Now she is ok with it espcially after power brakes.

You going to love it, and sometimes kick it.

 

[snipes243]

Welcome to the Club.

 

[Copper]

Wow! Thank you everyone. I was trying to figure out why I could not post pics and now I know why! This forum seems to be the most active for Early Broncos so I'll become a contributor (I'm sure it will pay off after just this post).

I'll email pics tomorrow from my home computer (working late tonight).


Rust is on the TAILGATE, not liftgate. Sorry, my mistake.


I'd love to see pics of the 3-point seatbelt install.


I'm assuming the the roll bar in my Bronco must be aftermarket since perhaps they did not come with them stock?

The pics I have are not great, just the ones from eBay.

I'm a "car guy" and always have a couple hobby cars around at any given time.


I just sold my '65 Mustang that was all original with a 298 C-Code, automatic coupe. I bought it from my father-in-law who owned it since 1984. It was in too good of shape to make it a "resto-mod" so I'm thinking the Bronco fits the bill for my requirements:

Manual transmission
V8
SUV/Truck to tow/haul stuff (I'm a triathlete)
Convertable
Classic Car status to continue on with Hagerty Insurance Coverage
Ford parts which I'm used to from the Mustang (esp. the 289) and relatively inexpensive parts
Frigg'in cool looking

I don't need to make it a garage queen like my other hobby cars were.. drive it and have some fun. I was looking at convertable manual sports cars and also some older Jeeps when my neighbor suggested the Early Bronco to me. He has a 1965 Ford F100 truck. We chat about cars all the time and swap car magazines back and forth to maximize subscription costs.

I've also got an Audi RS6 with 530HP (AWD) as my daily driver and my wife has a Lexus GX470 stock. I'll be purchasing a Porsche 993 TT sometime this year as well but I'm running out of garage space!

I can't wait to get the Bronco delivered so I can start to clean it up!

One additional question. I am considering not keeping the Bronco in the garage. I'll tend to the rust areas and repaint as needed. We get a lot of heat and humidity here in North Georgia. Also some rain (thank GOD lately!). The Bronco has a nice hard top and in the Spring/Summer I can go with the bikini top and garage it then.

Is this a mistake?


Thanks in advance for the help!


I just posted the eBay photos to my PhotoBucket account:


http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb214/Copper_SMD/

 

[SACHEM]

You're in good company here.