New Member and New Ride from Boise ID

[kellen]

Hey guys, new member here and I just bought my first Bronco. 1974 Bronco Sport. Picked her up today for $4k and drove it about 30 miles home. Has a 302 with a NP435. Running 33x12.5. I'm really happy with it. Has some typical rust but no bad cancer. Needs a little help especially with the drivers door which won't shut and latch right now, but overall she in pretty good shape. The cage looks to have been thrown in quick so is in the wrong place and pretty annoying. When trying to mount the front of the cage, they put a hole in the front gas tank so i have the pleasure of sloshing gas all over my foot on the way home.

I've been building motorcycles for the past 5 years so I'm happy to say that I just sold my last one and am back to the 4 wheel realm. Here are a few pictures. Let me know what you think. I'm not even sure where I should start but am looking forward to learning about these awesome rigs.

 

[DirtDonk]

Hey kellen, welcome to classicbroncos! Nice to see some pics with your first post too. Good looking rig I think. Yeah, a few of the usual suspects, when it comes to EB issues, and you'll likely find more little things where the PO got flakey with installing/fixing something (especially wiring!!!), but overall it looks like a better rig than most of us started with. Congrats.

And an NP435, some shock hoops up front, and upgraded suspension components is great.
Probably find some rust under that diamond plate lower panel on the tailgate, but the body does look pretty good.
You might find the door issue being as simple as the latch mechanism just being gummed up by years of goo. I've found it really helps to remove it (fairly easy in fact) and soaking it in some de-greaser to eat through the build-up, and just checking it for bent parts, re-lubing it and putting it back in. Probably work like new after that.
If you're lucky...

Anyway, congrats again, and thanks for saying howdy. Happy Day after Thanksgiving. Look forward to hearing more about it as you start digging into it.

Paul

 

[trlblazr]

Nice find! Welcome to the board. We love pictures!

 

[bronco1017]

1st time post with pictures!!! Nice!!!

 

[musejasong]

Nice looking rig! When I started I just spent hours browsing these forums, reading any thread that caught my interest. Have fun!

 

[ja.stoner63]

LEV-O-GAGE

Awesome find!

Welcome and thanks for the post.

 

[Hank_]

Nice Bronco and nice pics. What ever you do dont work on it. Just drive it until the wheels fall off. Once you start working on it you will become addicted (and poor) to the time spent with the bronco.

Good luck and have fun,

Henry

 

[markperry]

Nice steal! You got a good deal! Welcome to our site, it's by far the best!

 

[kellen]

Thanks for the nice replies. I had to pay extra for the LEV-O-GAGE. Found the value of good forums when I started building bikes and really appreciate all the knowledge that you guys take the time to share.

 

[idhawkdriver]

Thanks for the nice replies. I had to pay extra for the LEV-O-GAGE. Found the value of good forums when I started building bikes and really appreciate all the knowledge that you guys take the time to share.

Sweet! Was just looking at that rig online yesterday! Congrats! I'm in Boise too. We've got a great club in town and you'd be most welcome. We meet once a month and usually do at least one run a month too. In fact, the head honcho of the club spent most of today helping me with a cage install. If you're interested, shoot me a PM and i'll send you my number. Again, congrats on the buy, and get ready for the addiction!

Craig

 

[jperry1290]

Be happy you dont live in CA that would have cost a little more money here

 

[NicksTrix]

welcome aboard

 

[johnnybgood74]

hey Kellen welcome aboard! i know that bronco pretty good! lol i changed the rockers and door posts on it! it was my first job but the doors lined up great when i gave it back to him. i thought the hinges and latches were shot. he had me replace those parts to help pay off the left over amount that i owed him on my 72. he replaced pieces of the inner rockers because he didnt want me to replace the whole thing. lol you just bought it from my rather large buddy, Nick. great guy, he wanted to do alot to it after he bought it from the guy who i bought mine from. but, he needed quick cash for a down payment on a house. if you need any help or just want to talk shop, im around!

John

 

[kellen]

hey Kellen welcome aboard! i know that bronco pretty good! lol i changed the rockers and door posts on it! it was my first job but the doors lined up great when i gave it back to him. i thought the hinges and latches were shot. he had me replace those parts to help pay off the left over amount that i owed him on my 72. he replaced pieces of the inner rockers because he didnt want me to replace the whole thing. lol you just bought it from my rather large buddy, Nick. great guy, he wanted to do alot to it after he bought it from the guy who i bought mine from. but, he needed quick cash for a down payment on a house. if you need any help or just want to talk shop, im around!

John

Thanks for the offer of help. I'd love to get some help on it. Good to hear some history and I'm sure I'll hear more once I start going to the club meeting.

I don't really know where I'm going to start. I think the first thing I need to do is pull the funky cage and drop the front tank with the hole in it. Probably on to the door after that and hopefully disc brakes following that. I'm gonna have to spend a lot of time reading to catch up on everything I don't know.

I'm always up for talking shop and just learning. IDhawkgawker offered to help too. I've got some good homebrew to share!

 

[dbevans2249]

Welcome! Great start. Mine never even got home the day I first got it back in 84. Strait to the body shop for a couple months. First thing I would do is ditch that diamond plate. JMO

 

[johnnybgood74]

ya that cage is less than desireable to say the least! dont know who installed it but it wasnt done very well at all. get one that fits! lol looks good tho! Nick said the door started acting up after it got really cold.

 

[Sylar]

Nice rig and welcome to the forum !!!

 

[DirtDonk]

Might want to check to see if anyone's got the plastic "plenum" air intake for the passenger side fender. If you're going to be using the heater much, no sense in sucking more of the engine fumes in than you have to.
Tom's has them new if you need to, but there might be someone in your area that has an old one you can use.

Paul

 

[kellen]

Thanks for the advice. I pulled to cage today and dropped the main fuel tank out. It had two holes that were drilled into the top of it. Haven't done the research yet but I don't know if I can patch two small holes in a poly tank.

4 of the 6 points in the cage were bolted down with 1 bolt.

I also pulled the seats because the tracks were too narrow and were kind of held down with 2 bolts each but were basically just set there anyway. Nick told me this was the POs daily driver but I'm wondering if he (2 POs ago) just took all his good stuff out before he sold it to put into another rig. Seems like the cage and seats in the truck were probably for projects and he just threw them in there before he sold it.

Anyway, I'm going to the bronco club christmas party in December so maybe I'll get a chance to ask Vern about its history.

Kellen

 

[sprdv1]

Welcome Kellen. Great to have you and congrats on the nice looking rig