Some Images of my new project
Here's the original two pics from the Facebook Marketplace ad:
And here is the state of it when I arrived to look closer. I am relatively new to working on vehicles like this, but my brother-in-law lives next door and has been a motorhead forever (an also is in the process of building a rat-rod) and he went with me to help evaluate if the truck had good bones or not.
The Bronco was in a bit of a sad state of affairs when we arrived. He had spent the winter in a rather dilapidated garage (but thankfully out of the elements), but when they had backed him out to park him in the side yard to sell, they drove over some wood and managed to pop the right two tires. So he was sitting at an angle, in the mud, in the side yard of an old garage in a run-down area of Buffalo.
Even from the first look, it was obvious that the vast majority of the body was completely shot and would need to be replaced. Here's a shot or two of the interior:
The Bronco also had a top, but it is fairly destroyed:
So Mario (my brother-in-law) and I climbed around underneath and had a look at whether it was worth saving. There is a LOT of rust, and like I had mentioned, one of the previous owners had chosen to fiberglass over the rust instead of repair it (I'll have pictures of that later). But the bones of the truck seemed good, so I decided to purchase.
I got it for $1800, and after showing him to my wife, she said that as long as I get the deck built this spring for her to sit on
I can work on the Bronco as much as I want. ;D
So we pulled it out of the side yard to the alley, and got him loaded up onto the truck.
The back seat is in reasonable shape too, and I am seriously leaning towards having my neighbor that does marine upholstery for boats recover them in something completely waterproof.
The doors were also present, so we loaded them up too. They look to be in fairly rough shape along the bottom, but except for the mirrors they appear to have all the rest of the hardware, so there might be something to save there:
So we got the Bronco back to my place and struggled mightily to get the truck with two flat tires (and lockers frozen in the engaged state) into the garage. A lot of grunting and effort, and some help from my ATV's winch, and the Bronco settled into his home for the next couple years.
The twins came out and immediately decided that they needed to drive:
So, my rusty Bronco is resting in his home for the next couple years.
The rust is pretty bad underneath, and as far as I can tell there is not a single bit of useable rubber underneath the body, but that fits fine with my plans anyways, as I would like to turn it into a fun off-roading vehicle, which will require replacing most of the suspension anyways.
Although one of the previous owners had rattle-canned over the label on the door, the plate in the glove box was still present, so I ordered the Marti report:
So that's my new-to-me-but-old-and-rusty Bronco. I am definitely NOT going for a total restoration (based on the Marti info, I think this is pretty close to what the Bronco looked like in the 1970's:
And even if I do keep the original color (doubtful, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ), I am desiring to go more down this route:
I think my first steps are to document/measure/take pictures of everything in/on/around the truck, and then start disassembling. A few years ago I bought a pop-up camper for a little bit of nothing and spent 8 months tearing it down to the frame to rebuild it to an almost new condition. I am inclined to do the same to this. I want something fun to drive that can go offroad, as well as have more safety features (3 point shoulder belts, proper roll cage, etc).
Thoughts and tips are definitely welcome!
