Well... It's time to 'spill the beans'. Rattler really does have several K bar S components, but the lettering is not original to the truck. I'm sorry, there is not a great story behind the find. Yes, I found it in a barn. The owner, whom I knew was deceased and the sons and widow wanted to sale three Broncos. One was incredibly rough, one had had a bunch of money spent on it and therefore, they wanted a bunch for it. We found common ground on the little ugly white Bronco, and I brought 'Rattler' to our ranch.
Rattler had a few issues that was resolved and with the top loader transmission, it quickly became a very fun driver. It needed new tires, front and rear axles were worn out, so a disc brake front was built and installed, and a big bearing rear was built and installed. The home built tubing front and rear bumpers were exchanged for a nice, unmolested Warn winch and bumper, and an original paint Wimbledon White rear. Rattler was so much fun just to drive that he almost scored a ticket to the Super Celebration in 2016.
While at the looking at all the beautiful Broncos there in Townsend, I noticed myself walking past flawless rolling works of Bronco art composed of new Chinese components, new power plants, and big wheels..... walked right on past them, headed over to a rust fringed original relic of FoMoCo! Maybe it was an original owner or a brand new owner, but the original looking Bronco had a 'soul' that the shine and glitter didn't have!
There, I began to conceive this notion in my head of sanding off the hideous white repaint on Rattler, just sanding back to the original Sea Pine Green, lettering it with the K bar S graphics and clearing it all with matte clear. Unfortunately, some previous owner had sprayed a black sealer over the green that tinted it ten shades darker (primer too) and it looked terrible. So, with the sanding already started, the only thing left was to strip and repaint Rattler. I still wanted 'original' looking paint, not a mile deep looking clear with radiating brilliance. The paint job that happened is much harder to accomplish than the ultimately shiney new paint job, but also a lot more fun.
With the comments and many PM's on Rattler, I feel he's a success by looking original! One guy commented the other day, 'That ole Bronco would be a easy one to put a 'purty' paint job on!'....I just grinned and agreed......
I'll post up a few pictures of the process soon.....
