Share your treasures that previous owners left

[Past_Miner]

Maybe the pic will help

 

[scsm76]

Mine came with custom black primer paint job with rattlecan orange, yellow, and red scallops and shark teeth painted on the grill. "No Fear" stenciled on both doors and hood. A pocher rack (or so all my friends named it) with 3 lights on both sides.
A cracked bronco PS box that was sealed with JB weld worked until the first time my front tires bumped something. A 170 six that ran ok and had the PS brackets but had the intake cut in half and part of another one welded on to fit a carb of who knows what. A three speed shifter probably for a V8 with the linkage all cut and welded back together with 3/8 pipe nipples. Holes drilled through the roof to mount lights that were removed and had duck tape over them. Al the windows had sand swirl marks on them from someone sanding the body. The inside was all painted in maroon it had two sets of aftermarket guages neither worked one in the dash one under, the stock guages still worked. Two CB's mounted in the truck not working and the stock radio in the dash with another under that barely worked. All of this was squeezed in a half cab. Heres the only pic I have.

On the bright side it was completly rust free came with a set of mag style wheels that I sold for $300 bucks with bald tires, It had 4:10 gears and only a few hidden dents covered with bondo. In the glove box there was a hub tool, the wheel ock adapter a slim socket for the mag wheels and a $50 bill stashed in the registration from about ten years prior. It also had a back seat mounted behind the half cab.

 

[Scoop]

Here's a few . . .

73: Really bad homemade front bumper made of 5-inch c-channel welded to the frame that fell off with 2 swings of a 5 lb sledge. Dash spay painted black with crooked gold pin stripes - ever seen a Bronco pimpmobile? Exterior paint stripped with chemical stripper then never primed or painted - most exterior panels were solid surface rust. Gobs of clear silicon everywhere.

66: 3 layers of rusted floor boards. Tasteful (gag me) brown capet glued to the interior of the top and the inside part of the windshield frame - a real PITA to remove. Lots of modifications to the wiring making it impossible to trace shorts or electrical problems.

 

[BroncoMark]

I'm loving this thread. We should title this thread "What were they thinking??" You know, you can get everything you need to fix your Bronco at Home Depot; roofing tar, 4X4's, staples, glue, duct tape, patio screen....

 

[Case]

Well where do I start? My PO decide that it would be a good idea to put leaf spring suspension under the front. If he had done a decent job it might have been OK but he made his mounts out of 1/4 inch plate and had cut them with a torch. The spring that he installed are completely flat if not bowed downward. Two of the bolts he used to go through the mounts are 5 inches too long and have no nuts on them. He cut out the spring buckets and welded a plate incert into the shock towers so he didn't have to but taller shocks. He had the NP 435 in it and undtead of cutting a hole just large enough for it to shift be started at the base of the firewall and cut the entire tranny tunnel out. I too had street signs in the floorboards and they were fiberglassed at the edges. And to top it all off he cut out the cross member so he didn't have to change the oil pan on the 351W, cut out the tranny mounts and the t-case mounts and was using a piece of channel as the tranny brace and bolted the t-case directly to the frame. He also has a 6 inch lifting block welded diectly to the rearend for the lift. Basically I'm having to do a frame off restoration just to be able to fix all the frame problems. Thankfully the body is in great shape except for the front floor area.

it might be eiaser and safer to buy a new frame.

 

[Smokeater11]

Yea Case, that option is in the works. Planning on dropping in a FE390 with the NP435 and the Dana 20 so I might see what that is going to require fab wise first. But I've got a line on another frame if I decide to go that way. Oh yea I failed to mention that the PO cut the hard top at the B pillar straight across and made a sunroof out of it. It has a neat little canvas cover that slides in and snaps to the window frames and the windshield. Wasn't planning on having a hard top on it anyways but it would have been nice to have the option.

 

[scsm76]

This wasn't on mine but a good buddy went and bought a Bronco so I went to check it out. The hard top had been caved in on top so somebody filled it completly in with who knows what. From the inside it was almost flat and they had added sevral more cross braces to hold the wait I guess. From the outside you couldn't even tell.

 

[74bronk]

74 blues

I wish I took pictures of the the fantastic roll bar that was in my 74 when I bought it. The PO welded exauhst pipe to the stock roll bar to make it a 6 point so there was protection for the driver and passenger. Well one problem instead of having the pipes bent properly they were CREASED at the bends and not only that the bars over your head were so close that when you hit a bump you knock yourself out! oh yeah i found the usual discarded tools in the center console bought from autozone. at leat i got a nice breaker bar 1/2" drive out of it. It also had carpeting glued to the floor boards which were pieced exactly to match each panel. The leaf springs looked like a deck of cards spread out! oh one more thing, the two seats were out of a van I think because they were realy thick and you couldn't get your leg uder the stearing wheel!

 

[bronco977]

Except for the hacked up wiring, my '70 was not too badly Bubba'd. BUT, the parts Bronco I got was the most Mickey-Moused pile 'o' junk on the planet.
1. 455 Olds/TH400 combo
2. GM crossflow radiator held in with 18 feet of baling wire
3. Dana 30 front with welded spiders
4. Reinforcement bars welded to the front axle (can't remove cover, and C-bushings are now permanent)
5. Rear pumkin had a Detroit Locker-cool! Oops, the things welded up, too.
6. Tilt front end- hood and fenders welded together. The whole shootin' match pivoted on a 1/8" welding rod that buckled and broke- had to pry open the hood with a crow bar.
7. Power steering box out an early '60s Galaxy 500. Major cutting torch mods to the frame to fit it.
8. Seats out of a boat. Very stylish, but no seat belts.

 

[broncolove]

Not mine, But it could be under your hood by the passenger side air intake;D

 

[feitctaj]

lets se , when I got mine, the PO had tried to patch into the front wiring to tow it without running wires all the way back so I spent a bit of time figuring out what he did. So he found a pulse on the wiring and must have figured that it was a turn signal so he spliced into it, ahah that dumass, it was the pulse from the fuel tank sender.
I also found that when you stepped on the brake the left front turn signal came on.
Some peoples kids%)

 

[77Bronco636]

;D I pulled the door inserts of my 66 roadster to do some cleaning and found several 22 long rifle shells (used and unused), and some old pull tabs that were on the old beer cans. Someone had alot of fun in the truck before I got it!;D

 

[NicksTrix]

977, any pictures of this truck from when you first got it? where did it come from. it actually sounds like one i knew of.

Except for the hacked up wiring, my '70 was not too badly Bubba'd. BUT, the parts Bronco I got was the most Mickey-Moused pile 'o' junk on the planet.
1. 455 Olds/TH400 combo
2. GM crossflow radiator held in with 18 feet of baling wire
3. Dana 30 front with welded spiders
4. Reinforcement bars welded to the front axle (can't remove cover, and C-bushings are now permanent)
5. Rear pumkin had a Detroit Locker-cool! Oops, the things welded up, too.
6. Tilt front end- hood and fenders welded together. The whole shootin' match pivoted on a 1/8" welding rod that buckled and broke- had to pry open the hood with a crow bar.
7. Power steering box out an early '60s Galaxy 500. Major cutting torch mods to the frame to fit it.
8. Seats out of a boat. Very stylish, but no seat belts.

 

[bronco977]

All I have are pics after it sat for many years, but here ya go-
Back in the 70's it was the terror of Pismo Beach. 'Been based here in Bakersfield.

 

[texastreasures]

Had to bring this post back for this

I purchased another Bronco and the whole time I was looking this Bronco over I had this post in mind. Caution the following pictures may be disturbing so please view with caution. What you are about to see was suppost to be a simple F150 Power Steering Conversion gone bad. I am currently replacing with a factory 4 Turn box. While working in the area I am correcting the radiator hose routing issues as well.

 

[FerrumCampitor]

Not sure how I missed this thread the first time around but here goes:

To start..the truck looked NICE when I bought it. Later found out that was due to tens of pounds of bondo. And in my defense, I was 19 and totally dumb about cars when I bought it so laugh..but don't judge!;D

1. "seized engine" turned out to be a washer caught in the starter gear and fly-wheel. Once "unseized" I could turn the engine over by hand by spinning the crank shaft.
2. 2x4 blocks for front body mounts
3. pieces of exhaust pipe supported by 1/4 steel plate for rear body mounts
4. six point roll cage made of fire sprinkler pipe covered with foam pipe insulation (a-la Home Depot) and wrapped completely with electrical tape
5. floor boards replaced with a combination of riveted aluminum plate, light gauge steel sheet metal and fiberglassed in to look nice and solid
6. C-channel front and rear bumpers, rear attached with tabs mounted to the top/bottom outside of frame with grade six bolts. first time I opened the tailgate, the grade six bolts made a nice grade six impression in the tailgate
7. front passenger fender screwed to the door post with button head screws and has aluminum "brace" at the bottom riveted to inner fender and outer fender
8. indoor/outdoor carpet glued to #5 floor boards above
9. center body mount bolts held up by 1/4 plate over rusted out holes (was under "carpet")
10. "custom" 14" chrome spoke steering wheel (try turning 33s on the rocks with manual steering and a 14" steering wheel, mmm build big muscles!)
11. Alternator alignment coutesy of precision bent bracket and gutter nail spacers
12. 1/4" steel "support plates" holding the doors on from inside the door post. They did such a poor job on tapping the holes that you could only line up 2 of three holes per hinge.

.....there's more but I can't remember it after 10+ years of making things right. And all this was done by a guy who "builds" broncos for a living. Now, I won't publicly bash him...but if anyone PMs me I'll be MORE than happy to tell you who NOT to buy a bronco from. And yeah...they saw my dumb a$$ coming!

 

[45acp]

I have too many to list, so ill just post my favorite-

Copper brake lines from the master cylinder to the distribution block on the frame. Yes, you are reading it right, i said copper.

 

[bfoldy]

This is a great thread. There sure are some doozies here. Is it me or do our trucks have more "stupid" mods than the average vehicle?

Here's a couple of pictures of mine 3+ years ago when I got it from the previous owner who'd had it since '74. Nothing too dramatic compared to prior posts, but the shag house carpet should be worth a laugh. There's also pics of homemade front and rear tow hitches and what's left of the sweet spare tire carrier made of some thin tubing.

 

[Mherriford]

Lets see, ALL the wiring under the dash had been cut and spliced in with a piece of red wire, The wiring that was there was held toghether with house hold wire nuts( figured this out when I hit a bump,a wire nut falls out from under the dash,andthen the dash starts to spark) The passenger would gert a shower every time I hit a puddle on that side,and the guy left his bag of weed under the seat cover when he sold it to me

 

[Bitch'nBronco]

I got all kinds of interesting things

Crazy splices that should have caught fire

Silicone over everything and filled in rust holes with the stuff

Free vintage aviator sunglasses

and a dried up pilot v-ball pen... no extra charge!

Lots of other stupid things but these are what stood out in my mind