Survey..................How'd you get your EB?

[adunham]

After buying my GT-350 clone, I decided I needed an everyday Ford vehicle, too. I stumbled across the Bronco Registry of Northern Colorado website, and decided I had to have one (this was 1998, when the site was still active). I found an uncut '70 in the Denver Post and purchased it for $2450. I cut it, lifted it, put on a soft top, put in a floor shifter, BFG's etc. I moved to Arizona and sold it in 2003 for $2850. Then in August of this year I got the fever again and bought the '69 from California I have now off of eBay. More specifically, I watched as the auction did not reach the reserve twice, then made an outside offer.

-aaron

 

[ransil]

I want one from the time I was in high school (1984), I joined the Navy and was stationed in Hawaii and only found 1 during the 4 years I was there, did not buy it( big yellow & blue thing on 44's). Next Duty station was Sandy Eggo, I new I would find an EB there and started looking, I even started buying parts before I had the EB. I soon learned they got snatched up pretty quick and you had to start calling the second you found an ad. I found on in my price range around $1000 , It was not running, half motor was in the back of EB, had 4 flat tires and a tree growing up thru the trans tunnel, but the body was pretty solid. A deal was made and I hauled it home and started fixing it for the next 3 years. After 9 months of debugging I took it on a cross counrty trip. Could have used a few more months on the debugging. Round 2 of the rebuild is just about done.

 

[wildbill]

;D ;D ;D It was at the ford dealers used car lot we saw it comeing home from work. It had a bent fender and was ugly brown made a deal and we picked it up and drove it home cost 950.00 out the door. It was and still is a 66 this was in 72 san bernardino ca. %) %) %) Bill %)

 

[GranDads74]

My Grandfathers red '74

You can guess from my login name mine started out as my grandfathers.

He purchased it new in 1974 to do snow plowing on the private road we lived on (he owned). It is a red an white wagon with no options, no carpet, no radio, no back seat. it does have a 302 and an automatic. it sits on the origonal Firestone tires it came home with, they measure about 29" tall. The spare has not touched ground in all it 31 years. It also has a dealer installed 6' Fisher snow plow on it right now.

He used it to plow the road, and an ocasional fishing trip. When he couldn't do the plowing Dad did it, and when Dad couldn't I did it.

After I moved out to make my way in the world, I tried to continue to do the plowing but when it snowed, by the time i got my house shoveled out it was either very late or i was too beat to go down an plow their road.

One of dads best friends son bought my grand parents house. He did the plowing and some maintenance on the truck for a couple of years. Two years ago it was really difficult to get the road powed with it becuse it ran very badly, overheated so Dad decided to get someone else to plow the road and put the truck out to pasture.

The truck sat in grandads old carrage house until this past summer, when fearing it would fall down, Dad decided it was time to tear it down. I had always wanted that Bronco, and let Dad know at every opertunity. He finally said i could take it home and we would talk price later. I got rid of my 89 mustang (12 years of daily driving in Nova Scotia, then storage in a musty carrage house rusted it so badly it was beyond restoration) that was also in the carrage house and the tow truck driver offered him $2000.00 for the bronco upon first sight. He has yet to tell me how much.

I got it running (very rough), needed a new battery, selonoid, and battery a cable and fresh gas. it hasn't been safety inspceted since 1980. The hubs hadn't been unlocked in 20 years, but whe I went to put into 2H they unlocked with out problem. It needs a lot of work, a very bad muffler made for a noisy ride. But I drove it home. With a smile from ear to ear of course!!! ;D

It had fallen into disepair over the years. The air bags inside the front springs were deflated. Sitting for 8 months of the year unused, it went thru alot of batteries (fortunatly dad bought a "free replacement for as long as you own the vehicle" warranty battery's from Canadian Tire. I think the last one made 5 heavy duty batteries he has gotten for free.

It only was driven for plowing the road (about 3/4 mile long) and the ocasional fishing trip with my grandfather back some logging roads. It has very low mileage, but i am unsure how many miles becuse the odometer stopped working at 1046 miles.

She sits in my driveway, covered, waiting for me to build a garrage to start restoring it. I start it up every couple of weeks and let it run for 10 - 15 minutes to make sure the battery gets charged.

Now I am researching the rebuilding and restoring of the truck while i am in the "saving money to do it" phase.

Kevin

 

[jdevon]

My father bought the '75 back in 1977 from a guy that made drag racing bodies. The body guy cut the rears and hand made the 4 "flares" by molding the fiberglass into seamless 1/4's.

Once my father bought it, all customizing stopped. For years he only used it to drive to work and back (senior metalurgist at a steel mill). About seven years ago he left the mill on disability and from then on the truck mostly stayed at the lake house. It was started maybe once a month and all fluids were kept in good order, but all in all it was neglected. That's where I entered the picture.

Now this story is going to take quite a turn. I was given up for adoption at birth. Right about 6 years ago, I was reunited with my birth mother and father, and my full-blooded brother and sister (several years after my birth, my birth folks got married and had my bro and sis). On the very first day of meeting my father, he picked me up at the airport and drove me back to his house so that I could meet my grandparents and aunt/uncle. As we pulled into the driveway I saw the Bronco and asked what it was. Later that night we went out and started it up -- from then on I was hooked.

Since then every father's day, christmas, and b-day gifts we (my bro and sis) bought him were things for the Bronco. Finally I think it clicked that his financial interest in the Bronco was becoming less and less, while the kids' was becoming more and more. So about a month ago he called me up and said he was giving it to me and my brother. Oh the joy!

So now it's parked at my place and gets driven every night. I can hardly wait to start working on it, but I promised my wonderful wife that I would first get more done on the house remodling.

That's pretty much it in a nut shell. I have alot of learning and alot of work to do on it. Without a doubt, this truck will one day belong to my kids or those of my brother's.

 

[scottmcwms]

I bought my first Bronco a 1982 fullsize from my dad's working partner in 1995. I was a sophomore in high school. It was in perfect condition, paid $3000 for it. I sold it in 1997 when I went to college because it didn't like going over 55 mph and I had a 250 mile drive to make. I sold it for $4000. I also couldn't afford the gas (8 mpg @ $1.50/gal, remind me again why I bought an EB @ $3.00/gal!)

When I owned the '82 I religiously read Peterson's 4 Wheel and Off-Road magazine and really liked the articles on EBs. I told myself when I got the money I would buy one.

From the time I sold the '82 until recently I have been looking for a great deal. Being a poor college student I obviously couldn't afford anything nice. I have been out of college now for 4 years and have finally got to a point where I can afford some luxury items. I have been scouring the papers and the internet for an EB. I found one on a local internet site and called up the owner. He said it had 57k original miles and he wanted $1000 for it, but it had some really bad rust issues. I didn't exactly know what that meant.

I went over to his house and found out that it was his father's from Erie, PA. The father sold it to his son (Bill Gates, no not the Microsoft guy) and Bill drove it down to Beaumont, TX. Bill had every intention of restoring the Bronco but he had a "lifestyle change" and lost interest. It had been sitting in the back alley of his condo for 6 years just rusting away. I'm not sure what the "lifestyle change" was but it sort of worried me. Needless to say I said I would buy it for $1000 (it was rusty, but definitely repairable. A great deal at $1000). He gave me the keys. I asked him to put some air in the tires because they were flat so I could drive it home. He said he didn't have a compressor and I definitely didn't want to drive it home. I'm not sure how he was planning on doing any repairs if he didn't have a simple tire inflator. I then told him I would give him $900 for it since I would have to rent a trailer. He agreed to that.

After removing the gas that was 6 years old and flushing the fuel system with varnish remover the Bronco runs smooth as a kitten. All the spring mounts (coil and leaf) are paper thin. I understand why he said I wouldn't want to drive it home.

Now I've been bitten by the Bronco Bug and the infection is serious!

Scott

 

[66roadhorse]

I got my first one in 1987. It was a 77 we paid $1800 for. NO rust, uncut, all original. I lifted it, cut it and drove the heck out of it. I sold it in 92 for a good profit and am still kicking myself for that.

The next one was a 66 roadster that my dad found in the local paper for $1000. This was about two years ago. It is in perfect uncut condition and we still have it.

The next one I got out of a junkyard for $300. It is very beat up, complete with a broken frame. I bought a frame to rebuild it, but as you all know plans change. Two months ago, my wife's cousin's fiance bought a 66 roadster after asking my advice about it. He is a diehard Chevy guy who is really into old Blazers. I bought it last weekend for what he paid, $1900. This will ultimately be my trail as it has already been cut.

My fourth one is basically half a Bronco. It is a 74 frameand all the body parts except the tub. I have already sold the C4 and D20. I will be putting the 66 body on this frame at some point to have a V8 and it already has disc brakes. Only catch to this many Broncos. is the junkyard one is going to soon be liquidated, either in one peice or part by part.

 

[Cooter_76]

I'd been jonesing for a Bronco for a few years, but never had the disposable cash to plunk down on one. In May of 04 I changed jobs and my vacation payout was substantial. The hunt was on! Within a week I found one in the local classifieds. Called the guy Friday and made the deal on Saturday. Problem was, my $ was in transition between banks, and I wasn't sure when the money would show up. Monday I opened a line of credit with one of the banks to get a cashier's check in hand that day. By Monday evening I was driving it home with a grin this big ;D on my face.
A couple months later I bought a garage for it (which just happened to come with a house).

 

[Mac2Night]

You never forget your first, or second or third Bronco.

In 1980 I was 15 years old and on family vacation in the Great Smokey Mountains (I grew up in Chattanoonga, TN) when I saw this beautiful ebony black beauty (it turned out to be a '76) riding on a set of 33s and the top was off. I wander in and out of tourist on the sidewalk as the Bronco cruised the strip, lost to all other sights around me (my parents still refer to that Bronco as the Siren in my Odyssey). When my parents finally caught up to me, my dad noticing the longing gaze in my eyes, asked if I would like to find one of those trucks for my first car. Of course I said yes!

Two weeks later, dad asked me if I could miss school the next day. I hesitated to say yes as I figured it involved some intensive labor, but was pleased to hear that he an my mother had located 4 or 5 EBs in the east Tennessee area and he wanted to go take a look at them. That was one of the best days of my life. We looked at a lot of rust and in need of restoration EBs, but the last one we visited at the Whitwell Ford dealership was a baby blue '77 that had just been traded in by a local businessman. There wasn't a spek of rust and the only damage was a crunched driver's side rocker panel. $3,000.00 later, she was mine! I mowed a lot of yards for the next couple of years to pay mom and dad back, but I had that truck for close to 10 years.

Falling to the lure of a newer Ford (and not knowing what to do about rusting door posts in the lean pre-reproduction years) I sold her for $3,500.00 and bought a used Ranger LB 4x4. I kept that truck less than a year and bought my next EB, a '76. My '76 was pristine and uncut, but being in college and wanting something that didn't make me look like the 85 year old man I had bought her from, I cut her, lifted her and made her the beauty I knew was lurking beneath that faded green paint job. Over the next 10 years she was featured in multiple 4x4 magazines (Off Road twice, Four Wheeler once and 4X4 Performance once) and driven all over the US and its backroads. Finally, after settling in Atlanta, having a family and being faced with the need for cash for a down payment on our first home, I sold her to my brother-in-law in 2002.

Then the story turns dark....... I bought my first CH*^#, a '72 C-20 Suburban, and then another, a '72 K5 and then another, a '68 C-20 Suburban. I have no excuse for these actions and I can only ask for your forgivness. I have since completed rehab and I sold my last CH*^# three months ago.

Two days after closing the deal on my '72 K5, one of my oldest friends emailed me out of the blue. The email had no text and only contained two photos, both of his '75 Sport. I promptly emailed him back and asked him what was he trying to do, tempt me. He called me laughing and told me that he had too may projects going and wanted me to have first dibs on his EB. Two weeks later I am trailering her home with my wife and kids from Virginia.
I am not letting this one get away.

We are already looking for my son's first Bronco (he just turned 7 last week) and my daughter's (she's 5 and wants to paint her's PINK) for when they are old enough to drive. Life just doesn't get any better than this!

Mac

 

[thesnake]

73 Bronco - My first bronco a 73 sport, I bought from my dad, who bought it from a farmer (it was a field truck), body was shot then. Dad drove it until the trans shot craps. I bought it from him for 450, had the trans rebuilt and drove it until the trans went out again 10 years later. By this time the body was rusting off the frame and there wasn't anything to weld patch panels to.
Sold it on ebay for 455 after I stripped it.

72 Bronco - It was for sale at a Junkyard close to Lincoln, Nebraska. Everybody at work kept telling me about it when they went to Lincoln. I checked it out and bought it Thanksgiving 95 for 500. I drove it off and on until September 2000, when I sold it on Ebay for 860. (Today that same truck would bring around 3000).

74 Parts Bronco - I asked a guy at work about it, he told me I could have it, minius the front end and rear end and tires. No trans, motor or top. I returned the front and rear end and tires and parted the rest out on ebay.

75 Bronco Northland Special - Bought it in Iowa for $375. Body was rough, but it only had 10,000 miles on it. It had been used as a snowplow. Drove it around until the 3 spd trans went out. Sold it on ebay last year for 1800.

66 Bronco Half Cab - Bought it off the classic broncos.com for sale forum. Nice running great shape truck. Bought it in December 2001 for 1500. Had it shipped to Nebraska. Ran into a problem licensing it in Nebraska as the dmv wanted to make it a current year with an assigned vin number because the vin plate was missing. Sold it last year on ebay for 2500.

76 Bronco - This bronco has bounced around ebay and classic broncos forum for months and I decided to bite the last time it hit the for sale forum. Body was toast, but all the good stuff was there with a 351C. I bought it in Jan 2003 for 1200.

70 Half Cab - bought this truck for 1900. It had bounced around Jeff's Bronco graveyard classifieds and classic bronco's classifieds for quite awhile. I got it from Mike Kirkus at Complete offroad.

John

 

[BwoncoHowie]

After about a month of searching I found mine in truck trader magazine. The guy wanted about 4500.00 for it. It ran OK but needed work. When i looked it over I found that it was all basically stock except for the cut fenders, the rag top, 3" lift, and 31" tires on aftermarket steel wheels. When I told the owner I was interested but that it needed work, he agreed to sell it to me for 3,500 . The truck has power steering (that didn't work when I bought it). C-4, 302 2-V, 3.50 traction lock axles front & rear. Seems this project will never be finished seeing as that I am always finding ways of improving it.

There are not enough pictures on this thread, so I thought I would add a few...

 

[Saddlehorse]

I have wanted an EB since I was in junior high. I have always thought they were awesome. Graduated college, got excepted into the Border Patrol academy and gave the old ranch pick up back to dad.

Graduated the academy and was needing a vehicle to start my new life in. I had the money to get a new vehicle but spotted a 1976 sport in my hometown on the way to my duty station. That was in 1992. It cost me $3400. I still have it and I still love it.

It is the first vehicle that I ever owned. Many other vehicles have come and gone but I still have my bronco and they'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands.

 

[Socal Tom]

After College I went looking for either a 4wd play rig or a Sand rail. I was leaning towards a V8 street legal 4wd, but I was open to the best deal I could find.
I found a 2 line add in the local paper. 67 Bronco, 4 inch lift 3200$.
I took a buddy to check it out. The seller had only owned it for a month. He bought it from a guy who had to move back east suddenly due to work. It was a project he hadn't completed yet. It had P/S, a very clean engine a C4 and tilt steering. The P/S leaked fluid faster than you could pour it in. The engine barely ran. We ended up at $1900.
I adjusted the dizzy ( timing was way off) , tightened up the rockers ( apparently he hadn't finished the cam change) and ditched the holley double pumper 4 barrel. It ran like a top after that. It didn't have a 4 inch lift, just a 2 inch block in back. I put in an adda leaf from wildhorses and I put some seals in the P/S box , stuck a lock rite in the back and basically ran it like that for about 5 years.

Now it's got a 5.0HO, rebuilt C4, rebuilt P/S box, a 3.5 inch suspension lift and 35 inch tires.
It's come a long way.
Tom

 

[Dirty Red]

I'm thinking I did what many of us did.
Paid as much as I could for the best I could find at the time and then started spending even more (and still would not give it up)!

 

[bronconate68]

I had owned a few Pontiac 400ci cars and moved to a little rice burner to possibly slow down my need for speed. After getting more tickets in the rice burner than I ever did in the 400ci cars and finally totaling it, I figured I wanted a 4x4. My first Bronco was a slot car back in the 70s. I loved that thing, so when it came to buying a 4x4 I new what I wanted, an old Bronco. I had no idea what that would lead to.

I found one right away in the auto trader, it was some guys 10 year project and he was selling it for $2,500. I called him up told him I wanted it and that I would come pick it up in 4 days. He agreed and when that 4th day came I called him and he said he sold it to some kid. I was pissed, but the search continued. There weren't many, after that one, to look at. I was in the Portland Or. area and there were a few guys wanting a lot of money for rusted out EBs. I went to look at one in Sandy Or., as I drove down a long dirt driveway in the woods I approached the house, it had a nice big groomed yard and right in the middle of the yard was a '68 EB that they had been mowing around for a few years. The grass had grown up past the windows. When the PO opened up the door the inside was in great shape. The entire Bronco was in really good shape. He was the third owner and the Bronco came from California. We haggled over the price, he wanted $3,200 for it and I thought that was a lot. I walked away from it. Halfway home I decided WTF and drove back and bought it. I drove it home with rotted out tires, no spring left (none) in the spings, leaking 9" from the drop out and no weather stripping anywhere.

I quickly threw a 2 1/2" K-Bar-S, stiff as hell, suspension on it with single shocks, bought 31" tires, threw them on, and headed out to Montana in late November. My buddy and I still laugh about that, there were no seals, no heater, I had know idea how the thing really worked, never owned a 4x4, we were riding with sleeping bags rapped around us and we still were cold as hell. The Bronco wandered all over the place. I stopped in Kalispell at a Les Schwab’s and had them take a look. I never had it aligned after installing the lift, the guy at Schwab’s said the tires weren't tracking and the king pins were shot. He fixed the tracking problem but the king pins would have to wait.

It was a great trip and my buddies loved the truck, it was about the time OJ pulled his crap and when I phoned ahead telling them I bought a Bronco, they all thought it would be one like OJ was riding in on tv, when I pulled up in the '68 they all were relieved.

Now I'm into this thing for about $36,000 and still a ways to go.

With the frame off complete my wife is on board, she didn't share my vision of what it could, and now does, look like.

nate
'68

 

[blackjack]

My 67 EB.

When I first started dating my girl friend in 2001 her best freinds husband had a 71 EB. That first got me thinking of a 4x4. I started looking for a 4x4 but it didn't really click right away about looking for a Bronco. I looked at a big Chevy Blazer, even test drove it and decided then the EB's are the perfect size. I found Classic Bronco's web site and started learning more about them and happen to find one on a web site for sale up in Ontario, CA. I drove up the next day gave him half the $3,200. and said I would bring the rest on the weekend and pick her up. I drove it home pouring black smoke out the tail pipe. Not knowing anything it took a while to figure out it had a blown power valve in the 4160 Holley so it was running way to rich.

Now the only thing orginal is the body, the 9" axle housing and the headers the guy had just put on.

Waylon

 

[1975stroppebaja]

I first saw my Bronco back in ~1993. My neighbor owned it and it was his DD for a while until he got a newer pickup truck. He parked the Bronco until he moved away in ~1995. I was begging to buy it from him when he was moving but he wouldn't sell it. Three years later I heard he was wanting to sell it and I went to see him. $2100 later I drove it home. About a year later I found out it was a Stroppe and embarked on the major rebuild which is ongoing and probably will be for a long while. I'm hoping to have it ready for the Bronco 50th anniversary %) :-[

Won't be as long as it has been though...
http://www.frontiernet.net/~jmray/Baja/Bronco052.JPG

 

[ochretoe]

Being a Park Ranger, we drove Bronco's until they quit making them. We then went to Jeeps and now drive Blazers and pickups. I never forgot how well my Bronco's did when everyone else was stuck or lost. I had a 65 stang till I got married so I know a little about early Fords. I sold my Jeep in early summer this year and set out to find me an EB that I could work on and understand (unlike me and fuel injection). I finally found one on line that maxed out my budget of $4500 from selling my Jeep, and it had the set up I wanted, a six banger and three on the tree (like my grandpa had too many years ago). I flew out to Greenville Nc from Memphis and drove it home. It runs like a top and is all original except cut fenders and 2" lift. Its been my daily driver ever since. I plan to do some work and upgrades but for now I'm just enjoying it. I think my 8 year old son is hooked on them now too. We talk alot about what his Bronco is gonna look like.
Steve

 

[malcolmzilla]

I was looking for a solid axled Toyota pickup, but the EB caught my eye, stopped to see it. It stunk, was super rusty, but ran well, and I really liked the lines and smaller size. I did a bit of research and decided to jump in, it was only gonna be a bush truck but then I got bit...

 

[B1]

my 69

my grandfather bought this half cab brand new in 1969 for 2300.00, since then it has remained uncut and with stock suspension. this truck was bought for farm use. it has been rolled twice, crashed into cars. etc. my dad drove it through high school. when my grandad passed away he willed it to me. then it sat for 15 years, till i was responsible enough to do a frame-up rebuild on it. i love to listen to the stories my dad tells me about this truck. one time him and my uncle and grandad were out on the range out of rangely colorado using it to rope up some wild horses. i could just see them hangin on in the back chasing down a herd of wild stallions, he said they finally caught one and tied it to the headache rack, and the horse damn near pulled the truck over. this is a special truck to me, and it will be in my family untill there is no more family left. in the meantime i have some grand plans to build this truck into a capable 4x4, and take my family out on the trails here in alaska.