Any early bronco guys on here?

6.0 p-stroke · Mar 5, 2015

2 years ago we bought 3 early broncos from one of my dads childhood friends in Wyoming. We had plans to get one going last year and building another for a toy and slowly restoring another, lacking a shop slowed all of that progress. This year I decided I wanted something of my own to drive around at Rednecks with Paychecks so I pulled the most complete Bronco up to the garage to see what it would need to get going. I put a new master cylinder, ignition coil, battery and some fuel line on it, after ruining the ignition because we didn't have a key we figured out how to hot wire it and got it to start with little effort.

Now that we made sure it would run I found 4 34" super swampers in the back of one of the other Broncos and had tubes put in them to make sure they would hold air. They're only 8.5" wide so they still tuck up under the fenders and it shouldn't be too much for the little 302 to handle.

This Bronco has what looks to be either a 4" or 6" lift, but whoever did the lift didn't install the correct bushings so the front axle is pointed up too high. I ordered a 7 degree bushing kit that should hopefully fix that issue.

I'm gonna spray paint it black before we leave to cover up the surface rust and primer. It's been cold and raining here so that has slowed progress but the list of things to do is: oil change, check trans and t case oil, spray paint, swap out seats to factory seats, fix lights and whatever other little things I feel need to be addressed before we leave in 7 days. I'm hoping it doesn't let me down, my buddy has a stock early bronco that will go just about anywhere so I'm not too worried.

Are there any other early bronco guys on here?

TyCorr · Mar 5, 2015

I had a 69 for four years. Sold it in early 14 when my building flooded and had nowhere else to put it.

It was that same barfy green. I redid the whole floor. 350hp 302...6" james duff lift 35s. 3spd manyal. It was cool.

My son, 5 now, cried for two weeks when I sold it. He would sit in the dr seat and hold the wheel going "bub-bub bub-bub bub-bub" whick is how open headers sound....

I miss it too. The plan was to turn ours into a four door, and basically fashion a new vehicle out of it. With either a 6l or a 4bt cummins. Do the inside with leather captains chairs.

6.0 p-stroke · Mar 5, 2015

I've always dreamed of building a 4 door, the guy we got these from had one. The other day I found a picture of one on the Internet that still has me drooling

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05stroker350 · Mar 5, 2015

I used to have one. Sold it 2 years ago. I miss it every single day. Well worth the money to fix up and use it as a weekend ride. Here's some pics - bone stock the day we got it to how it was before we sold it.

co04cobra · Mar 5, 2015

Very cool! We bought one last week that hasn't made it to the shop yet and my father-in-law still has one from when he was a young man.

There are so many cool things you can do with them.

6.0 p-stroke · Mar 5, 2015

I love a clean, uncut bronco, my best friends dad has a couple, he restored this one after it's been their ranch/hunting truck for about 20+ years. It's been to hell and back a few times and now you'd never know, we've never got it stuck and have put it in more hairy situations than I can count. It's been restored for 2 years now.

Here's another one that they retired from the ranch and are trying to sell, everything on these things work like they should, they run and drive great.

My sister just sold hers, it needed a little work but was all around pretty decent, she didn't like it being a manual and they had converted it to the floor shifter :doh:

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6.0 p-stroke · Mar 10, 2015

We've had some pretty rainy weather lately so we weren't able to paint it this weekend. With class tomorrow and a lot of other things to get ready before we leave Wednesday, tonight was the only time we had to paint it. We used my dads spray gun instead of spray cans, and considering the circumstances I think we might have done an OK job LOL. It's probably just going to get beat up on the trails so we weren't too worried about it being perfect. We'll see how it looks in the light tomorrow, here's what we were working with

I also tried to make sure the 4x4 and everything was in working order, hopefully this low budget quick build bronco will get us through the weekend lol

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little luke · Mar 15, 2015

My buddies truck. I can't even remember what all had been done to it when he bought it, but it built for some pretty rough off roading. Motor is a 352, has a family cage, only things that really need to be done are paint and redo the bedliner on the interior.

6.0 p-stroke · Mar 15, 2015

That's a good looking bronco! I think a family cage will be added in the near future.
I took it to rednecks with paychecks this weekend and wheeled it pretty hard. I found out a lot about it and it did surprisingly well. I got stuck when I forgot to lock a hub, and then it got hot and blew a radiator hose since the radiator was caked with mud. A new hose and rinsing the radiator solved that issue. The paint job turned out well for doing it in the dark lol.

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ncollins64 · Mar 15, 2015

I love the old Broncos. I wish I could find me one in decent shape. They go so well even in stock form.

patricku47 · Mar 23, 2015

I know its not an early bronco, but I'm getting close to ready to take the 79 I've been working on out on some trails. I see you're north of SA, have you ever made the trip to Hidden Falls in Marble Falls?

6.0 p-stroke · Mar 24, 2015

I haven't been up there yet, but a lot of my buddies that have rigs go. We've talked about going but always seem to busy

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Paul@CP_Trucks · Mar 27, 2015

http://powerstrokearmy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27400

6.0 p-stroke · Mar 28, 2015

Paul@CP_Trucks said:
http://powerstrokearmy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27400

I've been following your project, but you haven't made much progress lately

oke:

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7.3obs · Mar 28, 2015

My dad had a bronco for his first vehicle. The stories he would tell me about that thing then I'm pretty sure a boulder managed to get in the way one night after one too many cold ones hahah.

Last year he picked one up that was in the stages of being fixed up. Straight 6 in it with a mild body lift. He picked up another that has the 302 with the three on the tree. Makes a good farm buggy till we take the two and make one out of the two. Currently the one with the 302 is surrounded by snow and all you can see is the hood. Hopefully this summer I can get him to start working on them. Not enough time in the day.

They sure are a lot of fun!!

Then he had a bronco two. Used that to plow the driveway with it. There was a good sized hole in the floor board you could through a cat or two through. Damn salt.