71 Rescue/Rebuild

EBG

Bought my '71 for $305 on eBay as a parts/salvage vehicle back in early September 2001, towed it from an Oklahoma field (where kids had been using for target practice) back to Austin on a Uhaul trailer. It had no engine, no interior, several bullet holes, and lots of rust. Tore it down, sandblasted and powdercoated the frame, rebuilt a junkyard 351W, hooked it to a ZF 5 speed, built a high pinion Dana 44 from a '78 Bronco with 8 lug disk brakes, a Dana 60 full floater disk brake 8 lug from an F350 , converted the Dana 20 T case to twin sticks, added power steering, custom steering linkage, extended radius arms, shock hoops, stainless brake lines, etc. Body is undergoing sheetmetal surgery - floor pans, bed floor, door posts, you name it. The only parts left from the original are the transfer case (modified), frame (modified), and parts of the tub.

I didn't set out with this in mind, but at some point I realized I've basically built a 3/4 ton Bronco, which Ford never did.

Damn... looks like a major undertaking. The days of finding $300 Broncos (salvage or not) are long gone. Nice work, looking forward to seeing it finished!

The Devil Horse

Damn... looks like a major undertaking. The days of finding $300 Broncos (salvage or not) are long gone. Nice work, looking forward to seeing it finished!

there is one near me in worse shape than this one started for 8k.

EBG

Bought my '71 for $305 on eBay as a parts/salvage vehicle back in early September 2001, towed it from an Oklahoma field (where kids had been using for target practice) back to Austin on a Uhaul trailer. It had no engine, no interior, several bullet holes, and lots of rust. Tore it down, sandblasted and powdercoated the frame, rebuilt a junkyard 351W, hooked it to a ZF 5 speed, built a high pinion Dana 44 from a '78 Bronco with 8 lug disk brakes, a Dana 60 full floater disk brake 8 lug from an F350 , converted the Dana 20 T case to twin sticks, added power steering, custom steering linkage, extended radius arms, shock hoops, stainless brake lines, etc. Body is undergoing sheetmetal surgery - floor pans, bed floor, door posts, you name it. The only parts left from the original are the transfer case (modified), frame (modified), and parts of the tub.

I didn't set out with this in mind, but at some point I realized I've basically built a 3/4 ton Bronco, which Ford never did.

Awesome job man.!

EBG

Bought my '71 for $305 on eBay as a parts/salvage vehicle back in early September 2001, towed it from an Oklahoma field (where kids had been using for target practice) back to Austin on a Uhaul trailer. It had no engine, no interior, several bullet holes, and lots of rust. Tore it down, sandblasted and powdercoated the frame, rebuilt a junkyard 351W, hooked it to a ZF 5 speed, built a high pinion Dana 44 from a '78 Bronco with 8 lug disk brakes, a Dana 60 full floater disk brake 8 lug from an F350 , converted the Dana 20 T case to twin sticks, added power steering, custom steering linkage, extended radius arms, shock hoops, stainless brake lines, etc. Body is undergoing sheetmetal surgery - floor pans, bed floor, door posts, you name it. The only parts left from the original are the transfer case (modified), frame (modified), and parts of the tub.

I didn't set out with this in mind, but at some point I realized I've basically built a 3/4 ton Bronco, which Ford never did.

How's the build coming? Any progress over the summer?

Nice find. Very lucky to get it for $300!!!!

Some progress has been made. The more work I did on the tub, the more work I found I needed to do - first it was just new floors. Cutting those out revealed bad supports, the cowl side panels were bad, the front inner fenders were rusty and bent, core support was hammered....so I cut off everything in front of the firewall. Started in on replacing the floorpans and supports, realized that with the rocker panels gone there wasn't really anything holding the front and rear of the body together other than the center tunnel of the floor...stopped and reconsidered the whole project.

Decided that I was tired of cutting out rusty metal only to find MORE rusty metal, and pulled the trigger on a complete new metal body. Grille to tailgate, all new. Some of the original, cleaned and rebuilt body parts I'll transfer over - the brake/clutch pedal assy, parking brake pedal assy, gas pedal, wiper motor and assy, the hood latch, light housings, etc. I may re-use those, I may buy new ones depending on the quality of them. Already have new stainless outer door handles, tailgate handle, hood prop rod, windshield hinge.

EBG

Some progress has been made. The more work I did on the tub, the more work I found I needed to do - first it was just new floors. Cutting those out revealed bad supports, the cowl side panels were bad, the front inner fenders were rusty and bent, core support was hammered....so I cut off everything in front of the firewall. Started in on replacing the floorpans and supports, realized that with the rocker panels gone there wasn't really anything holding the front and rear of the body together other than the center tunnel of the floor...stopped and reconsidered the whole project.

Decided that I was tired of cutting out rusty metal only to find MORE rusty metal, and pulled the trigger on a complete new metal body. Grille to tailgate, all new. Some of the original, cleaned and rebuilt body parts I'll transfer over - the brake/clutch pedal assy, parking brake pedal assy, gas pedal, wiper motor and assy, the hood latch, light housings, etc. I may re-use those, I may buy new ones depending on the quality of them. Already have new stainless outer door handles, tailgate handle, hood prop rod, windshield hinge.

Where did you get your tub? Are you pleased with the quality of the tub? Nice work!

72BroncoSport

Where did you get your tub? Are you pleased with the quality of the tub? Nice work!

Rust Belt Broncos. I chose the optional flared rear fenders, '66 grill (small blinkers), power steering core support and drivers' side inner fender tub.

Everything seems to be in the right place, there are a few welds that are....questionable, but I can always grind them down and burn my own if I feel a need to. It's sure nice to be working with new, clean, intact sheetmetal, rather than trying to weld to rust. Now I can concentrate on choosing a paint color, sealing the seams, undercoating, trimming the tunnel for the ZF shifter and the twin sticks for the transfer case....

Considering an engine swap. What do you guys think? ?








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What a cool project. It looks like it will be a fun driver. It’s certainly going to be an eye catcher and a conversation starter when people see it!