The Ford Bronco Returns

[Tallpine]

A few years ago there was an M-35 (diesel 6x6) for sale in Great Falls for $2500 that our VFD was considering buying.  But at that time the dept didn't have a lot of money to spare.

I came real close to saying that I would just buy it myself for a firewood truck and then sell it to the department later if they needed it.  But since I wasn't planning to license or insure it, I wasn't sure if I wanted to have to haul 5 gal cans of diesel from town to keep it running.  I dunno - maybe the local bulk delivery would bring out 50 gallons 

In the end, another dept bought it since they had just blown the engine on one of their tenders.

[brimic]

My Dad had an '84. It was a bit underpowered with the heavily corked 302 imho. I did like the manual locking hubs and the transfer case shift that took some manly muscle to shift to 4L. My sister crashed it a week after she got her license- was lighting a cigarette, lost control and ran through a cemetery. She ran over 5 grave stones before ripping most of the sheet metal off one side against a telephone pole support cable. She told the cop to take her to jail as it would be much better than going home.lol.


Re: IH scout. A buddy in high school had one, it was rusted to pieces, but it was very stoutly built. It eventually met its demise with a broken axle from some heavy abuse in a gravel pit.

[Tallpine]

My sister crashed it a week after she got her license- was lighting a cigarette, lost control and ran through a cemetery.

Headline: Hundreds Dead After SUV Crash!   


Speaking of IH Scouts, back in my service station days there was this semi-regular coed who brought in her Scout one quiet Sunday morning and said it was shaking, after backing over a low retaining wall after a party.  A bunch of football players got it back on the drive/street for her.

So I put it up on the lift, and casually turned a rear wheel to see what might be amiss.  The rear drive line - which is only about 3' long - was bent about 4" off center right in the middle.  Yes, I suppose it would shake a bit at anything over 10mph 

Of course, there was no new driveshaft to be had in a little mountain college town on a Sunday morning, nor for several days afterward because the parts store had to order one.  So ....  I removed the bent driveshaft, locked in the front hubs, put it in 4wd and made her promise to only drive it slowly around town for necessary trips.

The driveshaft came in a few days later and I installed if for her, and everything was fine.

And, no - I didn't get laid out of the deal.  I had a wasted youth 

[brimic]

Headline: Hundreds Dead After SUV Crash!

 

The nice thing was that in the 80s and earlier, the term SUV wasn't equated with soccer mom status symbol, but a truck associated with duck hunters and fishermen and weren't all that common.

[41magsnub]

My Dad had one of the original Broncos until the early 80's.  He lent it to his brother in law to take hunting.  The BIL rolled it (driving diagonally up a steep side hill) and it was totally destroyed.  The BIL was fine but wished he wasn't when Dad was done with him.  My aunt divorced him shortly afterwards for somewhat related reasons (being an immature *expletive deleted*bag).

Dad loved that truck, he rebuilt the engine and did all sorts of little upgrades to it.  He bought the Land Cruiser I have now a few years ago to do the same sorts of things the Bronco could do.

[Harold Tuttle]

One of the forerunners of the SUV craze, the classic 1960s Ford Bronco, is getting a new life.

Ford will begin offering body shells for 1966-70 models later this fall, and they're aimed at enthusiasts who want to upgrade, soup up or improve their aging off-roaders.

Look for the Bronco shell to make an appearance at SEMA this fall, perhaps with an EcoBoost engine underhood. General Motors revealed a similar concept last year, called the E-Rod, which featured a crate engine in a 1955 Chevrolet.

The Ford shells are sold through a California company called Dynacorn, which also specializes in 1960s Mustang body shells.

Ford is also considering adding shells for the Fox-bodied Mustangs of 1979-93.

The idea is to capitalize on enthusiasts' love for restoring their old cars. The shells allow for a quick upgrade, as opposed to extensive bodywork after hours of scouring junkyards. They could be particularly useful for the Bronco, which was known for an unfortunate tendency to rust.

The move is part of a Ford program that licenses tooling to custom companies after the original parts are retired by the Blue Oval. The result is that more than 9,000 parts are available for the restoration market, and they're built to the same specs as those Ford built. The portfolio dates to 1909 and the Model T and reaches forward to the early 2000s.

Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100609/CARNEWS/100609847#ixzz1d9ajWRpK

http://www.dynacornclassicbodies.com/classic2.html

http://www.dynacorn.com/PDFs/Retail/Retail_Bronco.pdf