Free "basket case Bronco

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peakbagger

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Jul 11, 2008
8,978
Northern NH
A friend of mine has had his wife's 1987 Bronco parked in covered storage since 2001. It was the first year of a new body style and ford switched paint systems that year and they couldn't keep the paint on it. Ford did a repaint several times on different panels but never stripped it. Eventually the rot got to the tailgate and rear fender wells. He had taken a lot of parts off and actually welded in a new quarter, a patch on the other quarter and a new tailgate bottom but never fnished beyond welding them in. He lost interest when his wife got a new truck and finally decided to part with it this summer. It has around 60 K on the odometer and always had been maintained. I didn't really need a new truck but I used to have a similar vintage 87 pickup with the same fuel injected six and always liked the truck. I believe the majority of the parts are stored in the back but expect finding the missing ones will be one of the challenges for a winter project. There are plenty of Bronco parts houses and parts are cheap. The fuel injection is not really integrated that much with the rest of the vehicle and compared to the prior carbureted versions in 1986 I prefer injection.

Unlike most to of the Broncos of this era, its relatively stripped with the only real options being an automatic and AC. It even has a split bench seat, manual door locks and window cranks.

I didn't really need another project but I have a 97 Sonoma pick up that is starting to have rust and emission issues and in NH and VT, bad emissions means no inspection. With an 87 its an antique so no emissions tests and it general its heck of lot easier to work on plus it doesn't have the Sonoma's penchant for lower ball joint replacements.

First project is figure out why it wont run as it was running when parked. I expect the fuel is bad, the tank is rotted out and the fuel pump in the tank is long gone. If the drive train works, its worth fixing and he even has a same year pickup with six cylinder 4 speed if the automatics toast.

If I can get it running, I may lift the body off the frame rails and clean things up and hit it with rust inhibitive paint, install new copper nickel fuel and brake lines as the road deicing chemicals in NH eat standard brake line then clean up the welds on the sheetmetal hand strip it and have someone shoot a new paint job on it.

Unlike my Unimogs they fit in my garage;) so its good winter project.
 
[Hearth.com] Free "basket case Bronco


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Wish I could find a basket case that looks like that
 
I guess they don't hit the roads as hard with deicing chemicals in Indiana then New England, they usually rusted out pretty quick up in New England. They also got a bad reputation for electrical gremlins, that was the peak of the first SUV craze and most Ford Dealers ordered them pimped out with lots of options. The fundamental truck would run but the accessories like door locks, power windows and other goodies seemed not to hold up.
 
Lloyd the redneck said:
I love projects. Espically old stuff that's been stored. That sounds like good fun. I picked up a 84 k20 with 55k orig 1 owner from a barn a few weeks ago ! View attachment 198642
Click to expand...

Nice score! That's the kind of pickup that I look at and think, "That's a pickup".

The ones you get around here have 4 doors, about 3 feet of bed, a special leather cover so nothing accidentally gets put into the tiny bed, and 500 pounds of chrome chit stuck all over them. Ideal if you need to tell the world you have a small willy AND a small brain. Not so good if you need to haul anything.
 
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Yeah. 350. Manual Tranny and transfer case manual hubs. Simple reliable and takes any abuse you throw at it. New stuff is just made so flimsy. I made a decision a while back to never buy anything newer unless I had no choice. Sure my crap breaks down but that's why I have more than one. And I can fix it. I can't rely on anyone but myself
 
jetsam said:
The ones you get around here have 4 doors, about 3 feet of bed, a special leather cover so nothing accidentally gets put into the tiny bed, and 500 pounds of chrome chit stuck all over them. Ideal if you need to tell the world you have a small willy AND a small brain. Not so good if you need to haul anything.
Click to expand...

My Son calls that a grocery getter :)
 
Behold the shame.

That tinted license windows and license plate plate cover is a fashion accessory that goes with this vehicle type for some reason. There are also usually either tinted or chrome headlight covers (really). I think this is to convey the message, "I have sustained a serious head injury; please give my vehicle a wide berth."

I'm not sure if the drivers themselves have a dress code, but I like to imagine that they do. :)


[Hearth.com] Free "basket case Bronco
 
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I agree completely, but it's hard to buy a new truck off a lot today without that crap on it. The dealers have made up their minds, that this is what the public wants. I'm often add odds with dealer or brand assumptions of what I want, this being only one example.
 
Tinted headlights and or taillights anger me. So do tinted windshields. I can see as good as anyone else but once it gets dark my vision seems to become terrible and tinted taillights have almost got me in a wreck. And headlights why the heck. Should t they be brighter ? And tinted windshields. Ugh. I can't even see out the back windows of my factory tinted suburban windows in the daylight.
 
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peakbagger said:
A friend of mine has had his wife's 1987 Bronco parked in covered storage since 2001. It was the first year of a new body style and ford switched paint systems that year and they couldn't keep the paint on it. Ford did a repaint several times on different panels but never stripped it. Eventually the rot got to the tailgate and rear fender wells. He had taken a lot of parts off and actually welded in a new quarter, a patch on the other quarter and a new tailgate bottom but never fnished beyond welding them in. He lost interest when his wife got a new truck and finally decided to part with it this summer. It has around 60 K on the odometer and always had been maintained. I didn't really need a new truck but I used to have a similar vintage 87 pickup with the same fuel injected six and always liked the truck. I believe the majority of the parts are stored in the back but expect finding the missing ones will be one of the challenges for a winter project. There are plenty of Bronco parts houses and parts are cheap. The fuel injection is not really integrated that much with the rest of the vehicle and compared to the prior carbureted versions in 1986 I prefer injection.

Unlike most to of the Broncos of this era, its relatively stripped with the only real options being an automatic and AC. It even has a split bench seat, manual door locks and window cranks.

I didn't really need another project but I have a 97 Sonoma pick up that is starting to have rust and emission issues and in NH and VT, bad emissions means no inspection. With an 87 its an antique so no emissions tests and it general its heck of lot easier to work on plus it doesn't have the Sonoma's penchant for lower ball joint replacements.

First project is figure out why it wont run as it was running when parked. I expect the fuel is bad, the tank is rotted out and the fuel pump in the tank is long gone. If the drive train works, its worth fixing and he even has a same year pickup with six cylinder 4 speed if the automatics toast.

If I can get it running, I may lift the body off the frame rails and clean things up and hit it with rust inhibitive paint, install new copper nickel fuel and brake lines as the road deicing chemicals in NH eat standard brake line then clean up the welds on the sheetmetal hand strip it and have someone shoot a new paint job on it.

Unlike my Unimogs they fit in my garage;) so its good winter project.
Click to expand...
I see OJ.

He's out on parole come October. He'll be glad you kept it for him while he was doing his time in The Joint.
 
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