Ok,

I have not had the chance to get the actual owners picture with his bronco but decided that I should post some info and pics any way. We purchased this Bronco as a project vehicle for my younger son who is 14 to work on and eventually drive when he turns 16. The build will be based around saftey and reliability first, over all "cool" factor second.

1974 Ranger
351W Rebuilt within the last 10k miles, RV cam, 65 amp alt, Power steering, power breaks, C4 Auto with shift kit, seats out of some 80's era toyota car (those need to go soon), Dana 44 front with Disk breaks, Ford 9" rear with a supposed limmited slip, 3 1/2" lift, 31" tires, 4 point harnes attached to the original roll bar, rattle can paint job.

Plans right now include: Seats, Front and rear bumpers, 33" tires and new wheels, new heater core, glass, seals, body and paint, full roll cage.... the list will go on and on and on.

That is a real score - new 351, Auto, disk brakes, etc. and looks like it is great condition. As for the cool factor for the truck - it's already cool. But the dad buying the Bronco for the son - that cool factor is off the charts. Post more pics when you can but looks like a great Bronco and a fun project for you guys. Lucky kid.

Oh sir, trust me - I am not that cool. The boys pay for their cars and parts in labor. they work for me on the weekends, durring the summer when they are off school and they get the nastiest, least fun jobs around here...

Nope, it is up to the boys to earn and maintain their own coolness.

I finally got a chance to take a picture with Andrew and his pony.

Great looking Bronco - going to be fun to watch it transform.

I have to ask - why are you holding out pics on that Mustang? I Know its Colorado Classic Broncos but . . .

You want pics of Rusty the Mustang? Well ok, that I can handle.

My on purchased this from a friend who does restomods like this for a living (or at least used to) and lost his shop space. It is a 66 mustang coupe. 200 I-6 auto, power steering. THe car had been in an accident and never completly repaired the drivers side front was hit. We have done the following:

Dismantled the entire car, interior and body.
Had the frame (uni body car so that is a misstatement of sorts) straightend
new fenders, hood, valalence,
motor and trans are slightly build up, not a lot you can do with that motor. Removed the PS and installed manual,
replaced rusted floor pans and lowered the seat pans (Daniel is already 6' tall at 16, I have no doubt he will be taller than I am and will need the leg room)
Rebuilt the entire front suspension and steering
Seats out of an 94 mustang
Bad-ass stereo (silly teenagers....)
hours and hours of welding, rust repairs and body work.

She is resting in primer now, ready for the final push on the body work, then paint and final reasembly. 3 years, hundreds of hours and many more dollars than his mother (or he himself) will ever know and he is almost done. Actually he is driving the bronco while we finish up his car. THe plan on the Bronco is to never actually have it out of service for very long. Just as long as it takes to complete a project or for paint. Beyond that we do not plan on a frame off restomod.

Hope you like Rusty the Mustang.

Greg

First pic is of the day we pought her
then you see her in her new body work (fenders, and yellow hood and we have added a scoop) then you see Daniel pausing from his welding in a patch...

RIght now she is in dark gray primer waiting while we debate colors and wether to paint her ourself or not but it seems as though all mechanicials are complete.
Passenger side of rusty.jpgP7130522.JPGWelder Dan #1 5-24-09.jpg

What a great ! It's hard to teach kids the value of hard work and respect for what you have. This is an excellent way to take the most important, exciting part of a kid's life and teach them a couple things. I applaud the , and will definitely do the same for my kids.

Thank you. It is something that we came up with together. I have always liked cars, and even at times when i did not have a project I woudl talk about building this or that. Well the boys just learned to like them too, helping me do this or that to the family grocery getter or my projects. Then when my oldest at 12 started talking about he wanted a mustang when he turned 16 I told him to save his money and when he had enough we would buy a project and restore/modify it together so when he was old enough to, he would have the coolest car in the school. Well he went back and forth between th bronco and mustang, was actually looking for a bronco when his mustang fell into our lap.

My only rules are:

#1 - It's their car, it's their money. They get to chose what they want to do with it as long as it is safe and reliable
#2 - I do not turn a single wrench unless they are there with me. (this one is tough when the projects stall because of sports, school, girls etc....)
#3 - I can help pay but no more than 40%, the bulk of the money is theirs.

One nice thing, it makes Christmas and other gifts easy. Mustang needs paint - Ok, pick your color and lets get some, merry Christmas.

The whole is as you put it, learn that nothing gets done if you dont finish it. Hard work and effort are rewarded, There are ways to do this without spending a great deal of money (example - the Bronco needed tires pretty bad. 14 yr old spent 4 days scanning CL every spare moment and last night we picked up 5 good 31-10.50 tires and rims for $90 he wanted 33's but since he is not driving it, he decided he can hold off on that part of the cool factor until he gets his DL - Sorry older bro)

The boys are off school today so we are spending some time doing some minor projects on Andrew's "Little Pony". Gutted the interior to get a good look at the floors, the only bad rust spot is the driversider floor pan it will have to be replaced this spring. The only other disaster rust we have found is the door pillars.

We replaced the washer pump, painted (rattle can) some wheels we picked up on CL with decent tires.

I checked and the ball joints all look good. I think the track bar is a priority though.

Now we are putting her back together.

I need to clean the off the keyboard. That garage is huge! Why wait til spring on the floorboard? I know a crew of guys who'd love to hang out in that shop and knock that out in a day!

You need to let everyone know when those door posts are going to come out and get replaced. I know a few guys might be looking to doing the same thing in the future. Could be a good clinic!

So today Andrew came down to the shop to start making room for the frame/track bar repairs. You know, remove the fender, tire, shock and spring so we could cut away the damaged metal and start welding in new steel. Well things like this never go as well as Planned we discovered that somewhere along the line, someone had torn the inner fender and repaired it by welding the fender back together. Unfortunately, the y did not remove the fender and welded the inner to the outer along the top where they bolt together. I mean seriously folks, is it really that difficult to do things like this right?

We also learned that the inner fender has some of its own rust issues, I have seen worse but still...

good news was that the drivers side rocker s in pretty good shape.

Whacky idea here. What do you think about cutting out the entire back side of the door post there and welding in a panel, either removable with a set of bolts and nuts tacked on the inside, or on a hinge that can be opened? Purpose would be two fold. 1) When/if you remove and install doors would make lining them up a snap. Loosely tighten door hinge plates. Close doors. Align correctly. Tighten hinge plates fully. Close access panel. 2) The damn things always rust out anyhow. Might as well make a panel so you can clean all the garbage out every now and then.

I had rust in some of the same places. I made new panels for the the back of the Door Hinge Pillar and it turned out great. However, there is a reason they rust and Zack hit it on the head.

How do you like those seats??

Drew loves the seats and has installed the skid plates too. The y look great.

Yeah, I think repairing the door posts is something we need to do prior to installing the fenders again as well as any other rust damaged areas. I will think on the removabe options. Perhaps some sheet meyal screws....

The new door posts come coated inside and out and are really nice! I had the back plate for the door posts and they are raw metal and I can tell you that Just trying to get it separate from the door post was so much work that I replaced the entire door post.... I can show you pics of the door post and the back plate if you want.

Been a while so a few updates on Drew's little pony.

We have fabricated and installed a new track bar because the old one literally tore a gaping hole in the frame when it ripped off. Fabricated a new custom rear bumper and tire carrier (club build), installed new front springs, new to us roll cage, 33" tires, replaced the old fuel pump with an electric one and re-routed all the fuel lines away from heat sources and the biggie....

Installed a new wiring harness.

And a few pics that are long overdue as well...

More pics

Popped in the new motor yesterday thanks to several of the guys. discovered an issue with the steering box and probably a cracked frame (oh joy.... More frame repairs....) That Drew and I will tackle over the next few days then install the radiator, wire everything up and fire the beast up.

Thanks for all the help gents, it wouldn't be near as much fun without you!

Dude, I seriously hate it when I poop motors. They may have something over the counter to treat that.

I dunno. That seems like the sort of thing that could require surgical intervention.

If you decide to put new door posts in it, let me know I will come help.

On the MWFR Drew snapped some of the teeth off his spider gears while mashing the skinny pedal (I know - huge shock there - Right?) so with the help and guidance of Viperwolf and Kinder he got to learn how to replace and reinstall them. Thanks guys

Drew now has a stronger set of gears with a limited slip in the rear end.




Drew is not texting, he is actually researching on his phone while Kirk is showing him how to set up his gears...

Well folks, gone is the old grayishsilverycoperlike rattle can paint one of the PO's put on her. Now she is sportin a fresh coat of hunter green! And as long as Home Depot sells the paint, Drew can touch up any damage he does down the road.

Installed the hand me down stereo his brother gave him and painted the whole rig green. Not to bad, if you are going to skip the breakfast and an awesome wheeling trip - I suppose working on your kids bronco is a good enough excuse.

Oh yeah, and she got some new booties as well, but those you can see in the pics above.

Looking good!

LOVE the new color. Looks like a British Racing Green. As Eddie Murphy said on SNL "My name is not gum, my name is Gumby Dammit"