1987


A little more recent, haha.


Hi all. I have a Stroppe, and I'm considering selling it instead of hauling it across the country when I move to Florida in early April. I bought it in Colorado Springs in 1987 when I was 18 years old and used it well as a fun toy.

There's some body wrinkles and rust in the usual places, but not severe. The interior is toast. Nuff said about that. It's been upside down, so you know what that means for the windshield frame, but I did a pretty nice job of pop-riveting the replacement on, if I do say so myself, and the hard top isn't original of course.

The 302 is disassembled. I don't know what happened to it. It ran great, but only had about 10 pounds of compression in the 8th cylindar. I tore it down to the short block with wild dreams about rebuilding it, and then we had a health issue that cropped up in the family that kept me from spending any more money on it. As a result, it's been sitting in my garage for the last 12 years collecting dust.

In short, this isn't a TV auction vehicle by any means, but of course a Stroppe is a rare beast and who knows if it might fetch a high price. I'm just looking for your input, (or outlandish offers, haha) on what you think I might be able to get for it if I decide to break my heart and let it go.

A barrage of support, telling me I'm an idiot for considering getting rid of it would be welcome too, if that's what you think. Thanks for chiming in.

Best regards,

Dan

Take this for what you will...

I have a 72 that went through Stroppe's shop before being sold sold. I'm pretty much convinced it is about as close to a Baja Stroppe as I am ever going to get. Prices on U13s, Stroppes, and other odd ducks are going through the roof ahead of regular Bronco prices.

If it's a truck that truly means a lot to you, and considering the history of it I think it might, add the nostalgia of a Stroppe to it and you've got a priceless vehicle. However, if the idea of seeing it brought back to its former glory appeals to you and maybe you think you're not quite the guy to pull off the job or simply have no interest in embarking on a 6-12 month journey to get there, perhaps selling is a better plan.

In either case, your first stop for a realistic assessment of its value as a Stroppe should be bajabronco.com. Andrew Norton is probably the smartest man living when it comes to the Stroppes. Additionally, he can give you a very good idea of what market value is for the truck, based on comparable recent sales. Hell, Andrew might even make an offer on it himself.

All of that being said, I would love to know what year it is and where you are located. I've only seen one other one in person, and the owners aren't exactly the type to allow me to crawl around inside and document details from the Stroppe builds.

Aka gave you the absolute truth. Andrew is a great guy. I've spoken to him a number of times and my brother in CA has met him. I texted him pictures of a bajabronco I saw being towed from here in evergreen and sure enough it was going to him. He would be the guy for sure to advise you. Peter

Thanks for the input. Andrew and I have emailed a couple of times a long time ago, and I added my ride to his registry about 15 years ago. I'll talk to him.

Frank, It's a '72 and I live in Loveland for a short while more. If you're nearby and would like to come take a look, I'm up for that.

I'm no where near Loveland but I will still make the drive to check it out. Next weekend would be my earliest opportunity.

I'm not sure if my pm to you made it through, Frank. It's still sitting in my outbox like it's a draft, but clicking to send it doesn't seem to do anything. Next weekend might work, but I'm not sure. I'll know more what our plan looks like later this week.

Indeed it did. And has been replied to.

Got it Frank. I'll try to make this weekend work.

For all, a little more history, just to bore you with the story. I tend to do that after a few beers...

I went to look at a few cars the day I bought it in 1987.

One was a '80 Ford pickup. It was bad to the bone and I would have loved to own it. I had the 4 grand he wanted, but told him I had a couple others to look at.

The next was a '68 Cougar. That -ass had made some cuts and crammed a 390 into it. Everything about it was perfect. The maroon paint was new, the headlight covers worked and everything, and it was so powerful it was ridiculous. I was completely in love. 3 grand was a steal, and I knew it. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing that I didn't buy it. I'd probably be dead now if I had.

I decided to buy it, and I headed back to the bank to get the money, but stopped off to look at a Bronco I saw in the Thrifty Nickel for $1500. The ad just said "1972 Bronco, no clutch, so can't test drive. As is". I'd seen it before in the local newspaper for twice that much months before that and didn't bother, but with the price dropping that much, I figured it was worth checking out.

I showed up and my first impression was: "Wow, what an ugly paint job". I had no idea what a Stroppe Bronco was, and he didn't tell me the story. He just said that it was a backup for his Baja 1000 runner, and it had done well for him when he needed it. He started the engine while I crawled around it. All the lines were straight, but the interior was in bad shape. I was under the front end when he had it warmed up a bit, jumped on the throttle and ran it up to the red line. It was smooth as silk. That was all it took. I hurried to the bank and called a tow company to come get it, hoping to heck nobody would swoop on it in the meantime.

Since then, it's been rolled, sunk in the Saint Vrain river, wedged between two trees so hard that I had to chop one down with a cub scout hatchet, and a bazillion other off-the-hook events, beating it up and scaring the crap out of my friends more times than I can count.

On one hand, I regret that it didn't end up in the hands of someone who saw it as a classic collector's item to be preserved, instead of in the hands of a teenager that just wanted a four-wheeler to have fun with, who never seemed to grow up from that mentality. On the other, I feel like it lived the life that Bill Stroppe and the visionaries at Ford that made this happen would have wanted, except for the last 12 years of collecting dust, of course.

Dan

I think Bill would have approved.