Hello Everyone,
My name is Steve and I live up in the Frederick/Firestone area and here's my story:
We moved the family from AZ to CO about 16 years for my job and about 6 years ago I decided to get rid of my 72 C-10 and YZ426 and try my hand at this 4x4 thing so after doing a lot of research I bought a stock 87XJ since it was considered to be an entry level rig and began to build it in the garage for the next 2 years,1997-4.0HO , 4.5 BDS LA, 35's on 30/44 4:88 locked front and back, full cage yada yada.
I was amazed at the placed and scenery it was able to take us and was completely happy with the rig and told the wife I was done with the projects.
Here's were the story gets good, about 2 months ago a co-worker approached me knowing that I'm into 4x4 and asked me if I might know of anyone interested in a 75 bronco, he is getting ready to retire in the next several years and is clearing out the family cabin and needed to sell it.
He didn't have any pictures at the time but was heading up to close the cabin for the winter the following week and told him that I might be interested if I could afford it. The following week he showed me several pictures, its has a 302, 3speed and I was hooked!! several day's passed and then we came to a price and shook hands and now I must wait until they reopen the cabin in the spring, which is actually ok since I needed to sell 2XJ's and get rid of many extra parts that I no longer will be needing.
Next came the tough part as I needed to tell the wife that I was going to sell the Jeep's and start another project, I waited another several weeks before I mustarded up the courage but all is good I think?
I stumbled across this site and was going to wait until I have the Bronco in my possession but It's killing me not being able to see pictures of everyone's rigs and mods lol

Very nice. Looks like a Denver Bronco.

Welcome to the group & your new obsession

Welcome to the group! Looks like a good start.

Nice find. Thanks for joining up. If you hang around here too much, you'll have a solid list of upgrades planned before you even get your hands on it!

Thanks everyone! I'm hoping it looks as good in person which I'm pretty sure is the case since it was his dads and only used as a cabin veichle with low mileage and did I mention he also has a complete 75- 351w that's included.
Your absolutely right on the upgrades I already have a 76-150 hp44 with a 31 spline 9" that's was intended for the XJ thank goodness I didn't waste it on THAT. For now I'm thinking of just linking it,converting to AT, EFI on 35's with little lift to get me started and I'll bend up a cage. That should quickly blow through the money that I got for the 2 XJ's

Where in the mountains is it? Lets go get it!

Welcome to the club! There is certainly a little rarity with a true Denver Bronco edition, but I don't know the details. There are guys on here who do. So then it's a tricky decision to bring it back to it's former glory or mod it for offroad?? Take a look on ebay for Bronco survivors and you can see why they are so attractive. Does it have cut rear fenders?

We'd be happy to offer any advice and experience and you'll find this is a great group of guys here.

You also do some amazing work! I love what you've done with that XJ. Your tailgate with the frenched in spare tire looks great! You will LOVE working with something that has a real frame!

Thanks, I'm super excited about getting this rig home and more shocked at how much these things can cost, I had no problems cutting and welding sheet metal on the XJ which was probably good practice for this build. I have no intention on restoring it so I hope I don't offend anyone once I start chopping it up lol. I did everything on the XJ myself although there is tons of internet howto vs. Bronco stuff which is why I'm glad to find the CCB and tap into everyone's knowledge and contribute where I can.

My coworker already knows that if he every has reason to return to the cabin this winter I will gladly chauffer him up there no questions asked.
For now I'm enjoying reading all the threads although work is suffering.

Here is a pic of the rear it has been cut?

The last Denver edition I saw sold for in the neighborhood of 25k, in unrestored condition. And that truck was no where near as original as yours is. It's your truck, or will be yours soon, so you can do with it as you see fit. Just know that if you paid anything less than 25k, you're throwing money away by chopping this one and going rock crawler with it.

That's , I didn't pay anywhere near that.
I told my co-worker that if I could afford it I would make it my personal rig and would not resell it and he make me a "good guy" deal. I do like the color and will probably not repaint it and may just shoot some clearcoat over it. What sold me on it was the idea of a V-8 no emissions and along with a removable hard top not to mention the cool factor that's a OG BRONCO !

As Frank said, you may be onto something here that is quite special. I cut my first bronco up, but it was rusted like and it was only a sport package. But if this one is clean, I do hope you consider keeping it the way it is. I also understand that you want an offroad rig and I would bet that you could sell this one to someone who will bring it to it's former glory for enough to fund a more common bronco and a LOT of mods... I would think your friend would understand. They don't make these anymore.

BTW - it has been cut, but there are special editions like this that were cut at the dealer. I don't know enough about the Denver package to know. This is an uncut EB:



Ultimately, it is your bronco and we will help you thru the transformation either way you decide.

If I had to guess I would say most of the Denvers were cut at the dealer prior to being put on the lot. I've only seen one other uncut one. The fact that this is also a three speed is unusual for a Denver.

Finally, the front grill is a little weird for a Denver AND a Sport as it doesn't feature the typical argent grey/silver with sport trim surround. Plus the FORD lettering is not the typical bolt on.

Steve, when you start modding this thing, I'd be interested in buying some pieces off of it, if plans call for removing them.

Thanks for the info, I defiantly don't want to do something to the bronco I would regret. So before I do anything I'll will make sure to invite any CCB members over to check it out and get as much Insider info as possible.

Welcome to the group and obsession!! Definitely a lot of knowledge in this group to go around.

"Defiantly" from your last post must have been a Freudian slip!

Thanks ECK " defiantly" lol darn autocorrect. I sure my eyes are glossing over trying to read all the CCB threads from the begin to catch up to everyone. Just saw your pics on Chinaman there very cool nice rigs !

Before I even thought about getting this rig I made a spread sheet of Pro's and Con's and one of the line items was production number
1987 XJ 139,295
1975 Bronco 13,125

Thanks for pointing out the possibility of the bronco being a " Bronco Edition" I'm a complete newbie to the Bronco and just read an article and well if this thing really is one it looks like there may have been less than 100 made? can some one confirm. If this is true I may have some second thoughts on cutting it up

Thanks for the update Frank.

If I had to guess I would say most of the Denvers were cut at the dealer prior to being put on the lot. I've only seen one other uncut one. The fact that this is also a three speed is unusual for a Denver.

Here is something I found on the internet regarding the 3-speed, Go figure I want a AT and got one of the 77 made.lol

Golden Ford in Golden, Colo., purchased the lot of them, painted the roofs Grabber Blue, added white fender flares, and marketed them as Denver Broncos Specials, creating one of the rarest breeds of the SUV.

According to a Ford archivist, there were 138 Sport Package and 76 Ranger Package Broncos that were given the “Orange Crush” tribute treatment. All were equipped with the 1975 model’s standard 302 V8, and just 77 of them were delivered with a 3-speed manual transmission.

Not sure if you have checked this out: http://www.stratadrome.com/bronco/

Take a serious look around before you cut that one up.
You may be able to sell that for enough to buy a decent project Bronco and all the parts to finish it.

Look for some numbers hand-painted on the top edge of the radiator core support. I've seen those on 2 other original paint Denvers.

Well I hope to change my status to "CCB MEMBER" shortly, it only took nine months but I was finally able to pick up my 75 Bronco, I purchased it site unseen only some photos but I was not disappointed she's a beauty!!! Let the games begin.

Congrats and welcome. Is it running? Where did you pick it up from?


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Thanks, it ran when it was parked like 10yrs ago it has 113K on the motor and the family gave me a complete 351W that there father never got around to installing. He worked as a painter back in the day for both Ford and Chevy.
Picked it up in the Canyon City area were its been in there cabin garage since 1979.

Wow what a find! Excited to see this transform.

Really nice find! We need more pics. Congrats!

Thanks everyone, will get more photos up once I get the garage/bronco cleaned up and reorganized

Awesome...AWESOME find!!!!
You have got to order a Marti report for that thing! Like akaFC said, It's probably a pretty rare bird!
Congrats and welcome!

DO NOT CUT IT UP!