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A brief play by play of our experience with the old horse
As you can see from the first two pics below, this Bronco was more of an old nag when we got it.

The new wheels
This is what it looked like when we brought it home.
   Where do you begin?
Well since this vehicle was sitting for about 15 years, we figured the first thing was to see if it would run. First we pulled out all of the spark plugs, an poured about 2oz. of Marvel Mystery oil in each cylinder, and replaced the plugs. After that we waited about 1 week, before we started to turn the engine over by hand. We turned it about 1/4 turn, and then waited 2 days, then another 1/4 turn, then waited 2 more days, and so on until we completed 2 revolutions. During this time we pulled off the carb and rebuilt it. Upon trying to start it we found that the fuel pump was no good. Once we replaced it, it fired up right away. After burning off all the mystery oil, and giving it a tune up it runs very well.

Next on the agenda
Of course after all that sitting the brakes were pretty well frozen up. We replaced the wheel cylinders in the rear, the calipers in the front, the master cylinder, turned the drums and rotors, and of course replaced the shoes and pads. While doing this we noticed one of the rear leaf springs was broken, so we replaced both of them. That was not fun! Fortunately the drivetrain is pretty tight, so we just greased it up and changed the fluids. Pulled the front hubs apart and repacked the bearing and so forth. On to the body lift next, just a 2" lift to give it a little height, and extra tire clearance. This was not to tough to do, certainly easier than a suspension lift.

Now it's on to the body. The photos really don't show the extent of the rot. The first thing we did was remove the top. We then proceeded to hack away at the rot to get as much out as possible. Then replaced as much sheet metal as possible. We replaced all of the door hinge pins, as the doors were sagging badly. Next we covered the uneven seems with fiberglass cloth and resin, and finally a scim coat of bondo. Now it was time to cut out the wheel wells for the fender flairs. That being done, we were ready for paint, after which we put on the flairs, put the roof back on, and put on the 33" tires. Add some high back bucket seats, and oh yeah, the Hurst 3 speed floor shift, and we wound up with a pretty decent truck. It's not going to win any trophies, but it should get Ben around town just fine. All told we invested only about $ 2000.

Wild Horses

Some good links
These are links to a couple of the sites we used to get parts for Ben's truck.

BroncoGraveyard

A shot of the other side


It's almost there
This is it's present condition, a few nuts and bolts, a rear bumper and some windshield wipers, and it's at least road ready.