Ripped the flooring up

Nothing too amazing here, but progress is progress. My goal, now that the top is off, is to gut out the interior, see how bad the rust is, and clean it up a little. Down the road I'll address the floor and bed rust with steel reinforcement, patching, some replacement, etc.

As seen from the pics, the driver side floor panel is really (really) bad and will be replaced, but other than that, most of the flooring was pretty solid. There is significant rust around some joints and seems, which I knew when I bought it, and can reinforce later. So overall I was pleased with the condition, considering what I expected to find.

The passenger seat came out easily (other than some 3o year old bolts that I had trouble convincing to just "let go"... they had a good run, can't blame them for holding on) But the driver seat gave me more fits, and I was pretty dern tired at that point... I'll tackle that one again soon.



Yikes, that's a couple of stomps away from being a Fred Flinstone truck!


Near term goals:
Remove driver seat - get last bit of flooring up
Powerwash truck (interior/bed and underneath where there is lots of caked mud)
Replace air filter casing
Take out Catalytic Converter (pointless w/ smog pump out)
Plug smog pump ports in heads
Change out fluids, including plugging radiator hole with stop-leak (radiator, oil, etc)
Ongoing: continue sanding camo paint off

Finally got the Top Off!

After seemingly several hundred trips to Lowe's and a few days of stealing David from his family... we got the top off and hung up in the garage. The setup, using a boat winch to lift and chains to secure, was David's brainchild as that is what he did with his top as well.







I've also made some progress in sanding off the camo. The hood, grill, and drivers side fender ( to be replaced at some point ) are sanded.

There were other little improvements here and there... slowly but surely moving forward.

Just getting started

OK, so although I am a self-proclaimed geek when it comes to computers, I've never been a blogger, so bear with me.

So why start now? Well, I am finally getting to work on something I've been wanting to do for quite a few years now... restore an early model Bronco. Don't get me wrong, I am no car expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love learning new stuff, and I am quickly learning that I have a LOT to learn. Also, I'd love to eventually be able to take it out for a spin with my wife, Karen, on those awesome Spring, Summer, and Fall nights when it feels so great outside you never want to come inside. One of the great things about the early model bronco is that top comes off with just a few bolts.

So what am I working with? A 1976 rust bucket... seriously, and its painted quite a colorful camouflage; it's one of those where you really gotta look closely to see the potential! (Pics to come soon). But the good news is it does run, and I got it for a good price from a great guy in Virginia who had taken good care of it by not letting it get more rusted, keeping the stock parts in good condition, etc. The engine will need some work to be reliable, but it runs!

So now that you think I am out of my mind (may be right..) HOW am I going to pull this off? Well for starters, I have a great and patient wife who is letting me plow ahead and is at least (at times) pretending to be excited about it (she obviously likes fixer-uppers or she wouldn't have married me!). I also have a buddy, David Higgins, who has a '71 Bronco of his own and a heckuva lot more knowledge than I do about this... and he's helping quite a bit. That plus a couple Haynes manuals from my father-in-law and classicbroncos.com, which is a huge resource with tons of answers and forums, etc.

I wanted to be able to track my progress... and thus the blog, even if for no one else but me. I intend for this to be a long project over several years, just as much for the process as for the end goal. There will be lots of body restoration and engine restoration along the way, with the end goal being a nice red, white, and black beauty to tailgate with at Carter-Finley stadium. The football may not always be pretty, but the tailgating can always be fun! So, let the fun and frustration begin.