Long story short - future FIL has an early 70's bronco thats sat out behind his shop for the better part of a decade. He says its mine if i want it. As you could imagine after being in the elements for that long its pretty rough. I'm struggling with whether to take on this project or not. We could do a pretty good part of the mechanical piece but the body work is probably largely beyond us. Im not wanting a show quality car, more of a weekend/beach cruiser. Apologies if this is a common topic on this board but wanted to get some thoughts from you guys as I have no idea what ballpark($) we are looking at here for a restoration. Any thoughts are appreciated.

The condition of the body (tub) will really determine how much of a money pit the truck could be. Luckily, they do make new tubs for the low price of ~10k! I wouldn't bother messing with a rusted tub.

Early Broncos are sweet. And restored ones go for quite a bit. Nice Broncos are highly desirable. I'd fix the truck up as best as you can. It will be well worth it.

The body work is really where im struggling. Were talking serious rust on the floors, enough to where there are holes in it.

I have owned quite a few Early Broncos and rust is a major issue with them, that being said there are typical places that rust that are not major. Can you get some pics to post up? Where are you located? I am always willing to help asses if your interested. I currently have a 1967 with a 4BT in it and have a 1969 that we are getting ready to do a frame off restoration on for my son....it will be a multi year build.

Also if your interested there are a few places that make fiberglass bodies for them, you can also get any panel that needs to be replaced aftermarket as well.

I've got two pics i can email. Im in Houston, right now the Bronco is out west of town.

I have a similar project right now. Body has some bad rust but it is solid in the important places like where it attaches to the frame. It runs reliably & will soon have working brakes. Once I get the lights working properly its getting tags & will live at the beach. Not too worried about making the body perfect since it will be a beach cruiser.

Lot of money to spend to have a less cool CJ7.

Seriously though they are awesome.

It would be easy to pass 10k if you pay a shop to do the rust repair and get the body ready for paint. Almost all of the cost will be in labor...so if you're handy or want to learn, and have a lot of free time, you could conceivably fix it up for far less money with some sheet metal tools and a welder.

At the last Barrett Jackson auction I saw an early K-5 Blazer sell for $200k. It didn't look remarkable at all...just a well done restoration with a modern drivetrain. Prices are getting stupid! 1st Gen Broncos are right there too, so it might be worthy of your effort. 10 years ago I wouldn't have thought that.

http://dennis-carpenter.com/BroncoBodyTub.aspx

Future FIL will be ex-FIL.....

I SAY NO.

Do It and post a build thread here!

Are there any pics out there of that K5? I'd be interested to see how it looks to get some ideas.

So did you buy it?!

I'm currently in the middle of a rebuild on a '67 Bronco. A first gen Bronco has been on my wish list for a long time and I found one with the right price. In terms of whether or not it can be a money pit, it certainly can, but a lot of that is up to you. If you have the time to put into it, or do research for people that will work on it, you can keep some of your costs down. Also, if you're looking for every custom bell and whistle for it, it's going to get expensive. Having said that, Bloomberg just did an article in January saying to buy the Broncos now before they hit $100k.

Vintage Ford Broncos

I say go for it. Mine has been a lot more fun to go through than I thought. It has taken significantly longer than I thought too, but I don't need it to be done tomorrow.

This is it the day I bought it.


Here's the most recent photo I have of it from January.


As of today, all of the exterior is finished except for driver side door. The body is primed and once the door is done, it will get painted. Then we'll start on the interior.

Update: Project is on hold while were buying a house. Priorities i guess....

Looks good. When I was growing up I helped my dad restore our first bronco. It was camo from the deer lease to start off with just like yours.

It's all part of the plan, buy a house, get a garage, have a place to work on the bronco.