I have not forgotten about Bronco #3. Between work, Birthdays, Three Broncos , and getting ready to go hunting its just been slow. I have continued to gather parts and most recently ordered the necessary ford motorsport 351w dual sump oil pan. I actually found it on Amazon with free shipping for about $60 less than the vendors sell it. I won't be needing it for a while so it will be going under the christmas tree for the boy. I just didn't want to pass up on the deal when i found it.

You know you are a great parent when your kids are getting oil pans for Christmas !

Bronco parts make great presents, last year Willem's twin sticks were his stocking stuffer.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, I have had 3 people make unsolicited offers on this Bronco. The first one was an older man who wanted to do a full restoration on it. We had agreed on a price and he was going to come back and we would make the deal in a few months. It was going to take some time because he lived in South Dakota. Anyway he ended up having to back out of the deal due to some financial issues. It didn't hurt my feelings because I'm not sure I really wanted to sell it anyway. So, jump ahead a year and a half and he calls me again yesterday. He Wanted to know if I still had the Bronco. I told him I still had it but that my son had claimed it so it was no longer for sale. I think that once he was ready to buy again he found that the prices have gone up. He told me he has not been able to find any Bronco in his area that moves under its own power for under $5000.

The boy and I had a long pause with this project due primarily to the house remodel that consumed me for the last year. I wanted to wait for the new garage to get started but the boy has been on me about it so we dug in today. We first had to unload the pile of parts that we were keeping inside and then we removed 20+ years of ghetto fab repair work. Including aluminum panels that covered rust in the tailgate and rockers, lots of patio style outdoor carpet, 3 sets of seat covers , plywood interior panels, lots of house insulation, and the innovative use of expanding construction foam to fill the rust holes in the floor pans.


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A few pics of the boy moving the bronco into the driveway for deconstruction.


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The plan is to donate the EFI 351w, Dana20, and viper built C4 from my 74 Bronco along with my BC 2 into 1 exhaust.

That leaves a bunch of other stuff in the "needed" column. I'm going to start a list here in case anyone wants to contribute stuff they want to get rid of or if you have parts for sale.

-Floor pans
-Lower Tailgate patch panel
-Uncut rear quarters ( going LUBER)
-auto steering column (tilt if possible)
-Chevy disc rotors and soft brake lines.
-soft top
-3 1/2 rear springs
- inner fenders/ kick panels.( might just patch this)
-some sort steering wheel replacement.

Probably a million other things but that's what comes to mind right now.


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I have a steering wheel I'll give you. Plain black Grant, 17" I think, maybe the hub adapter.

I threw a 79 Bronco tilt steering column into our scrap metal pile at work. Its covered with snow & ice, and due to the low scrap value the pile is huge, since no one wants to haul it off. If you haven't found one before the snow melts, I'll do what I can to find it. Its at the bottom of the pile.

If my Tahoe spring experiment works, I'll sell my WH 11 leaf 3.5" springs. But it will be a while before I'm sure.

Cool, I'll see when I can get to it. I think it still had the 79 Bronco wheel on it.

Grant steering wheel, complete with black horn button & hub assembly.

Thanks gunni , If you found the 66 grill photos you mentioned, i would like to see them. hoseofjohnson@mac.com is my email.

I will have my leaf springs within the next 6 weeks available. Let me know if you'd be interested in them.

Ok Jeremy - I am only going to mention this once because the good absolutely outweighs the bad, but absolutely think through what you are starting here.

Before you get your sons into cars/trucks and project vehicles, carefully consider how much you enjoy knowing where your tools, parts, supplies etc are. Consider how much you enjoy working on, and building your own stuff. Think carefully about how much this hobby costs you for your own projects then consider double and triple the expenses - both in money and TIME.

Yes - you will lose tools
Yes - your parts and materials and supplies will just magically be absorbed into your sons project (and their friends projects). You thought you left the welder full of gas, you are sure you filled it just last week, but wait.... didnt your son just have to weld up a bracket for his buddies off road lights... and the tank was left open..... (yes it happend) of course they will deny it.

Now think about getting your sons into Soccer, Fishing, Academics, Volunteering, g....

But as I said, the good far outweighs the bad. You will get to spend countless hours in the garage turning wrenches on his rig WITH HIM. This is time you get to spend hearing him talk about his stuff. Giving advice that he does not realize you are giving. No need to lecture, just talk. Find out who is hanging out with who, and which of his friends are good guys and which you want to watch out for. You will have those good guys hanging out in the garage too. You will watch him grow, mature, get stronger and more determined to complete his projects. Let him lead the way - with your guidance of course (no 9" lifts with 44's and the like) but if he wants to put dual shocks on her - let him. If he wants to paint it with rattle can paint, let him. You determine if it is safe and reasonable. Beyond this, let him lead. You might be surprised at how reasonable a teenager can be.

Never work on it without him. Ever. If he wants to get it done - then he needs to work on it too. If he is busy with school, homework or just catching up on the latest Hannah Montana episode - this is time you get to work on your stuff for a change - if you can find your tools. Just do not do it for him.

Have us come up to help, at times he will listen to us when he will not listen to you. Even though we are saying the same thing you are. Remember - really soon you are going to become the dumbest person alive in his mind - (come on, we all felt that way about our parents for a while didn't we?) Don't worry, that seems to change not long after the time they move out on their own and now they need advice.

Make sure he has some skin in the game, he needs to pay for some of the parts and supplies too. Son - you want a winch on it, well then you need to buy the winch and the bumper and the mounts (ok - Santa can help some)

Teach him wiring and connections please!!!! (if you doubt this, just take a look at the thread on Drew's bronco - oh and W's too) And make sure he understands why this is important.

And then truly enjoy spending time wrenching with your son. I still do.

Driving home from work this evening, I was thinking about the joys of cutting , grinding and welding in floor pans when i remembered that the previous owner of this Bronco had sprayed and brushed on some seriously thick undercoating in an attempt to slow the rust and seal up holes in the floor pans. Whatever he used appears to be asphalt based and also has a protective shell of grease from the driveline and red clay. some of this floorpan mummification seems to be dried out and scrapes off with relative ease but other areas are really fused on. Clearly, welding and this undercoating are not going to be a good mix. Any suggestions for removal? I think cold weather will be my friend when it comes to removal with a putty knife. Other than that, I could go with a solvent of some sort but I would guess that process would take a Very Long Time.

Portable media blaster.

air chisel

Needler worked on mine along with a putty knife

Chill it with dry ice, then air chisel or needler.

Ohhhhh, didn't think about the needler! Not sure my tired compressor is up to task but it's worth a try.


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I used my 110 compressor. Worked pretty well. But took mecawhile

Dry ice blasting?

Gus and I decided to get started on the tailgate today. A little more rust deterioration inside than we would have liked but nothing we can't patch together.


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Nice, iam about to dive into the exact same issue....

What would be the best way to remove the surface rust inside the open cavity? Blasting it would be ideal but maybe overkill. It's a pain to get in there with a wheel and most chemicals don't do much good I'm my experience. The metal is still solid but It's got some heavy scale in there. I don't want to weld it in and forget about it either.


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There are some products that are supposed to stop rust. Perhaps flake out what you can with a wire brush and treat it to stop rusting. Also, what is the cause of this rust? Would a drain hole in the bottom stop this?