1974 Ford Bronco

SUV

8 - Cyl.

Automatic

Gasoline

**Requested pictures have been added to Picasa. No reserve. I'm here to sell, not screw around. Bid and we're done unless someone local makes a full price offer. This auction is for a 1974 Ford Bronco. I bought this truck in October, 2009 with the expectation that I would be buried in it someday. Then the wife got pregnant and I lost the debate over whether I can put a baby seat in the back. So she's up for sale. I bought this truck because I needed something to handle the hurricanes (we were stranded during Ike), but that takes a back seat to the baby. This truck has been a daily driver to work for 8 months now, so she can do nasty downtown traffic without a hiccup. This truck has never over heated since I've owned it (and I don't know of any problems before that). Title is clean and truck is currently registered and insured. The odometer currently stands at 2494. It has rolled over since I've owned it, but I don't know if there was a roll before that. ***Stuff added due to questions I'd also like to take the opportunity to say that since I've owned it, she's only taken premium gas. I've never put anything else in the tanks. Also, I don't have the key for the lock on the back window. I have the key for the center console and a key for the door locks around the car, but not that one. It didn't come with it and I never bothered. All the stuff that I "never bothered" or "didn't care" about was because I never expected to sell this truck. It was going with me to a nursing home in 75 years. Then the wife got pregnant and suddenly this stuff matters. All of these things CAN be fixed, I just didn't care when it was mine forever to be worked on. I was also asked why I'm looking for $9,000-ish. I'll explain my thinking. I watched the Bronco market on craigslist, ebay, and about 5 other car websites for six months before I ever put in an offer or bid because I wanted to see exactly what the market was and how it moved. I came to the conclusion that the $0-$3000 market was a complete dump. Not running, rusted completely through, AND major issues throughout was the rule. From $3k-$7k, I saw significant rust that required full off body restoration to fix, significant mechanical damage (though it may run), significant missing or damaged parts (no seats, crappy top, etc.). Most of those were trucks used to hunt deer and you know they were run into the ground. From $7k to $11k-ish, I saw usually working mechanical parts with less than $2k needed to bring it up to full speed (ie daily driver worthy), and some rust or external damage but nothing out of control. From $11k-$18k, I saw nearly complete restoration jobs of varying degrees, not perfect, but getting there. Good mechanics, perhaps minor issues. Then you have the $18k-$50k market. Expect complete mechanical order with upgrades, complete inside and out restoration, usually some really ostentatious and obnoxious stuff that push the "value" (if you value such things) astronomically higher. The problem I saw with the $11k and up market was that the restoration was usually not one I was interested in. I mean really, I DON'T WANT POWDER BLUE on anything except my wife's dress patterns. So I decided that I would go into the $7k-$11k market. I wanted something solid under me, but if I was gonna drop the coin necessary to really get a Bronco the way I wanted it, I was going to have to do it myself. The Broncos I saw at $17k were nice, but you know you can't trust a seller to give you every single piece of information and if they're holding back (and I assumed they all were), you were coming out of pocket anyway. I could buy for 7k-11k, drop 6k-10k on a restoration (which buys a hell of a lot of restoration), and know EXACTLY what I've got, removing the doubt of dropping $17,500 and hoping that used car salesman is telling most of the truth on a car he's owned for a week and has no history on. My baby's not perfect. If she was, we'd be talking about $17-$20k. My plan was always to spend that much, but start from scratch and KNOW it's good rather than hope it's good. That's what you're buying if you're in on this auction. She's a daily driver. The guts are there. The add ons that'll nickel and dime you for a thousand here and there (hard top, soft top, nice tires and rims, hidden engine troubles, etc.) are already here and work well. The video is there to see below. Maybe I'm hurting my case for this truck by going a little too much information here. But the way I saw it, if there was a paragraph of description on a truck for $8k, something was wrong. If a guy said his $9k truck was great and had no issues, he was lying. That's just how I see it. ***Back to the original description What's to love: 4WD works great. Power steering. Engine had top end rebuilt by previous owner (and I had it verified by two different mechanic shops). Rebuilt carburetor as of June 2010 (a month ago). Engine runs like a dream. Transmission is clean, shifts easily through gears. Hard top is mostly clean, has a few rust spots on the inside roof but would take very little to perfect. Soft top is in perfect condition. I've never used it. Instructions from original manufacturer come with the truck. Tires are big, knobby, and fun. A slight lift, not enough to be that ridiculous guy but just right. Radio is not in the dash. I liked that because I didn't want to get broken into when I parked downtown and never was. Locking center console with CD player inside (and it works great). If you like red, you'll love this truck. I always meant to paint it but it kind of grew on me. The seats are beautifully done. If you like the retro look, the seats will be one of your favorite parts. She starts with one pump of the gas, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. The radiator is an absolute beast. Rock solid, that temp gauge never moves an inch once it warms up and gets to running temperature, even at 70 mph on the freeway for hours. It's a manual choke. That means if you don't pull the choke on first key turn or pump the gas more than once, she'll flood out. In reality, it means this truck CANNOT be stolen because no idiot thief will have a clue. Rims look great. She's done snow. Heck yea it was fun. Flood lights on the front work great. A couple of 6x9 speakers in the back sound good. You won't mistake it for a 7.1 setup, but it blasts Stairway to Heaven just fine. Dual gas tanks. Both work fine. Gauge reads both fine. Selector switch works fine. Windshield wiper motor is fine. What's to hate: Antenna is broken. I have the replacement with instructions but haven't installed it. Replacement and instructions come with the truck. The rim on the spare time looks to have rust on it. I am unsure about whether it is road worthy. The left and right signals have gone out in the last three weeks. The left one went out, then the right one went out about a week later. I have no idea why. The backup lights have never worked to my knowledge. The brake lights, head lights, and flood lights work fine. The rear passenger side panel has a bubble in the paint (that might be rust underneath) about the size of an index card. It was on the list of things to do. Since I've never used the soft top, I'm not 100% on the hardware. The supports are all there, the top itself is all there. The screws are in the glove box but I can't vouch that every single piece is there. The owner I bought from had the soft top on it. I made him take it off, put it inside the truck, and put the hard top on so I could get it shipped to Texas. The tow hitch looks crusty as heck. I never used it and I ain't vouchin for it. I WOULD use it if I needed to, but I'm trying to be as honest as possible here about all the little things. What's to love AND hate: The brakes are unassisted drums. They scared the bejesus out of my wife because she felt like she didn't have the leg to stop the truck. It took me about a week to get used to em. I was so nervous about them that I took the truck to a lot and smashed the brakes just to get a feel for the stopping power. You won't stop like power, but the truck stops if it needs to. It was one of those things that grew on me and now I like the brake mash. I'm sure it's one of the reasons my wife never loved the truck like I do. I would also point out that in 8 months of traffic daily driving (and all of the jerks that cut you off every single day), I NEVER ONCE had to bail out of a lane left or right because the brakes weren't there for me. You'll hate em, you'll be ok with em, and then you won't notice em, like every other car you've ever driven. In April the bearings were repacked and the drums completely cleaned up. I have the receipts in the Picasa picture gallery I'll link to below. Everyone will ask about it. If you like lookers, you'll love it. If not, you'll get tired of explaining that it's not a Jeep. I've got a standing offer from a coworker for more than this auction is starting at, but I don't want to sell to him because I don't want to have to see my baby at work every day after I sell her. So that's that. Good luck on winning. This truck's a damned beautiful thing with a beautiful purr. If you know what these are worth, you know my buy it now is reasonable. A truck just like mine went for $9,100 last week. I think it's reasonable to buy it now for $9k rather than chance it going over that later, but that's just me. Getting the buy it now gets my wife happy, so I'm willing to eat a little of what I think it would get to get it done sooner. Here's the link to that truck: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330445187045&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT More pictures (including receipts for work done): http://picasaweb.google.com/rdeluccio/Bronco# Video of this truck starting up (notice me pull the manual choke): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmo_IpFxtus Video of the truck going for a quick spin. 5 minutes long, all gears gone through, opening up the throttle, etc.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euoN2G9EQHk ***Note about 5 minute video: most of the vibration you're hearing is from the arms that hold up the rear glass window not being connected, so they bounce. I didn't put the bolts in because I didn't care. ***Sorry about the quality and shakiness, it's a video from a phone. Best conversation I ever had about it, at a drive through fast food joint. For back story, I'm younger than the truck. Kid was probably 16. Drive thru kid: Nice Jeep Me: Thanks. It's a Bronco Drive thru kid: Oh, what year is it? Me: 1974 Drive thru kid: Oh, it's older than I am. Me: Yea. Me too. Shipping note: I paid $325 to have this truck shipped from Omaha, NE to Houston on a car carrier. It was 911 miles. You'll end up dealing with brokers. It works like this. They quote you, then they put up a bid on a central clearing board. The difference of what they quote and what they bid to shippers is their profit. I was quoted anywhere from $500-$1000 but I called a bunch of shippers and hard balled the heck out of em. I told one broker that they could put up a bid for me at $450. Then I called another broker and told em to do better. They looked up the original broker's bid and saw it was for $200 (so they were making $250 on me). The 2nd broker said no shipper would do it at that price and agreed to put up a bid for $275 and quote me $325 (more money for shipper means better chance someone would do it. We got a shipper same day. Broker made $50 for 10 minutes of work and I got a much better price than the average quote. Just want to put that out there on how I did it in the hopes it might give an idea of what charges would look like.