Added another Windsor to the Family!

A buddy and I drove out and picked this up on Friday. It's a 1985 Ford Bronco XLT with 351W, 4WD, auto, detachable camper, power locks, power windows, power steering, cold A/C, blazing heater, and tow hitch. It has 187k original miles with less than 10k miles on the motor. The motor was rebuilt at 180k miles with all new seals, gaskets, and bearings. The only issue with it really is that the electric choke doesn't work. Other than that, it's a stout truck. It came with a CB radio and radar detector. I only paid $1,250 for it.

Crappy cell phone pics...










...and the first mod. A Summit breather that was originally meant for the Mustang but wouldn't clear the distributor. Fits perfect on the Bronco.


As you can tell it has quite a bit of rust. I plan to take care of that this spring/summer and have it a solid truck before next winter. This is going to be used as a fun/tow/beater truck. It also has a small exhaust leak that I need to take care of. Other than that, I'm loving it so far. It has a 6" lift and 35" Mud Grapplers in it's future!

Its needs a Mustang body on it! lol

^LOL

Looks like you have a fun project. I still have some bronco parts left over from mudstang your welcome to have if you want them. I have a fiberglass top too.

I will definitely take you up on that. It does need some TLC. I already know I need a passenger side window motor and a tailgate (internal latch is broken).

I threw all that stuff away. Damn. Your about 2 months too late on the body parts except the top.

Ah, oh well. I'm actually putting a new dizzy, 9mm wires, new plugs, new carb, and fuel filter on it today. It has a spark issue that's preventing it from cranking and I can't narrow down the issue since it all appears fine. So I'm just jacking all the MSD stuff and the new Holly 600 off the fox and putting it on it. The Fox won't be ready to run again for a few months anyway.

RDY4WAR wrote:It has a spark issue that's preventing it from cranking and I can't narrow down the issue since it all appears fine. .

you mean spark issue from preventing it from starting?? cause cranking vs spark aren't related

I hope the previous owner doesnt consider a new air filter and shiny chrome, to be the "engine rebuild"

Simple ignition system in those trucks, seems like a ton of work to swap that stuff out when the issue might just be a bad ground.

The engine was rebuilt and he had receipts of the work done. It was just a general gasket, seal, and bearing replacement. None of the ignition nor carb were touched when the block was rebuilt though. The wires were old, the plugs were badly corroded, and the rotor was bad and barely connecting with the cap. It was actually only sparking on 5 wires. #3,7, and 2 weren't firing at all. I swapped the cap, wires, plugs, and rotor from the fox and presto. It's starting right up with ease and driving great.

The breather box I put on there cause the filter that it had on it when I bought it was in horrible shape. It looked as though it hadn't been changed in years. I had that chrome breather sitting around so I figured I'd put it to use.

I also changed the oil today as well and gave it a new fram filter. The oil didn't look too bad when it came out so at least that was maintained. The upper radiator hose and alternator belt were showing signs of dry rot and starting to crack so I replaced both of them today to prevent an incident in the future.

@ mjr: Yes, I meant a spark issue keeping it from starting. I was tired when I posted that. lol

The only thing to do now is replace the driver side headlamp and fix the exhaust leak. Then it'll be time to move on to the body panels and work on the rust.

Didn't Ford , like GM, build their trucks out of recycled rust back then (as with all early 80 Toyotas)? Get up dated on your tetnis shots.lol

Tetnis was good as of 2 months ago. I'm good to go! lol

Bryce, I understand that Fram oil filters are not good, might want to look into that.

I've never had an issue with them. I ran one of the Focus until this past fall when I switched to Mobil 1. Tom Kasper's 6 second Proline Outlaw 10.5 car uses a Fram oil filter.

Henny Penny wrote:Didn't Ford , like GM, build their trucks out of recycled rust back then (as with all early 80 Toyotas)? Get up dated on your tetnis shots.lol

That's an awesome yet true way of putting it. Lol.