What to do with my Bronco II's?

[Mtrhd0024]

Alright, so I started this thread as sort of a discussion thread on what people think I should do with my Bronco II's. I'm very torn, so I'm looking for ideas. As long as its semi reasonable (I'm all for crazy, but "sell them both and save up to buy a new Ferrari" would NOT be a reasonable idea :hysterical: :bdent then its worth posting!

**Warning!** Knowing me, this will be a long post! Continue only if you like to read, cuz I write a LOT! upergrin:


Okay, so basically I'm just gonna tell ya'll where its at with my two trucks. Then I wanna hear your ideas, because I'm really confused as to what I should do. Normally I should do what I want to, but thats the problem, I have NO idea what I want to do, so I'm lookin for other opinions! :toothy12:

I have a 1989 Bronco II XLT in semi rough condition, and a 1990 Bronco II Eddie Bauer Edition in very nice condition.

Pics if you haven't seen them in my other thread:
1990 Eddie Bauer:




1989 XLT:




And being towed by my 90:


The 1990 Bronco II was bought in 1991 by my grandfather with about 20k miles on it. As the story goes, some college chick bought the car new, and her mother hated her having it because she couldn't get in and out of the car in a skirt without being indecent! :hysterical:

So anyway, my grandfather bought the car to use in the woods of Montgomery County NC, and that's how its been used ever since. He has spent unbelievable amounts of money over the years keeping this car in good shape. He's not very mechanically inclined, but he's VERY good about having the car serviced and maintained correctly. He has a little log book in the glove box which he has kept since 1991, and he logs the mileage every time he drives the car. It now has 180,??? miles on it, and everything from 20k-180k has been recorded in that little book. Every oil change, tire change, problem, puncture and squeak got put in that little book. Now I would never have the patience to do something like that BUT i think its pretty cool because now I know everything that's happened to it since he bought it!

Everything in it works, down to the power lumbar support in the front seats. The air conditioning has been replaced at least 2x by the local Ford dealership, as my grandfather can't put up with the heat during the summer anymore.

The only thing that he hasn't managed to fix is there is a leak somewhere in one of the window seals. The water was appearing at each corner of the windscreen, but he had it pulled out (they broke it and he had to get a replacement during that process) and it still didn't fix the problem. I spent a couple hours on the inside pulling the headliner out of the thing and then used a hose to discover that its leaking slightly at the top corner of at least the left side rear window, and then the car sits on a slight slope, so I think its draining down to the corners where it leaks out next to the windscreen. That's still yet to be fixed. The other thing is that the I believe the rear drive-shaft is probably on its way out. It has the original (to my knowledge) CV joint drive-shaft, and it knocks real bad under hard acceleration or when the engine is lugging. Other than those two problems, its a pretty clean machine. A good day of work and they'll be straightened out as well.

This car has a little bit of sentimental value because my grandfather gave it to me of course, and I have many many great memories of he and I in the woods together with that thing. He taught me to drive a 5 speed using it when I was about 11-12 out in the woods on some property he owns, and every time we would go to the woods that was the car we used. As far back as my memory goes, that's the car he's had, so I'm quite pleased to own it now! :beer:

As far as the 1989 goes, I bought that off a friend of mine for $200. He told me it was the alternator that was gone on it, and his parents got him another car because this one was "becoming unreliable". He was gonna scrap it so i said heck I'll buy that for parts! The car was stuck on the side of the road locally, so we drove out to get it after I'd bought it to tow it back to his with my Bronco. (it has a tow bar on the front from its first owners) I got out there, popped the hood, and the alternator wasn't done, it just needed a BELT! :hysterical: At this point he really didn't care, he had a new car and I gave him more than the junkyard was giving him for it, plus we were good friends so it was mine for $200! I bought a few new belts at Advance Auto the next day (wanted to change the belts on mine too) and in about 20 minutes I had the thing up and running like nothing had ever happened! :hysterical:

So anyway, this truck isn't so mint. The paint is rougher than it looks in the pictures, one of the front locking hubs (manual one) is broken so its only 3wd when 4x4 is engaged :bdent: (if even that, cuz it the diff likes to unload into the unlocked hub :toothy12 the electric windows stick if you roll them all the way into the door :banghead: the radio is smashed, the turn signals occasionally have a mind of their own, there's some pretty nasty damage to the left rear side panel and the rear hatch, the latch handle on the rear hatch likes to come off in your hand, the air conditioning doesn't work, and who knows what else is wrong with it! (haven't had time to check it out yet) Its also an automatic which I don't really like. I love being able to shift, and having the use of a clutch off road really helps control. Another disadvantage that this one has is that its only got a dana 28 as opposed to a dana 35 which my 90 came with standard.

The 90 will likely always be either a daily driver or something to kind of show off a bit. I don't want to go bashing it into tree's and such, but the kind of off-roading I tend to do doesn't usually involve that. It does see a lot of off-road use, but it tends to be more light duty trails and I also enjoy mudding and raking the car around fields upergrin: I know i know... I'm a big kid! upergrin:

If I was to do something to the Eddie Bauer, it would be along the lines of this:

I would probably just powdercoat one set of the standard "bullet hole" type wheels I have some sort of gloss black. I also want a front and rear tube bumper and tire carrier, and a "safari" type roof rack for holding a high lift jack, etc, and I can also mount spots to it. I'd probably custom fab that stuff myself to get exactly what I wanted.

I would also like either a 4.0 or a 5.0 in the thing. I've already got a 5.0 sittin at the house waiting to go in something, so that would be an option.

I also like this as another good example of an Eddie Bauer BII:


My thoughts regarding the 89 were to do a kind of retro bronco II to look like one of the original big bronco's. Only problem with this is that the gen 1 Bronco II's are generally better suited for this because of their front end style. (anybody wanna swap? upergrin The plan would be to chop the top since the body ain't great anyway, and then mold ranger bed tops into the back cut off area so its a real clean looking conversion. Then I'd convert to round headlights for the "retro" look, strip all the carpeting and interior out, and fab up a simple, old timey looking dash. If I had a gen 1, the dash in it would probably do for the look I'd be trying to achieve.

It would be something like this:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2065446/3

With headlights like this:


I could also just chop the top, strip it all out, and run it as a beater. Either that or sell it/part it out and use that money to fund my Eddie Bauer. Selling the Eddie Bauer is not an option though. To attached to that car as I mentioned above.

So anyway, i could go on, but I've already rambled WAY too much, so shout some ideas! Lemmie know what you think I should do! :xyxthumbs: