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I bought an 87 FSB back in September. It's a 4.9 six with manual tranny. It has a little rust in the bottom tailgate and one small hole on driver side very back section. Other than a quick drive most every weekend, I don't drive it as all...heater core bypassed and it's been too cold to work on it. With the warm weather we had last weekend, I decided it was time to start fixing her up....had new exhaust installed Friday, pulled the vinyl up and Rhino lined to interior flooring on Sat and Sun. Also sanded/primered the hood to get her ready for paint. Here's my issue: I know someone with a '93 for sale at a good price, V8 with power options. Only problem is rusted fenders. Paint looks pretty decent otherwise. Should I buy his and sell mine? I've seen the fender panels on Bronco Grave Yard for $35/ea. How much cost is involved in cutting old out and welding new in? I'm just thinking long term. Any advice from you guys would be most appreciated!
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with the work already started I would keep te 87, but of course being a chevy guy I don't know much about the differences in these ferds... I am currently finishing the whole "quarter panel replacement and painting" thing for my neighbor and, depending on the body and how much bondo you're using I would say the prices are going to start around $500 without paint if you are having someone else do it...
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Tough call, realy comes down to what you want to do with the bronco? You wont find a tougher engine than the 4.9. Plus the rust wont stop at the fenders, if thats the stuff you can see, imagine what you cant. There are many upgrades you can do to build power from the 6. Before buying the other craw under and inside and be sure its worth investing.
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I'd see if you can find out where the other truck grew up. If it has spent most of it's early years in the great white north, I'd probably pass on it. Sounds like you have done a lot to the 87 already!!!
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03-19-2011, 11:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-19-2011, 11:30 PM by rancej.)
Thanks for the advice. I do like the 87. I spent all day working on her and she's really coming around. I should have clarified in my original post...I spent all last weekend Rhino-lining the rear section. Today, I pulled the front seats out and the vinyl. There was a bit of surface rust here and there...especially around the drain hole in the center in front of the rear seat. Not really bad though. I took lots of pictures but it looks much worse in them than it really is. I sanded it down, sprayed two coats of Rust Oleum "Stops Rust" Primer on it and three coats of the Truck Bed Coating (Rhino Line type). It looks great.
Her engine runs great except for an issue with it just cutting off when driving....even on the interstate. Strange needle-in-a-haystack problem. I've had two mechanics look at it...Friday one of them drove it to lunch and a couple more times but could not duplicate. A big-truck (Tractor) mechanic friend told me today to replace the solenoid. I really don't see how this would cause it, but the one on there now look a bit warn and for $22 it couldn't hurt so I picked one up and will install tomorrow.
I was only considering the '93 because 1)APPEARS to be a good price 2) I always liked the grill/front a little better personally on the 93 and up 3) V-8. 4) Has power options. As it stands now I may buy the 93 anyway but I have fell a bit in love with the 87 and don't want to part with her. Plus, I've never completed a project like this before and I'm learning a lot of restoration. I feel a great sense of accomplishment and pride. I'll post before/after pics soon. Now...if I could just get it to stop cutting off on me.....
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I'll check it out. It does seem to happen more after its been driven a few miles or is still warm. Like last weekend, I drove about 10 mile to autozone and back three times. On the third trip it started cutting out on me. I took the wife out for a quick trip last night to drop off a movie we rented...fine on the way there but starting cutting out on me about a mile from home. Because it's a stick, it keeps itself running most of the time. That was 10 mile round trip. The other odd thing is that it doesn't do it every day. I;ve driven it around for tree weeks at a time. We moved from Cornelius to Statesville back in OCT and I hauled load after load with it for days without an incident. Even with the problem last Sunday I had driven it for three days with no problems. I stopped on my last trip for gas and it started up a few miles after that. I always get gas at the same place...not sure if that makes a difference. When I bought it in Sep, the previous owner had replace both fuel pumps and the gastank (new one). He told me it had a bad ground cable and would occasionally cut off and just to jiggle the cable around and it would start back up. I replaced the ground cable and it still does it. Also, when it happens, if you try to start it back up, it will start quickly but cut off and then appears not to be getting fuel, but I can hear the fuel pump running with the key on. After about 2 minutes, it will start right up like nothing ever happened. I figure he would pop the hood open, giggle the ground cable around a minute and then it would work so thats what he though it was. I really think it may be electrical but I'm pretty green mechanically...
