Tearing Down A 1974 Bronco

(Marc)>> You're watching Powernation.

(Brandon)>> Today on Music City Trucks.

(Marc)>> It's a big day because we get to introduce our newest project, this 1974 Ford Bronco.

(Brandon)>> We'll test it out, tear it down.

(Marc)>>> Look at that!

(Brandon)>> And blast it. [ blaster hissing ]

(Marc)>> Then we make a plan for our most intense build yet. ♪ ♪ [ engine revving ] ♪ ♪

(Marc)>>> Hey everybody, welcome to Music City Trucks. It's a big day for us because we get to introduce our newest build.

(Brandon)>> This is probably our favorite project of the season, not only because it's a first gen Bronco and they're super hot, but Marc and I are huge Bronco fans.

(Marc)>>> Yep, I've got my '73 and my '74 here.

(Brandon)>> I have my '82 bull nose. It's pretty much a woods toy.

(Marc)>> It got you here though. So needless to say we are super excited to tackle this project.

(Brandon)>> Now this '74 Bronco has put nearly 50 years worth of work in and Marc and I decided that it's time for it to retire into a life of relaxation. So we came out to his property, put in its last day of work, and have some fun.

(Marc)>> But before we do that we thought it'd be cool we thought it'd be cool to show you a little history about the Ford Bronco and why they're so cool.

(Brandon)>> Oh it's definitely cool.

(Marc)>> Starting in the early '60's Ford Motor Company saw an opportunity to dive into the four wheeling market. Using Jeep and other utility vehicle owners as their study group they created a sport utility vehicle that did everything the other guys were doing but better, including the ability to cruise at highway speeds, climb steeper grades, and with better ride quality and comfort. Thus the Bronco was born in 1966. It evolved over the years becoming full size and on an F-150 based chassis in 1978. Then after 30 years of production it was cancelled in 1996. When the resurrection of the brand was announced by Ford in 2020 it became an instant favorite with design and function mirroring its earliest ancestor and creating a whirlwind of interest in the original like it hasn't seen since the '60's. Well Brandon what do you think of this thing?

(Brandon)>> This is only the second time I've ever been in a first gen. The first time was our intro.

(Marc)>> And this is a lot different too, no top.

(Brandon)>> This one's definitely different. No top, no doors, a little bit rougher.

(Marc)>> Yeah but its character. Let's just hammer it out. What do you want to do to this thing?

(Brandon)>> Well I think we have to make it nice. I mean if this is what we're calling our build that we really wanted to do this season we've got to put it up a notch, and I'm not saying compared to other people.

(Marc)>> They're nice Broncos.

(Brandon)>> I'm just saying put it at a level that we're really proud of. That we can call our dream Bronco.

(Marc)>> It goes without saying I'm an early Bronco guy. I mean I've owned them for over 20 years and this is my opportunity to build a Bronco that I've always wanted to build but I don't want to just build my dream Bronco. I want to build the dream Bronco, and there's a lot of people out there building really high end Broncos, and I don't think we need to use what they're doing as the bar. We just need to build the nice Bronco that we think sets the bar for us.

(Brandon)>> This is a perfect platform. It's an empty tub pretty much.

(Marc)>> Speaking of empty tub these things came from the factory three ways. You could get a roadster, you could get the pickup or the half cab, or you could get the wagon or the full top. What do you like?

(Brandon)>> I'll be honest I'm more traditional in the Bronco sense of the of the full top, the s-u-v. I would do that but I like having no top. So I would say half roadster with the full top. I know this isn't a roadster body, it just has no doors.

(Marc)>> Or top.

(Brandon)>> But this is cool.

(Marc)>> Do you have a list of musts, must haves?

(Brandon)>> A must have list. Something overhead cam.

(Marc)>> Wow you're throwing that out there first.

(Brandon)>> I just feel like if you're gonna have something to drive or to be a daily, or could be a daily, it's got to have a modern power plant.

(Marc)>> Overdrive transmission!

(Brandon)>> Nice transfer case. What are yours?

(Marc)>> Personally I'd love to see. I mean this is just me being selfish. I want to do what I would do if I was to build my Bronco over again I would buy a chassis and I would build the chassis up ground up, full running drivetrain before I would do anything. I like this two birds with one stone thing and I appreciate your help. Where I come from work is fun. So I'm gonna put Brandon to work while we're here. I've got a tree I need to cut up, or at least get some logs out of it. I've got some fresh gas here for my two stroke, and I always add a little bit of Seafoam motor treatment. This stabilizes the fuel. It keeps the fuel system clean including the carburetor passageways, and it prevents the combustion chamber from any deposit build ups. For every gallon of two stroke pre-mix I add two ounces of Seafoam motor treatment. Well that's just for regular fuel system maintenance. If you have a problem with yours or you're trying to store it over the winter you could add it directly to the tank, but since I've got my all dialed in this is all I need to do. ♪ ♪

(Brandon)>> Full?

(Marc)>> Ready to do.

(Brandon)>> I'll grab what you cut.

(Marc)>> Sounds good to me. [ chain saw buzzing ]

(Brandon)>> Oh yeah, that's a good one! I just want to get this thing back to the studio.

(Marc)>> Let's build a bucket list Bronco then. Coming up, this isn't the kind of thing you just start throwing parts on. This is gonna be a full build from the ground up.

(Brandon)>> We're back here at the shop with our Bronco project, and let me tell you this is one of the greatest days of my life. Not only do I get to drive a first gen Bronco but we're gonna be able to build one, and Marc and I talked about what our dream build would be and all of those ideas have a starting point, and that one's this beautiful piece of machinery right here.

(Marc)>> I don't know if beautiful is the word I would use to describe this thing but it is cool the way it is. It's more like someone's failed project. This is the kind of thing you just start throwing parts on. This is gonna be a full build from the ground up. So we really gonna need to know what we're working on here. There's a lot of things that we can't see. We'll get to that later but now let's take a look at the things we can see first. At first glance you notice a lot of the hot ginger metallic still visible on this truck, which is cool. I love that color and actually a big Gilligan's Island fan, but normally they rust out down here in the bottom of the windshield frame in this corner here on the passenger side as well but there's no rust coming through here and that's original paint. So that's a really good sign. Another thing too on the rocker panels, same thing. They rust from the inside out. Down here at the bottom they pack mud in there and they just rust away but there's no rust on the outside on the bottom but there is on the top of the rockers here. These pin holes are actually rusted through from the outside in, which is kinda surprising and pretty rare. Moving on to the doors here original paint again, and normally there'd be a rust pocket right here on the lower front of the door. None there, which I'm very surprised by but the door frames themselves are just rusted out completely, and think this rust again is from the outside in and the passenger door, it's even worse. Moving on to the quarters. These early Broncos have a two piece quarter. You've got the upper, which is actually the inner, and then you have the lower, and then there's a seam in between the two. As you can imagine this is a place that these trucks like to rust. There's some seam sealer here and there's actually some original factory seam seal still in this one. All original paint. This is actually in really good shape. Brandon what do you find.

(Brandon)>> Well the passenger's side rocker is actually a little worse off than the driver's side. The top's actually all the way through up here, but what concerns me is the new sheet metal that's been placed in here. At first glance it looks okay, but it's just new sheet metal welded right to the rust, and that's a huge no-no in the industry. You might as not replace any metal at all. the door hinges themselves, every single bolt is broke off and that could have been easily avoided by some Seafoam deep creep or a little bit of heat. Those things would have came right out, and that's just a few examples of efforts misplaced on this project.

(Marc)>> Well Brandon and I both said we wanted a full top on our Bronco and thankfully we got one that came with the one we bought, and it's in original condition. So I've got some Wimbledon white here, mostly worn off on the top, surface rust. It does have some dents all over and some pretty heavy rust here under the drip rail, which is pretty common, but it's repairable. Now we're not sure what we're gonna do about sheet metal just yet. So for now we're gonna hang on to this one.

(Brandon)>> Now under the hood is a 302 V-8, which actually runs really well. The previous owner did a tune up on it and we didn't have a hiccup out of it all day, but that's where all the nice stuff stops. This inner apron on the passenger's side has been crushed before. It's all wrinkled, and this back's all rusted out and booger welded.

(Marc)>> This side well it's not quite as bad. The apron's in good shape. The fender well, the firewall, and the cowl all have original paint on them. A little bit of rust here but it's repairable. The hood's completely trashed. It's even got the crack here like they all do. I'm surprised it doesn't have the strap with the rivets in it to fix it.

(Brandon)>> And it's got some upgrades like brakes, tune-up like I said, new radiator. I mean that's fine and all if you're building a rat rod but this is clearly something he was trying to make a nice project.

(Marc)>> Yeah he got a pair of fenders off an earlier Bronco, had them blasted, installed them, and then let them rust, which I just don't understand that.

(Brandon)>>> I mean this is a clear example of somebody in over their head on a project and just doesn't know how to finish it, which happens a lot.

(Marc)>> So the best thing for us to do is just tear this thing all the way down. We're gonna get it down to the bare tub, and get it blasted, see what we're working with. That's next. Up next, tear down begins.

(Marc)>> Well we've got our Bronco lined up with the lift here because real soon we're gonna roll this thing forward and lift the body and split it off of the frame, probably for the first time in this vehicle's life but before we do that we've got a bunch of stuff that needs to get unbolted off of here. I mean practically gonna destroy this thing.

(Brandon)>> Weapon of choice.

(Marc)>> Perfect! We're starting with the obvious which is all the bolt on sheet metal.

(Brandon)>> Well good thing it's missing some parts.

(Marc)>> These bolts weren't even in any thing. They were just sitting in there.

(Brandon)>> Oh it's gonna fold in half.

(Marc)>> Save these shims. That's valuable.

(Brandon)>> The botchery! The craftsmanship and skill to do damage repair like this is, one day I hope to get to that level. That piece helicoptered into my thumb and almost broke it.

(Marc)>> Let me help you out.

(Brandon)>> Give me a crescent wrench. Channel locks.

(Marc)>> Really it's just some trim and some wiring, shift linkage, radiator.

(Brandon)>> It could be a free for all. Alright this is the perfect spot where you want to use some deep creep or any type of lubrication to get these bolts unstuck. These are actually captured nuts on the inside of this taillight housing and these will definitely break off. You can see all the corrosion. So I'm just gonna spray inside the taillight and get all those bolts started on getting lubricated and I'll come back to these in a little bit. Deep creep to the rescue. Oh! I thought that was gonna break. Yeah we're gonna need two people.

(Marc)>> You still have a bolt in over there.

(Brandon)>> In these, yeah, that's what I was asking earlier. What Marc's talking about is the design of the tailgate. It's not a typical truck tailgate that can be removed by partially opening it. The hinges have to be unbolted completely and removed with the tailgate.

(Marc)>> Wire?

(Brandon)>> Not any more. ♪ ♪ Wobble, wavy, wobble.

(Marc)>> Now we're getting down to some of the more tedious tasks like removing the steering column. Probably would have been easier if I took this steering shaft off huh? The shifters, windshield wiper assembly. Still a bunch of stuff attached to it but. And of course the dash. Look at that.

(Brandon)>> You got it? But wait there's more, like the heater box, door strikers, pedal box, and the windshield.

(Marc)>> The seat's out. It's time to go up, at least we hoped. ♪ ♪

(Brandon)>> Okay the front mounts are actually stuck in the frame. The bushing's actually not letting the bolt come out. the nut's gone off the bottom but they're seized. So we're gonna get the liquid torch out and get them unstuck. [ torch hissing ]

(Marc)>> Ready? [ mechanical humming ]

(Marc)>> You can say things are getting pretty serious now. ♪ ♪

(Brandon)>> I'm fine, keep on going!

(Marc)>> Just make sure it's not too. It is a little heavy in the rear but we'll be alright. [ mechanical humming ]

(Brandon)>> She'll never be the same. Well that was easy.

(Marc)>> Let's just leave that thing right there and get it out of our minds for now because we've got enough here to focus on.

(Brandon)>> Man this tub's pretty rough. I think the next thing to do is get it square, put it on the rotisserie, and blast this thing.

(Marc)>> And then that'll give us a better idea of what lies ahead because from where I'm standing this thing is pretty bad.

(Brandon)>> Up next, I'm have a blast.

(Marc)>> I see what you did there Brandon!

(Brandon)>> Well we're outside with the Bronco on the rotisserie. We've got the tub all braced up so it doesn't move on us, but we did have to cut the front clip off because of all the rust and the damage on the passenger's side. We were gonna have to replace the sheet metal anyway. So we went ahead and cut it off and put it on this next set of mounting holes.

(Marc)>> And now it's time to get this thing blasted all the way down to the bare metal. That way we can see exactly what we're starting with. In order to do that we're gonna use the Dustless Blasting mobile system. The DB-500-S has a compact layout with everything accessible. Their contractor support is tremendous with online and phone technical support, and this unit even fits in a standard garage for those who work at home. Now I drew the short straw. Brandon gets to stay out here and do this, enjoy this beautiful weather, but I've got something up my sleeve inside that just showed up. I'm gonna get it unwrapped. You'll see it later.

(Brandon)>> Soaking up the sunshine. This Dustless Blasting setup's a pretty versatile machine. It makes quick work of most surfaces, especially our Bronco and how small it is. We'll have this thing done in no time. [ blaster hissing ]

(Brandon)>> There are basically three main reasons why we blast. One to remove unwanted material like paint, seam sealer, and body filler. Two to reveal body damage and remove rust. And three to have a good base to prep for either paint or welding. [ blaster hissing ]

(Brandon)>> And this Dustless Blasting system has a 60 minute run time, which means I don't have to stop as often to refill with media. After stripping the outside sheet metal it's time to roll this thing over and expose the real problem spots on these trucks. [ blaster hissing ]

(Brandon)>> Every panel I've hit is straight Swiss cheese. Look at the floor. When I tell Marc about this he's not gonna be too happy but I've got to keep moving, get this thing done. [ blaster hissing ]

(Brandon)>> The more material I strip off this truck the less that is left, which is really concerning. I'm starting to think that there's not a whole lot that's useable on this tub, and again that's concerning, but I've got to finish it off and get it back to the studio. [ blaster hissing ]

(Brandon)>> This is blasted and I'm beat. I'm gonna change. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> Well Brandon I'm gonna give you my seal of approval on your Dustless Blasting on this thing but unfortunately it revealed what we feared the most and that was more rust than we had originally anticipated, but that's why you blast right?

(Brandon)>> Yeah this body's extremely rough. Now anything's rebuilding but with so few parts that are good that's left on this thing it just doesn't make any sense to tear it apart and put it back together, especially when new parts are readily available and super cheap. So I say ditch this tub of Swiss cheese and move on to something else.

(Marc)>> So that means that we're gonna be building our own tub basically from a Bronco in a box, and we're gonna start with everything that you see here on the floor that we got from Dennis Carpenter.

(Brandon)>> Now we already had all the outer sheet metal because we knew we were replacing that and some of the inner structure because we suspected that was bad as well. Like the floor, core support, and rockers, but now that we're gonna build a whole tub we actually don't have all the pieces that we need.

(Marc)>> Yeah there's some things that are conspicuously missing here. The firewall, all the pieces to build the cowl, the rear wheel tubs, and a bunch of bracing, but we've got that stuff on order and it's coming.

(Brandon)>> So why do care so much about building such a nice Bronco?

(Marc)>> Seafoam's been a great partner of ours here at Powernation for a long time and we've done some really cool builds over the years but now it's time to take it to the next level.

(Brandon)>> So we're building our dream Bronco and the folks at Seafoam are helping make that happen, and here's how.

(Marc)>> We're excited to call this project "The Beach Cruiser Bronco". It's gonna be the perfect blend of classic styling and modern technology that will be able to cruise the beach, scream down the interstate, and everything in between. And the coolest part is when it's all done it's going to auction with the proceeds going to Seafoam's charity of choice, Warrior's Heart.

(Brandon)>> So you guys need to come back and watch us build this Bronco literally from the ground up.

(Marc)>> If you can't get enough of our Bronco go to Powernation TV dot com and check out our Beach Cruiser Bronco page.

(Brandon)>> We have current build status, before and after pics, links to parts used, and all the episodes right there on one page.