1976 Ranger - another new guy!

[landshark]

Hello all, finally picked up my EB this saturday. New to early broncos but not Broncos in general as I own a 94 Fullsize as well.

Anyway on to what you really care about!

1976 Ford Bronco Ranger - I have always wanted a early bronco and I have been looking for years, but everyone wanted so much money for one without rust or one that was a basket case.. finally found one in Butte Montana and flew up on saturday and drove her 800 miles home yesterday!




The Good:
Unrestored, 99% rust free, no real dents and never been in an accident or offroad incident, disc brakes, power steering, everything pretty much works as is.. just needs a good going through and refresh and then restore.. has 99,998 miles on her as of last night... Iam keeping it stock, with safety and tasteful upgrades for the future.


The Bad
There is an area of rust on the back passenger side quarter panel and I dont know how bad it is yet.. its just in the seam but will have to remove the inside covers to get to the fender well and see.. as always I expect surprises and would be surprised if the rust wasn't worse after i start looking on inner fender, but seeing how its probably confined to the one area.. iam ok with that.

There is an electrical gremlin, headlights like to flicker off and on periodically over rough road spots.. probably a short in the wire harness.. have a feeling its near the taillights. no biggie after chasing a short in my 94 fullsize...

Transmission has a slight leak, I think its from sitting up in the dry cold of Montana.. so the seals probably need to be replaced. Again not a big deal, i will be pulling the trans and TC to rebuild them anyway..

Anyway here are some more pics.. all with my phone for now as I didn't have my camera yesterday..




























My plans are to keep her stock and upgrade with reliability and safety in mind. My original plans were to restore the truck to factory specs and as she would have been new. Unfortunately the original engine was removed in 1983... so that kinda frees me up to do what I want with her. Now I think Iam going to keep it uncut but upgrade the brakes, suspension and interior to be a reliable and fun DD. The original color was Yellow, haven't pulled the tag info so not sure the exactl color but I will do that soon. I kinda like the blue/white so one day I will have to pull the tub off and have it professionally done... but for now the paint is good enough ;)

Anyway, would love to meet up soon with a few of you to go over the little guy as I have zero experience with the older broncos and would love to hear what you have to say and recommend on this one as I move forward. I live in central Denver near wash park so hope to meet up sometime!

I guess I can leave a photo of my other rig ;)

[Woodscaper]

Nice Bronco, I bet it will be hard for you to keep stock by the looks of that full size :) (The '94 is sweet) Welcome to the CCB.

[landshark]

Nice Bronco, I bet it will be hard for you to keep stock by the looks of that full size :) (The '94 is sweet) Welcome to the CCB.

Thanks!

well the 94 sucks up too much time and money as is... the 76 will stay stock.. I have ongoing "upgrades" to the 94 all the time.. right now building a custom TC brake setup for the BW1356....

[ZOSO]

Glad to see you made it back. Without major issues? Post away and ask questions. One of the best groups around.

[D&D72]

Welcome and Nice ranger! Hope it doesn't have any have too many surprise issues.

[landshark]

Glad to see you made it back. Without major issues? Post away and ask questions. One of the best groups around.

nope no major issues.. a little electrical like i said but overall pretty straight forward trip.. haven't tallied up the MPG estimates yet but will soon to see what kind of mileage i was getting.. Both tanks worked well but the gas gauge does not.. i figured out that the rear tank was good for 2.5 hours and the front good for 1 3/4 hours at highway speeds 60-70 mph...

with the 3 speed auto i know i was probably pushing it going 70.. but I had no problems, shakes shimmys etc.. what really blew me away was how straight it drove and how there were virtually no rattles.. just a little one from the rear door which a little piece of paper took care of ;)

oh a few other facts i found out about it..

Iam the 3rd owner.. I got to meet the original owner as he was friends with the guy i bought it off of so felt lucky to be able to pick his brain.

He had the front bumper and winch put on from the local dealer, which is where the truck was ordered from in 75/76.. so has never been out of the Butte Montana area. It was garaged for 25+ years, sat out for 3-4 then garaged again for a while..

I got the original bumper from the owner.. so will swap that out and remove the winch and winch bumper…

he put on the aftermarket wheels cause he hated the stock ones.. did that in the late 80's i think.

had a hitch and wiring done at ford as well..

[hockeydad4-22]

Welcome and very nice Luber. Good luck and have a ton of fun.

[Entourage]

Great story with some previous owners who really took care of it. Looks great with the ranger package trim, chrome, and even the original stereo - wow! Great looking as it, but will be fun to see the upgrades down the road. I really like the color. Welcome!

[Jesus_man]

Welcome to the club. And really nice rig there! I admire you for your plans to keep it stock and why would you need a serious off-roader with that '94! Both like really nice!!

That rust in the body seam is very common. I am sure there are many ways to fix it. Both of the ones I have owned have been bad in that area. Probably due to splash back from the rear tires getting up into the inner fender. Bad design!

We're here to help, so let us know what you'd like from it (better stopping, etc) and we can help with upgrades. A lot of them 100% reversible if you want to go back.
J.D.

[Colorado75bronc]

glad to see ya made it on here chris! had no idea you were buying an eb, and the fsb looks good, i haven't seen it since it still had ttb under it and was at hefty's shop gettin the rear bumper

[landshark]

glad to see ya made it on here chris! had no idea you were buying an eb, and the fsb looks good, i haven't seen it since it still had ttb under it and was at hefty's shop gettin the rear bumper

For sure, lots of stuff has been changed on the 94 ;)

well i have been looking for years.. just finally found one where i felt comfortable starting at.. not a huge body guy so wanted something that was light on body work.. .

[Colorado75bronc]

well i looks like ya got a good platform to start from!

[Rox Crusher]

I saw this gem in person yesterday and it is a real beauty !

We were trying to convince him that he should restore it as a stocker.

Great looking rig which wouldn't take too much work.