The Teenager who is now 19 happens to be my daughter.

She was looking for a 4x4 (Ford) of some type and really wanted to buy a
92-96 F250 Diesel 4x4. Had to convince her its a money pit. After a few months of looking we found a 46k Mile 1986 Full Size Bronco

We went to look and were completely amazed how straight the body was and it was virtually rust free! (ok, a tad on the tailgate)

She has been saving her $$ to restore it.

Story is the person who bought it new was in the military of some sorts and shortly after purchase moved to Arizona, He took it to Germany where it saw very little use. Back to Az it came sitting in backyard where it sat for years.

He gave it to his son who shortly after signed up for military where he enlisted for 4yrs. When He came back home it would not start so it sat some more. So it sat the better part of 20yrs.

The Arizona sun killed the paint but the body was MINT!

I helped my Daughter haul it home where she first rebuild the entire fuel system. Removed and replaced the fuel tank (it had been left full) replaced the fuel pump and filter, flushed out the lines, replaced the fuel injectors and the fuel press regulator.

Changed oil, also there was no power inside. She bought shop manuals and studied the electrical system where she found a bad ground under dash.

It fired right up! Of course we did a compression check to make sure and it still pumped 175 psi which I was very surprised. Runs like a million bucks.

Then it sat for nearly 2 more years busy with school, some college and work along with saving $$. She did fire it up and run it once per month or so as learned how much work it was to get going with bad fuel.

Now that she has saved up some $$ let the work begin!

 

The Bronco being a dark charcoal metallic that was pretty much burnt off by sun with a Red interior was most likely pretty sharp back in its day.

She has decided she wants to paint it BLACK!

Gotta find the pics . .

 

This was kinda as purchased but after a major cleanup because it sat so long.

We had already steam cleaned most of what was left of original paint off. Mostly primer showing here. She had started to remove the surface rust from hood and roof.

The gel coat on topper was gone down to strands of fiberglass.

We went junk~yarding and she was able to get a smokin' deal on a pair of seats, new top, fuel tank, some wiring and a spare styled steely type wheel.

 

Here she is done scrubbing 1/2 of rust off roof. One will spot the hood in background.

 

After a LOT of scrubbing on hood and a bit of sanding she had it looking like this in short order . .



And yes, She made a trip to PPG paint store and picked up all the supplies needed for the paint job. Set her back a pretty penny. Close to 1500.00 so far in paint and materials!

 

A bit of elbow grease and a couple sprays of "Magic Soap" and she had the top looking like this. (It will be painted flat black)

 

That is a great find, and she does good work! We need more pics!

 

Nice find She's doing a great job on the resto

 

When we first got it running it seemed like the water was not circulating so we pulled t-stat then the water pump.

This is what happens to antifreeze after sitting for so long. Good thing we did not run it long!

 

rear seat was like new. Someone removed the perfect front buckets so they needed replacing. Looking for a mint set of upholstery for the front buckets in case anyone can steer her in right direction.



A good cleaning prior to pushing it in garage

Also removed tailgate, hood, topper and trim

 

Pretty much started to sand to "feather" the primer but it was so dry it was pretty much sanded down to bare metal. Not much primer left. No paint remaining

Door glass was also removed

 

That water pump is gnarly. Do the block and head have the same crud in the water passages?

 

Your girl is doing some great work. She is putting lots of us guys to shame. Great job!!

 

No other issues with crud, only waterpump, although we did replace the radiator also.

Been a bit of a lull for past week but hope to get back on it tomorrow evening.

I do not work on it or help unless she shows up.

I will take a few more pics of the progress to make it current.

She has spent a great deal on it already but sure helped to get the Bronco for free to start with. This way she will have a few bucks in it but everything will be new to start out with.

In typical Arizona fashion pretty much every weatherstrip on entire veh was dried out to the point it would just crumble when touched. Bought a complete body weatherstrip kit.

All the original chrome and trim was in pretty nice shape so she just buffed it up. Even buffed all the glass to make it look new.

After entire vehicle was sanded down we applied PPG DP74LF primer.

Then sanded it out again and re-applied as we did not get the blocking primer on within a week as mandated by PPG.

Its costing her some pretty big bucks for materials so we cannot afford to mess it up.

 

Just a note the way the masking paper is put on. Not really the correct way as any folds should be on the inside not the outside. Not that important for the primer but for sure a no no on final paint.

I kinda like to let her go on her own then explain what I consider a more proper way if need be.

Plan is to do a little change and paint the hood and topper flat black. the rest will be PPG Concept Black, the deepest black we could find. It will show every flaw but by looking so far the body will be every bit as good as it left the factory . .