Rugged 1996 Bronco Draws Crowds of Appreciative Enthusiasts
YouTuber painstakingly revamps a Bronco, which becomes an instant hit at his local Cars & Coffee.
You never know how a project will turn out at the beginning. Maybe it becomes a pain in the neck over time, but you push through to finish so you can move on to the next project. Perhaps it lingers for months or years due to time and budget constraints. And of course, you may just decide to sell the project to someone who can get it done.
And then, there are those whose lives depend on moving through projects as quickly as possible. Such is the case with Joe Seligman of YouTube channel Hawkeye Skunk Works. A few months ago, he acquired a 1996 Bronco that needed a lot of work to get it to where he wanted it.
“I bought this thing when it was pretty clapped out,” Seligman says. “Ran excellent, but that was about all it had goin’ for it.” Since then, he’s taken things up a notch as far as appearances go, beginning with the red bedliner paint applied completely over the body. A full set of 33-inch Mickey Thompson tires cover the corners, the interior received new carpet, a new pair of buckets, and a retrimmed steering wheel, and the headlights were replaced at the behest of his wife.
“If you follow me on Instagram and seen the other videos, you’ll know that we had some rust all the way around [the rear fenders],” says Seligman. “[It] actually wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have to cut-out that much material, maybe no more than two inches on the fender lips, and then just a couple spots in the quarters.”
After excising the cancer from the Bronco, Seligman ordered replacement panels that happened to be of thicker steel than the Bronco’s own from the factory. He then cut a few corners on the panels, attached the panels with stainless steel pop rivets, and sealed the seams with seam sealer to prevent any more rust from appearing.
“People loved this thing,” Seligman says. “I drive it through town. I get waves. I get nods, thumbs-ups. Me and my daughter took it to Cars & Coffee here in the little town where we live… People would come up and they’d go to touch it and look at it, and then they’d realize, ‘Ooh. They’re at a car show. They probably shouldn’t touch other people’s cars.’ I’m like, ‘Go ahead! Touch it!'”
And now, someone else will experience what Seligman and his family experienced with this Bronco, because he’s sold it off to fund his new project. The cycle of life goes on. We look forward to reading all about Seligman’s next project.
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