This 1974 Custom Bronco Eats Mountains for Breakfast

John Mears’s 1974 Ford Bronco will make you want to be a better off-roader.

Mears’s son found the Bronco in a field in southern Idaho. At that time, Mears paid just $500 for the truck. Of course that rescued rig was merely a shadow of the bulletproof Bronco that you see here.

“The rig was mostly stock, had no engine, and each body panel was dented in varying degrees, but it was the perfect foundation on which to build this very unique rig,” notes FourWheeler, who recently did a solid write-up on Mears’s beast, which he affectionately calls “Machu Picchu.” Mears picked up the moniker after visiting the popular ruins in Peru and finding out it basically translates to “old mountain.” Which seems like a pretty fitting name for a mountain goat like this.

Mears designed his Bronco to be a well-balanced, all-purpose, street-legal (in Washington) vehicle that would be plenty cozy for long hauls. And he accomplished this while utilizing as much of the original Ford as he could. But stock would only take him so far up the mountain.

There are so many mods done to “Machu Picchu,” I wouldn’t know where to begin to highlight the most important ones that went down over the course of an 18-month build process. So head on over to the very-detailed FourWheeler article to find out. But worry not, she’s still powered by a Ford 302ci V-8 engine, albeit one that’s been highly tinkered with.

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