I used to do off highway vehicle trail assessments for the Gov't as my primary job. Me and my Bronco have been on a LOT of back country trails. Other than a broken window and a few cut down tires (rocks), the truck has never had an issue that could not be fixed by a half way decent shop in whatever local town I was in at the time. It now has 212,000 and runs fine. Passes smog every two years and tows my boat. Original engine and tranny

Yes, it'll need a fuel pump at some point, and brakes, and batteries, and other stuff. But it prolly won't just quit. You'll know it's coming by the way it acts and sounds.

That's one of the big plus's of buying in Calif. If it has current registration, it passed SMOG and that means ODB II at least. In big cities it means full on chassis dyno testing. If there was something wrong, it would most likely have shown up. If it passes SMOG, the motor is decent. If it lived on the chassis dyno, the tranny is likely OK at least minimally.

No rust if So Cal truck, or even Sacto/Stockton. Maybe some rust of coastal truck due to salt air ...

If it is advertised as running well with current reg, I'd be happy to drive it home

Carry an emergency kit with basic tools, Aluma-Seal, duct tape, a jug of coolant mix, some oil and ATF. If going off road, carry a tire patch kit and and a hand pump or a dive bottle to refill flats.

Start the engine cold when you go to look at it. If it does not have much cold knock, the bottom end is good. Look at fluids. If clean and not dark, or bad smelling it's OK. Look for leaks and trace to source. Some are a bother, some are meaningful. If it has leaks, put it in a local repair shop and get it fixed. Three days max. Then back on road home.

These things need attention. But it's stuff the average Joe can do by reading up and just doing. The hardest thing is to do a behind the dash rewire or something. And that can be done, it's just a bitch ...

You can find a good one, just keep looking

 

Test drove my first Bronco today! Now that I think about, it was the first time I've driven one. Been in them as a kid but never drove.

1995 Eddie Bauer with the 5.8 V8 automatic. It has over 200,000 miles on it, but it sounded good. Started right up, never had any issues with it driving around downtown (I'll take it on the highway for bit before I pull the trigger on buying it). Didn't see a lot of oil residue anywhere, no puddle on the ground, temperature gauge never got above about half way, no smoke, no hesitation, had good acceleration, brakes were good, tires have above average tread and seem evenly worn...everything seems to work minus the dome light and one of the aftermarket speakers. Interior was decent, probably good actually for a 20 year old truck.

Now for the bad: all four wheel wells are rusted. Both rear ones are very bad. You can see bondo or some sort of filler in them, wire mesh behind that, daylight behind that. HA! I'd say I could pull on one of them and lose a few inches of quarter panel. There is rust at the bottom inside corner also (close to the back of the door). The front fenders has rust too, but it's not nearly as terrible except on the driver side bottom corner (near the bottom of the door. There it seem completely rusted through. Tailgate has some rust but nothing that looks terrible yet. On my test drive I stopped at (what I have been told is a good) body shop and had a guy look at for me. He gave me a rough estimate in the neighborhood of $5000 for both rear quarter panels (inside and out) and $6-800 for the front fenders.

I know jack ***** about replacing body panels, but I decided to go to LCM's website and see what the parts cost. Both front fenders, both inner wheel arches, both complete rear quarter panels, and both rear inner wheel arches comes to $925. I am contemplating buying it because I like the damned thing and don't care that it's rusty looking as hell. However, $900 doesn't seem like a ton of money for parts. I'm sure labor is a huge part of the price, but both quarter panels cost $460. Would labor and paint really cost $5000 on that job?

 

He is basically repainting the whole truck. The shop where I used to work would charge a minimum of $4000 for a complete paint job with no body work. You can certainly get it done cheaper, and have cheaper paint though. Either way, I'm not sure I'd want to invest 5k in a truck with 200,000 miles on it when you can buy a much nicer original one for that money.

 

I was searching the Kansas Craigslist for broncos, not too many good ones on there. But this popped up, and is something unique that is worth investing money into and restoring.

https://tulsa.craigslist.org/cto/5331097100.html

 

That makes sense. I was thinking all along if I did have the work done, I'd probably just have it primered and not paint it all until the entire truck was "rust-free". I guess what I like about it is what makes the Bronco so cool (I'm guessing): it's a beast. I felt like I was driving a mini-tank or something similar. It seemed big, powerful, and was different compared to most of what's on the road here (Wichita). I don't hardly ever see Broncos any more. I don't know that I would even fix the rust. The initial cost makes it easy for me to get this one. Guess I'm just being a cheap a**!

 

I have seen that one! That thing is huge, but kind of cool actually. That probably really is like driving a tank. HA!

 

A tank probably gets better fuel mileage than a 4 door Bronco.

 

Keep shopping. $5K is too much (in total) with that much work needed and that many miles...

Look in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico as well as LA and SF Bay Area Craigs List's. You'll see lots of choices. Think about what you liked about that KC truck and what bothered you. Look for ones that fix/don't have those problems

 

Bought my first Bronco today! Excited to finally have pulled the trigger. They are rare around here it seems. 1994 Eddie Bauer, little rough in spots but I don't care. I love it!

 

Congratulations! What does it look like? Pictures? Engine and tranny?

 

Should have stuck the picture in there. 5.8 liter, automatic. Over 200,000 miles on it, but it seems healthy enough so far. Leather seats are rough up front, body has a few rust spots in the usual places. I'm going to have to get new tires at some point and I want to find the spare tire rack for the back. For some reason someone took it off...

 

If your not going to run oversized tires, find a parts truck with the spare mounted inside and steal all the parts. I've had them both ways, and prefer them mounted inside. Don't have to deal with it every time you need inside and it's out of the elements. Always liked that color combo. Congrats.

 

A lot of people prefer to have the tire outside as it takes up quite a bit of room inside the truck. I'd always opt for having more free space inside, but everyone has their preferences.

 

Always a second vehicle for me, if I needed to haul something bulky, I would just drive the truck. Plenty of room for groceries and stroller with the tire in. Or a yeti cooler and some tools when wheelin. Different strokes for different folks.

 

Nice truck. EB's are very nice. Like the color - nice find

Any spare is better than no spare. The outside one is OK, but if your lifestyle will allow it, the inside one will get less hassles and less ozone/UV damage, plus you will not get that dreaded totaled tailgate when you back into a tree, or slip back off a big rock... Let the bumper take the hit instead

Then when it's a bit mangled, you can get a good tough aftermarket rear bumper that you can actually jack on