i found a killer deal on an85 bronco all rebuilt but since he used it as beach cruiser it has no top. Can someon point me in the right direction to find prices on a decnt soft top? thanks bigreave

 

Ok what was the deal? In my experiance (mine has no top) I took it to the beach the other day and drove for about 30 miles. All that shaking and bumping I gained a new stress crack that is driving me crazy making all kinds of noise. In my opinon (now) is that if a bronco is driven with out a top for long periods of time, the body twist a lot more with out that hard top bolted on and it creates more cracks all over the weak spots in the cab. Not trying to discurage you, but I would look over the seams in the cab real well. Keep your eye on e-bay you can find good deals for soft tops there.

 

I dont know about cracking with out a hard top, my baby goes topless every chance she can and have never had that problem but, check Jeffs Bronco Graveyard I've seen soft tops there but for about four hundred.

 

The idea that the Bronco body is weaker without the top is a misnomer. The rain gutter cracks are a fact of life with the fullsize. Whether you just moticed them or they recently appeared, they are going to occur no matter what. I've had two (92 and 93) and NEITHER had EVER had the tops removed before I bought them and they BOTH had the cracks the day I took delivery. The body gusseting in the area connecting the "B"-posts to the roof is weak enough that Ford even offered a dealer-installed, weld-in bracketry setup for a while to arrest any further developement of these cracks.

If body flex was that big a deal without the top on, the doors would not close properly or seal properly either since the door frames are part of this region of the body as well. Not to mention the fact that the Bronco is and ALWAYS was DESIGNED to have the top removed. If not, Ford would never have bothered to make it a separate piece. The Bronco would have looked like the RamCharger or the newer two-door Yukon had this been the case. Believe me, there is NO WAY Ford would have spent all the extra time and money engineering the top if it was going to be a source of problems with the truck.

 

Ok! greystreak, let me disagree
let me clear up this misnomer! Ford engineers built a bronco on a ford truck frame. The ford truck has a separate bed to the cab. Since the bronco bed is connected to the cab... it twists right at the "B" post. It only takes common since to know that the Bronco top bolts to the bed and the cab. 12 bolts tightly secured on the top fiberglass covers a lot of straight edge of the bronco body. This straight edge being flush and tight will create a very strong support when the truck is going over a ditch and major twisting in the frame is taking place. Now I am not saying that If you drive with your top off eventually your truck is going to rip in half, I am just saying that with your top off, you have less strength as an over all vehicle. I always have my top off. I do not drive in the rain. It is garage kept and at work it is under a garage I am watching my stress cracks grow, My doors are constantly having to be re-ajusted. I do not believe this is a misnomer. Think about it. If ford built the bronco to have the top off, (which I believe their first intentions they did) then why did they add the seatbelt and back light which makes it illegal to take the top off. Maybe because they realized that even with there stress Kit... if you take the top off it will still crack.

My 2 cents

 

Ford added the third brake light because of federal laws, and as for the 3 point seatbelts, that was either a law or a safety thing.

 

Try the UPULLIT type wrecking yards for a used stock top. The one I frequent has three or four stacked up 50.00 bucks. There's a couple still on the trucks as well.

 

I agree with both of you on the hard top, Pillar will crack with or with out the top, the B piller is a major flex point for the bronco, the top on helps firm this area up but still doesn't prevent it. With the top of the Bronco will flex more which helps to keep all 4 tires on the ground when climbing over stuff, but beats the hell out of the B Piller.

 

O.K. not to sound like a jerk but,the hard top is just fiberglass if you think the steel of the Broncos top can split because of twisting dont you think fiberglass would rip,shatter,or crack also.Again I'm not trying to say anything bad ,just thinking about the difference between steel and fiberglass.

 

The top adds just enough strength to keep for flexing. A fiberglass/resin top is a lot tougher than you give it credit for.

 

Just my two cents here. First, a new softop can be had from Bronco Graveyard, like someone posted, and good, used ones appear on ebay often. I have a Skyler softtop that requires no drilling as the brackets mount to the existing hardtop holes. The other brand of tops require at least some drilling to mount their brackets. Second, being topless for nearly three years now, I do notice slightly more body flex than whe nthe hardtop was on. It had never before been removed prior to my purchase of the Bronco (I'm the 2nd owner), but still had cracks behind the rain gutters that I had welded closed. I feel like some of the problem causing the cracks is due to worn body mounts. I greatly reduced the body movement by installing new poly body bushings, as the original rubber bushings were toast. I have not had ANY problem with the doors opening/closing but do need to adjust the hood latch once in a while. My permanent solution to keep the body from flexxing at all is to tie the B-pillars into my rollcage kit, where the stock seatbelt anchors bolt up. My cage is tied into the frame with custom poly bushing mounts as well. That may seem extreme, but even a simple rollbar hoop installed in the cab and attached to the B-pillar posts should help reduce alot of the movement.