78 Bronco Pickup Replica

[Fabrux]

Back in the late '80s my dad took a '78 Bronco, chopped the end of the body off and turned it into a pickup bed. Combined with a cab from an F-250 he built this truck:

Now, I can't remember why he cut up this seemingly good Bronco (I was only 4-5 at the time). He always said that he cut up the wrong Bronco; he also had a brown '78 Bronco that I think he was still making payments on at the time, so that could be why. But, his unmolested Bronco rotted out way before this one ever did. My uncle bought the truck and he had it all while I was growing up so I remember it well. He ended up giving it to a friend of his and the last time I saw it, back in 2006 or so it was still solid (though only a yard truck by then). I decided I wanted to try and build a replica of this truck, as close as my abilities will allow. Its going to end up with the chrome trim in the body cove for the simple fact that I don't feel confident enough to remove it and make it look right. It'll also have headlights and a tail gate (I don't think it ever had one, even when my uncle had it). Not too sure if I can get the white stripes right; they're a strobe-type affair but in scale they'd probably end up being a solid line. Maybe some artistic license.

Chassis is from an AMT Wild Hoss Bronco; cab, bed sides, and tailgate are from AMT '77 F-350 kit; interior of the bed is cut down from a Monogram F-250. Having grown up with this truck, my dad's '78 Bronco and '77 F-150 the bed on the AMT F-350 just drives me nuts so I had no qualms cutting it up. As it turns out, the rear overhang on that bed is perfect for a bobbed Bronco bed, so it made sense to me!

The front wheels are from the Monogram F-250 (and are actually F-150 wheels; silly Monogram) and the rears are from the Revellogram '50 F-1. They'll be painted up to match those in the picture (complete with rust-coloured lug nuts!).

I can't quite tell what the the darker colour is on the cab; I think its just a darker blue than the Bronco body. I don't want to ask my dad about the truck as this build is a surprise! I have another Bronco kit that I plan to build as his.

[hotrod59f100]

Cool project. I like the idea behind it. I had seen a 1st gen bronco truck one. But not your era.

[wraith]

Very cool and different idea!

looks good so far! keep up the good work!

[gray07]

Sweet project.

[62rebel]

i see i wasn't the only one to try the Monogram bed narrowing trick! removing the cove trim isn't to hard to do, actually, but unless you have a spare body to work with, don't give it a bother. since you had to shorten the bed fenders, though... practice on those pieces you cut off!

good looking start!

[Fabrux]

Um.....guess I forgot about this one.

My club's annual show is coming up this month. One of the themes is 110 years of Ford and, seeing as I'm the Ford guy of the club, I figured I should probably have a Ford finished to enter. Pretty much have the paint finished on this one, now on to the details...