Like certain hard-shelled candies, some vehicles are bright and shiny on the outside and somewhat soft and structurally unsound on the inside. This 1969 Ford Bronco in Vancouver, Washington looks show-ready from a distance, but crusty floors and running from a gas can may curtail your fun until you’ve managed repairs. First-generation Broncos are hot in recent years, spurring Ford to launch two vehicles called “Bronco” starting in 2021. That no-doubt encouraged this rig’s seller to ask $26,000 for this one as it sits. If that’s market value, we cannot complain, though I might have to eat my hat. Check out more pictures and details here on Craigslist. Thanks to reader Curvette for spotting this mix bag 4×4.
Let’s get this shot out of the way, showing the crusty floorboards and torn upholstery. The seller warns potential buyers not to come expecting a perfect truck, though the pictures constitute warning enough. This Bronco looks like it was ridden hard and (literally) put away wet. I’m no Bronco expert but that looks like a Hurst shifter for the transmission and that automatic-looking shifter must be for the transfer case. A similar arrangement appears on another ’69 Bronco article by our own Adam Clarke in 2024. The seller blames a prior owner’s installation of carpeting for the rust. Most of my cars have carpeting and the floor boards don’t look like this, so maybe water intrusion could take some blame. Eliminate that possibility before you rustle up some floor panels.
New shoes look trail-ready after you address other concerns. The white accents, painted steel wheels, and stock ride height are perfect to my eye, and I wouldn’t change any of it. Off-road parks where every trail is rutted out by 35s or larger tires may thwart a stocker like this, but few dirt roads and trails will stop a sorted factory first-gen Bronco. Add power-locking differentials and you’ll tackle nearly anything.
A two-pot manual brake booster means extra pedal feel when descending slippery terrain. The ubiquitous small-block 302 cid (5.0L) Ford V8 will give a fine vintage rumble to your on and off-road explorations.
This no-nonsense face inspired design cues on both the modern full-frame Ranger-based Bronco and the unibody Maverick-based Bronco Sport. Hood pins may cause factory purists to exhibit an involuntary facial tic, but they were a popular high-school add-on for years, including my first car – a 1973 Mercury Capri. Before decrying the asking price, factor in what you might spend on a shiny yellow paint job. I love these compact early V8 4×4 Broncos, and there’s no reason to keep them out of the woods. Let’s hope someone fixes this one up and gets back in the saddle. How much scratch would you give to lasso up this project Bronco?
This needs more then a couple of floor patches needs complete floors in the front would need to see underneath to see just how bad the rust is. The asking price is to high with just the rust we can see.
26K is too high as it needs a complete floor replacement and why is it running on a gas can. Add 14K and get a new one with a warranty.
Price is a tad high. And wouldn’t you know it, we just moved from Vancouver, WA to Texas. I think about $20k to interest me since now it would cost me to move it.
Looks a heck of a lot more frighting than it really is. Rust appears to be confined to the horizontal surfaces due to the carpet as mentioned in the ad. A half decent welder would have those two floor sections replaced in an afternoon. https://tomsoffroad.com/products/66-77-ford-bronco-front-floor-pans?variant=40745057976418&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21666197979&gbraid=0AAAAAD_AaInr4PDq2Yx-Ui–5lIYKOG6v&gclid=CjwKCAjwvsvTBhBaEiwAmf-3njL_2enAhCDkoH3s3M_Ig2S3MAyeaKpisi7lUwrO4oT3mieUbDowXxoCeQYQAvD_BwE
Yeah, this one’s a tad high in today’s market – a few years ago someone would’ve snatched it up at this price. Agreed that the floors look to be the biggest problem and they’re among the easiest fixes on these rigs (my ’69 had to have the floors replaced 25 years ago and it’s a lifetime AZ truck).
Yes Todd, that’s a Hurst floor shift conversion for the 3 speed. Up through the ’80s, that was a really popular conversion – transformed the driving experience of the truck. Dad converted ours in the late ’80s.
This Bronc’ may be a great starter for someone who wants to do over the floors for starters. This does look like a previous owner had carpeting in the vehicle. I’ll bet the roof was taken off in Spring and put back on in the Fall. When it rained years ago, the carpet got wet and was rolled up to dry. Then put back down, although not completely dry. That’s when the rust began. How do I know this? I did the same thing on a Jeep CJ with a carpeted floor. It had the same rust pattern. All that said, this is a great donor, if the frame and body mounts are good, for a product with a ‘glass’ tub. The drawback for a future buyer is the get-in price. Just my $.02., others mileage may vary.
That’s what happened to mine. We didn’t take the roof off much but the cowl had/has enough leaks that water/snowmelt would come in and soak the carpet and foam and just basically sit there and rust the floor!
I had a 69 Bronco, the motor was a 289, is this a replacement motor??
If you had a ’69 Bronco with a 289, it was a replacement because all ’69 Broncos with V8s had 302s – it was the first year it was offered. 289s ended at the end of the ’68 model year.
yeah, he’s askin covid era prices when this rig was #1 in sale fetch (immediately fell to 23 or sompin in Feb of ’21).
Typical “Do a respray’n they’ll go wild.”… nope~
Like many, the seller dont know what he has / the buyers dont know what’s in frnt of them – but everybody ‘goes full tilt ahead’.
People are totally out of their minds with these prices…