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.