Ford’s upcoming new Bronco will be a four-door, I guarantee it. If you can’t wait for that however, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Magnum custom has got you covered. Let’s see if you’d be willing to cover its price.
Soichiro Honda founded his eponymous motor empire with the manufacture of piston rings. From those humble beginnings in wartime Japan Honda eventually grew into a company that has built from lawnmowers to outboards, cars, and even private jets. Some of the most important of their products along the way have been motorcycles. Those included the Super Cub which has sold over 100 million units worldwide, as well as yesterday’s 1976 Honda CB750F, an example that had been modded after-the-factory into a stunning Café bike aesthetic.
Seemingly well sorted and without need, that bike received kudos in the comments and at $4,995, earned a wildly successful 77 percent Nice Price win. Soichiro Honda would be so proud.
Yesterday’s Café racer was a fine example of taking something factory-made and then changing it to meet a specific need or desire. That happens a lot in our consumer society, where people mod their mobile phones with cases or try to do take-out one better at home.
Another great example of consumers not living within the constraints laid down by major manufacturers is today’s 1990 Ford Bronco F350 Magnum. As is obvious to even the most casual of observers, this is not your run of the mill Bronco. What’s funky here is the door count. Your everyday Bronco has two of them while this Magnum sports four, something Ford never offered from the factory.
When it came to meeting the apparent need for a larger, four-door/three row Bronco, it was the aftermarket that carried Ford’s water. In fact, within this generation of big Bronco there were not just one, but two companies making four-door conversions. The better known of those two was Centurion, while the lesser is represented by this Magnum. How much lesser? Well, this truck’s seller conflates things in the ad by claiming it to be one of 5,000 produced. That in fact is about the total number of four-door Broncos in all—Centurion and Magnum. Out of those, Centurion built about 4,500 conversions while Magnum stretched a mere 500.
That of course makes this the more rare example. I also should clarify that neither company actually stretched the Bronco. These trucks are based on a four-door Super Duty pickup chassis—an F350 in this Magnum’s case—which was topped with the two-door Bronco’s removable rear roof cap.
The result was a truck with three-rows of seats, the back-most being optionally alfresco. This one comes in black on burgundy velour and rides on oversized Chicago-style wheels and fat knobbies. The seller says that it’s “not a show truck, but really nice” and the pictures bear that claim out.
There are some differences in the nose between pictures in the ad, with some showing the headlamp surrounds painted silver, and others in which they are black. Hopefully the black is the current state since that looks better. There is also an issue with the back bumper which in some shots is black and straight and in others is sliver and sadly bent.
The interior looks to be in decent shape, although there does seem to be some fading evident in the rear-end plastics. A step rail beneath the doors helps with the climb-in.
There’s less than 100K on the truck and it’s claimed to come with a clear title. Power comes from a honkin’-big 460 V8. This is a member of the 385 engine family, and in this iteration produced 230 horsepower and 390 lb-ft of torque. A four-speed automatic and part-time 4WD complete the drivetrain. Mileage for the Magnum will be in single digits around town.
Ahh, but you’d definitely be styling while this Magnum drinks from that fuel tank firehose. These are funky looking trucks, especially with the rear cap removed and the back-most seat exposed to the elements. That’s an experience I think we can all get behind.
To get behind that, we’d need to come up with $17,000 in ready cash. You have that on you, right? The seller says he doesn’t need to sell the Magnum, and is not interested in entertaining either low ball offers or dumb questions. With that noted, I’m going to ask you a pretty smart question: would you pay that $17,000 asking to buy this big Bronco?
You decide!
Central New Jersey Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Popartblue for the hookup!
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