Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Bronco comes with a bikini top, a fold-down windshield, and to top it off, a seriously bad-ass vibe. Let’s see if its price needs a little off the top too.
Would you stick googly eyes on the Mona Lisa and think it’s an improvement? Would you likewise add a splash of Yoo-Hoo to your glass of 20-year single malt because nothing compliments peaty goodness like a chocolate-flavored child’s beverage? Yeah, I thought not.
Many of you also thought otherwise about the awkward inclusion of a pop-out Pep Boysian sunroof on yesterday’s 1972 Pre-L Pantera, a factor that weighed heavy both in our hearts (who does that?) and in consideration of its price.
Yes, you’d want to make that roof an un-sun hero, and you’d probably want to do a bunch of other work on the car to bring it up to snuff. There being a number of far cleaner, and less molested, Panteras out there for not that much more seemingly made that car’s value ring hollow. In the end, it fell in a pretty decisive 80% Crack Pipe loss.
You know, I’d love to own two of De Tomaso’s pointy odes to speed. That way I could tell everybody I own an Italian pair of Pants. I can hear the resigned groans now!
Seeing as the cost of that dumb joke is well outside of my current finances maybe I should look to something a little cheaper, and perhaps more horsey? In fact, maybe something like this rare 1966 Ford Bronco Roadster which, while actually far rougher than yesterday’s Pantera, actually comes across all the better for it.
The Roadster edition of Ford’s yee-haw off-roader is denoted by its lack of hard top, windows and doors, and typically the inclusion of fiberglass inserts in the door jambs sculpting them into Jeep-esque shapes befitting soft canvas fillers.
The real McCoy Roadsters were all built between ’66 and ’68 and are denoted by a leading U13 code on their vehicle identification number. As you might expect, they even have their own Website.
This one seeming has all the right moves and still rocks the standard 170-CID straight six and 3-on-the-tree manual gearbox. A Dana 20 transfer case sends power to both front and rear axle, as it should.
Let’s talk about that straight six for a moment.
Ford’s third generation inline six was an OHV design originally intended for the compact Falcon and offered in that line in 144-CID form.
The 170 is a stroked version of the 144 and it served as the Mustang’s standard mill at that model’s debut. These engines are long known for their durability and reliability. In fact, should you ever need a pacemaker, you could do far worse than to have one of these powering it. It’s that confidence inspiring.
The version used in the Bronco is even stouter than the one that came in the ‘Stangs, featuring mechanical lifters, and providing a calculated gross output of 105-bhp.
This one is said to “run and drive good” and comes with a clean title. It also comes with a good bit of patina but the seller says it’s a solid citizen. The floor panels have been replaced and while the work there might take away form the truck’s originality, at least you wouldn’t have to Fred Flintstone it while driving.
One perk of buying this Bronco is that you also get a bunch of Bronco Bits that go along with it. Those including a rolling frame - with its own clear title - and a top and doors if the whole Roadster thing doesn’t quite ford your stream.
The price tag for that package deal price is $8,900. Broncos, like Panteras, have skyrocketed in value in the past decade and it’s now time for you to decide if this one’s price sets off fireworks in your head.
What’s is your take on this U13 Bronco and that $8,900 asking? Is that a deal that should have someone Bronco busting down the seller’s door? Or, to that do you simply say horsefeathers?
You decide!
Phoenix AZ Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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