Buying Tips: Look out for rust

When we talk about rust we are not talking about the surface rust that is on a brake rotor after setting for a week of on a new sheet of steel left out in the rain but the rust that has been there for years and pits the metal. There are a few areas in a Bronco that are known for rust, places that hold dust and water. Like the hood cowl- windshield frame area, the L & R floor boards and inner fenders also the rocker panels and door posts.When we bought this Bronco the only rust we found was a few spots in the floor but after we sand blasted the Bronco inside, outside and underneath we found about 10 places that had very small rust spots that didn’t even show through the paint. They sand blasted off 3 coats of paint to get down to the metal. After we inspected the Bronco we also found some small stress cracks.

These are the driver and passenger floor boards from underneath sometimes covered in undercoating so watch out for cover up work around these areas lift up the carpet or floor mats to look for rust sometimes the floor looks great but it looks a little different usually people glue or screw a flat sheet of metal over the bad section so if the floor pan doesn’t have grooves in it, it’s most likely a cover, not a deal breaker but if one thing is covered up you will want to look for other poor quality work.