So... I have no idea how to write this thread so, I'm just going to tell you the story that led me into my rig and our road back to 'showroom ready' ...well maybe not showroom but at least cruise in proud :thumbup
Well, a little about me, I've never been your average girl... I like bad a$$ classic trucks, muscle cars, and getting dirty. A Tom boy thru & thru, I've always been 'just one of the guys'. I'm happily married 19 years this October to a great guy. A Marine corps wife and mother who is a proud Patriot with a love for all things that scream 'America'.
My grandmother's 67 Camaro is what originally got me into cars, but it was my first real boyfriend when I was 16 that got me really into cars. It was there I cut my teeth helping him restore a 79 Camaro. It was my second boyfriend that got me into trucks with his 1980 GMC Jimmy. After that, and with my love of horses at the time, a Bronco was my must get dream car..
Fast forward over a decade and I finally got my first Bronco, a 1989 black bricknose. It was love at first site. We took that rig EVERYWHERE and she never let us down. Well 6 years of Northwest Pa winters and less then stellar maintenance took their toll and I had to say goodbye to my rig :frown2:
After that it was a series of cars that were more of a need then a want with the promise of one day getting another Bronco. So started the obsession. Always looking, dreaming till one day about a dozen years later, a random dog bite finally gave hubby the opportunity to make good on that promise. So the hunt began.
Originally, it was to be a second gen, 78-79... Then I got to thinking, while they're beautiful I liked more of the modern conveniences that came with the 3rd gen. Cruise, power windows/locks, & auto locking hubs (that was a big one). I knew I wanted something that's spent most of its life in the South, far away from salted roads. I knew since it was going to be buying site unseen (for the most part) that it had to be at a dealer (provides more recourse if u get a bum deal that's not what they promised), it had to be in relatively good shape (pass pa inspection), it had to be carb'd (no EFI), and I knew it had to be under $15k shipped. After a solid year of looking I find my rig :thumbup at a dealer down in Texas, auto history has it spending most of its life in Arkansas and a few years in Texas. Check 1 box, it's at a dealer, check 2 boxes, in the pictures it looks really clean, no real rust, the underside had just been completely redone, the video of it running showed a couple issues, but nothing that screamed it was dying. The interior was dirty and worn, but the seats weren't torn so it was a good starting point and it was under budget listed at $12,999 (but that was way over priced imo). All the check boxes were checked so we put it on our watch list and waited for things to finalize with the dog bite settlement (what a nightmare).
It took another 3 months to settle, in which every day I was worried she'd sell. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought it was overpriced. Finally the settlement comes thru and they had dropped the price of the 82 under $10k so we pulled the trigger. We bought her thru the dealership's eBay listing so we had more buyer security from eBay and PayPal. Made arrangements with a different shipper a friend in Oklahoma had used regularly (he & his son like to buy race cars) saving me over $2k from what the dealer was going to charge me for open shipping. The guy we used, Montway, was closed shipping so no worries with theft or damage in the 2 day drive from Texas to Northwest PA... Within 2 weeks she'd be here! Arrival date was November 19th, 2018 :thumbup
Well, a little about me, I've never been your average girl... I like bad a$$ classic trucks, muscle cars, and getting dirty. A Tom boy thru & thru, I've always been 'just one of the guys'. I'm happily married 19 years this October to a great guy. A Marine corps wife and mother who is a proud Patriot with a love for all things that scream 'America'.
My grandmother's 67 Camaro is what originally got me into cars, but it was my first real boyfriend when I was 16 that got me really into cars. It was there I cut my teeth helping him restore a 79 Camaro. It was my second boyfriend that got me into trucks with his 1980 GMC Jimmy. After that, and with my love of horses at the time, a Bronco was my must get dream car..
Fast forward over a decade and I finally got my first Bronco, a 1989 black bricknose. It was love at first site. We took that rig EVERYWHERE and she never let us down. Well 6 years of Northwest Pa winters and less then stellar maintenance took their toll and I had to say goodbye to my rig :frown2:
After that it was a series of cars that were more of a need then a want with the promise of one day getting another Bronco. So started the obsession. Always looking, dreaming till one day about a dozen years later, a random dog bite finally gave hubby the opportunity to make good on that promise. So the hunt began.
Originally, it was to be a second gen, 78-79... Then I got to thinking, while they're beautiful I liked more of the modern conveniences that came with the 3rd gen. Cruise, power windows/locks, & auto locking hubs (that was a big one). I knew I wanted something that's spent most of its life in the South, far away from salted roads. I knew since it was going to be buying site unseen (for the most part) that it had to be at a dealer (provides more recourse if u get a bum deal that's not what they promised), it had to be in relatively good shape (pass pa inspection), it had to be carb'd (no EFI), and I knew it had to be under $15k shipped. After a solid year of looking I find my rig :thumbup at a dealer down in Texas, auto history has it spending most of its life in Arkansas and a few years in Texas. Check 1 box, it's at a dealer, check 2 boxes, in the pictures it looks really clean, no real rust, the underside had just been completely redone, the video of it running showed a couple issues, but nothing that screamed it was dying. The interior was dirty and worn, but the seats weren't torn so it was a good starting point and it was under budget listed at $12,999 (but that was way over priced imo). All the check boxes were checked so we put it on our watch list and waited for things to finalize with the dog bite settlement (what a nightmare).
It took another 3 months to settle, in which every day I was worried she'd sell. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought it was overpriced. Finally the settlement comes thru and they had dropped the price of the 82 under $10k so we pulled the trigger. We bought her thru the dealership's eBay listing so we had more buyer security from eBay and PayPal. Made arrangements with a different shipper a friend in Oklahoma had used regularly (he & his son like to buy race cars) saving me over $2k from what the dealer was going to charge me for open shipping. The guy we used, Montway, was closed shipping so no worries with theft or damage in the 2 day drive from Texas to Northwest PA... Within 2 weeks she'd be here! Arrival date was November 19th, 2018 :thumbup