One Bad Bronco

Parts Truck Turned Primo Build.

- Anthony Soos

Onefine day, Rich Gochanour was on the lookout for a parts truck to be cannibalized for a different Bronco project. Gochanour was talking with a good friend of his who just happened to have a derelict ’66 sitting around taking up space. A lowbuck deal was struck for the mostly there Ford, which was then parked over at his house for a few years. But a funny thing happened over a slow course of time. The novelty of building a Half Cab instead of the original project he had gotten the parts truck for now made more sense.

As many builds start, this Bronco was only destined to be a weekend fun-runner that had a few custom touches. In-between a string of build-then-stop sessions, Gochanour decided to let the guys over at CAL Automotive Creations work their magic. What came out in the end was a tough-looking, understated, but finely crafted build that hit all the right points without going overboard. He had laid out a definitive plan, and achieved the goal with no extra steps taken. The outcome was a balanced build that mated form and function perfectly.

Sporting a 5 1/2-inch James Duff lift kit with J.D.-supplied radius arms and rear leafs with Bilstein 7100s on all four corners, it has all the spring travel and dampening to swallow up whatever nature can throw at it. If nature throws too much at it, the custom-designed, 1 5/8inch rollbar built by CAL Automotive Creations will protect the driver and passenger from danger. This Bronco has the confidence to storm the trails and use all of what this dirt-centric wheel and tire combo—17x9 Method 101 Beadlocks mated to 35x12.5R17 Toyo Open Country MTs..