LONG BEFORE THE GLADIATOR, FORD OFFERED THIS 1966 BRONCO SPORTS UTILITY PICKUP

Long before Tacoma, Gladiator, or even the compact Ranger, Ford offered the original Bronco with a pickup body option.

From the debut year of the iconic off-roader, this 1966 Ford Bronco Sports Utility 4x4 is presently offered at Hemmings Auctions. Ford offered its “All-Purpose Vehicle” in three distinct body styles: the roofless, doorless Roadster; the Wagon, with a full, removable steel top that extended all the way to the rear of the vehicle; and the Sports Utility, which split the difference of the two other models with it short steel roof covering only the front passenger compartment.

The Sports Utility’s roof was a bolt-on, owner-removable unit like the larger version on the Wagon. And like the Wagon, it also had full-size doors with roll-up glass. Ford advertised “unlimited versatility” with any of the three Broncos and fitted all of them with four-wheel drive and a Dana 20 transfer case as standard equipment.

The original Bronco had an options list to match its rugged, adventurous spirit. That equipment included a compass, a CB radio, a front-mounted winch, and Warn free-running hubs for the off-road crowd and a snowplow, trailer hitch or power take-off for those looking to the utility side of this old-school sport utility vehicle.

When the Bronco debuted, Ford’s 170-cu.in. straight-six was the only engine available, with a 289-cu.in. V8 added halfway through the model year. Ford pitched its engine as “Bix Six Power,” noting that it made more power than “any comparable American-built utility vehicle.” Certainly that’s a narrow definition, but power is not the deciding factor in off-road prowess, of course.

This 1966 Bronco features a handful of mild upgrades, starting with that 170 inline-six under the hood. Poking through the hood of this Bronco is a pair of Stromberg carburetors in place of the original single carb. The seller indicates that the engine was rebuilt and notes no issues with the column-shifted three-speed manual transmission or the floor-shifted two-speed transfer case.

The light blue finish, which extends inside to the interior doors, was refinished at some point and contrasts nicely with the white top and white painted grille. Slotted mag wheels complete the look. The bed looks to be coated in bedliner material while the interior has carpeting. A rear-facing fold-down bench seat fills a good chunk of the bed.

Far from the restomods that seem to have dominated the early Bronco market in recent years, this mildly modded 1966 Ford Bronco Sports Utility appears to be the sort of highly capable, honest little truck that Ford build 57 years ago. Take a look at it over at Hemmings Auctions to see if it offers the simple kind of utility you want in an off-road vehicle.

2023-10-27T14:08:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd