One Polished Pony – Rain City Garage Blends Vintage Charm with Refined Performance in a 1974 Bronco
Who doesn’t love seeing a vintage Bronco cruising down the road? There’s just something refreshing about witnessing Ford’s boxy little first-generation SUV bopping down the street in a sea of swoopy, digitally controlled, belly button modern SUVs. The sight of one out in the wild, like this emerald green 1974 Bronco, just has to make you smile.
The only negative that comes to mind is the fact that these vintage rigs ride and drive like the utilitarian vehicles they were built to be. The ride is twitchy thanks to a short wheelbase (which is great for navigating trails), they have tall windows in doors that never seal, they lack most modern amenities and have minimal insulation or sound deadening. An early SUV of any sort is something you literally have to drive and accepting that is often the price you pay in exchange for the pride and experience of driving something different.
Don Backstrom loves the first-gen Broncos, which were manufactured from 1966–77. In fact, he’s owned eight of them, but he felt it was time to have one with modern drivability, a better ride, and maybe even some luxury type features inside. He had an original ’74 Ranger in the garage but what it offered in originality, it lacked in his comfort and performance goals. To meet his requirements, he turned his ’74 Bronco over to the crew at Rain City Garage in Lake Stevens, Washington.
Don explained that he wanted the Bronco to retain its original appearance and color, a Northwest-friendly Ivy Glow Poly hue with Ranger stripes. He didn’t want to cut the fenders or add flares, but did want it lifted with beefy tires underneath along with serious power. The interior was also to look original with ginger-colored houndstooth and the factory low-back seats, but it needed modern amenities and comfort.
As you can see, the Rain City crew came through on all of Don’s requests and then some! At a casual glance the Bronco looks like a really nice restoration, albeit with a modest lift and glossier-than-stock green paint. Upon second inspection, though, you may notice the dual front shocks, the glossy frame rails, and an exhaust note that is definitely not something an early Bronco could ever produce. In short, there’s a lot going on with this square little Ford…a Coyote in a Bronco’s clothing one might say.
We’re not wrong in stating “Coyote” instead of “wolf,” as beneath the factory hood of Don’s Bronco is a 480-horsepower Coyote drivetrain including a 10R80 transmission and modern electronic transfer case. All this performance is secured in a fresh 2×4-inch, CNC mandrel bent Kincer chassis complemented with 9-inch front and rear axle assemblies, 31-spline axles, Bilstein shocks, Wilwood disc brakes, lockers, and heavy-duty everything.
Did you notice those steel wheels and stock 1974 Bronco hubcaps? The wheels are slightly larger diameter 16x7s wrapped with 245/75 BFGoodrich All Terrain tires. Rain City fabricated adapters to accept the stock hubcaps for a sneaky stock look combined with a hand-made swing-out spare tire holder and factory style tire cover for a fitting touch.
Once the big spare is swung out of the way, the tailgate opens to a beautifully restored 1974 Bronco ginger and houndstooth interior recovered by All City Convertible and Custom. Like the rest of this pony, the more you look, the more subtle upgrades you notice: the speaker grilles on the front of the rear wheel wells, the enclosure under the rear seat housing the subwoofer, the Classic Instruments gauge cluster, Vintage Air, and a tilt Flaming River column. The factory AM radio is even in place, though only the dials are used to control the hidden stereo system.
The body, as per Don’s wishes, was stripped to bare metal, smoothed, and prepped for a fresh coat of Ivy Glow Poly in PPG’s Envirobase paint that looks deeper than ever thanks to Regenerated Rides. They also retained the factory Ranger stripe package to complete the original color selection. All the lights were upgraded to LEDs, the stainless polished to showroom-new condition, along with fresh chrome bumpers. Under the hood received similar treatment with smoothed green steel and detailed work surrounding the 5.0-liter engine.
Don’s 1974 Bronco, thanks to Rain City Garage, is essentially the equivalent a pro-touring muscle machine build but in a 4×4 SUV. It has incredible handling capabilities (on or off-road) thanks to the new chassis, modern drivability with serious Ford performance, and a comfortable interior with modern amenities. Put it all together with careful attention to detail and you have one cool cruising vintage SUV that catches smiles and thumbs up every time.
Photos: Todd Ryden
