Classic Broncos: Bronco Stories: The Baja Bronco

Strap in folks, this is a loooong post.

This is a new segment here at the blog, we will take a subject that involves classic Broncos, be that a model, a person or a company and dive deep into the records and see if we can discover something new.

Artwork by Tom Cheney

The Baja Bronco is about the most written about model in the history of the Bronco, yet I always found the stories short and lacking detail or making assumptions that you already know a lot about the Bronco.

I decided to dig in and find out everything I could about the model and the men who created it, then share what I learned.

Before talking about parts that made the Baja Broncos unique, we should talk about how Bill Stroppe came to build these for Ford.

Ford had a history of building factory custom automobiles, the Shelby Mustangs, Boss Mustangs, Cougar Eliminators, The Twister Specials...these were factory cars fitted with high performance parts that were engineered by people who raced them.

Bill Stroppe had been racing and building race cars (even some boats) since the late 1940s.

He gravitated towards Lincolns, then Mercuries and eventually Fords. When Ford introduced the Bronco in 1966, desert racing was just getting started and the Bronco seemed like a good candidate for conquering the punishing terrain.

Bill Stroppe was in Long Beach California in the mid 1960's and had teamed up with Holman and Moody, a team from North Carolina who had mucho success in NASCAR and SCCA racing.

In the summer of 1965 Ford sent Stroppe two Broncos for him to evaluate (they also sent one to Carrol Shelby, but that is another story).

Stroppe began modifying Broncos immediately after getting his hands on one.

He built one of those Broncos (see below) into a race ready machine that won the Four-Wheel Drive Grand Prix at Riverside in March of 1966. I believe it was the first time a Bronco was entered in a race....and it won. The boys in Dearborn were no doubt happy about the press the Bronco was receiving.

Soon others were doing the same. James Duff was in Los Angeles and the team of Karp & Sealund (K-Bar-S) were in San Diego as was Viva Broncos. Between them new parts were developed as parts broke or opportunities for improvement were discovered. It is hard to say who came up with which parts first.

This is the cover of Four Wheeler Magazine from August of 1966, just one year after Ford announced the Bronco. I believe this is the first Bronco modified by Bill Stroppe, note the peak in the roll bar.

The ad below is from a 1966 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine

The Stroppe team

Keep in mind that Southern California was hot rodding and racing central. There was no shortage of mechanical ability in Southern California in the mid to late 1960's.

In the time between the introduction of the Bronco in August of 1965 and the first HMS catalog of Bronco parts in 1967 a lot of innovation concerning the Bronco had already begun.

Note the paint scheme on the Bronco displayed on the front cover of the catalog below (and on the sticker below that), see how the front of the hood is painted the lower body color? This was a trademark of Stroppe Bronco paint jobs and made its way onto the Baja Broncos.

Ford asked Stroppe if he would be interested in preparing some pre-ordered Broncos with his special parts made for the Baja.

In July of 1968 one of the first 1969 models, A Wimbledon white V-8 Sport Wagon, was set aside and shipped to Holman-Moody-Stroppe for testing the feasibility of making a special model featuring the parts in the HMS catalog.

The Bronco, seen below was outfitted with larger tires and wheels, fender flares, roll bar, padded steering wheel, power steering and a floor shifter. Many of the parts that would end up on the Baja Bronco.

The motor was worked over too, getting a four-barrel carb and intake as well as a chrome, low profile air cleaner. Headers and Holman-Moody aluminum valve covers were also part of the upgrades. I imagine a hi-po camshaft was also part of the upgrades, but I have no information regarding that.

They also repainted the Bronco in the color that would become the trademark of the Baja Broncos...."poppy red". They called the project "The Bronco Hunter".

The Bronco was found by a collector and restored, see the pictures below:

Backing up a bit, in 1968 Parnelli Jones was part owner in a Ford Dealership in Torrence, CA.

They had built at least one 1968 Ford Torino GT with some performance upgrades and called it the "Parnelli Jones Special".

They gave a similar treatment to a 1968 Ford Bronco. Take note of the chrome Stroppe roll bar, the 8.5" wide chrome wheels, bumper braces and the paint scheme....all items that would end up as part of the Baja Bronco package. Jones also used a chromed grill on the Bronco that eventually became Big Oly.

Was this Bronco related to the Baja Program? Was it a trial run to test public reaction? Was this Parnelli's personal Bronco?

Was Parnelli more involved in the Baja Bronco than previously thought? This Bronco brings up a lot of questions.

I will author a post on both the Bronco Hunter and the Parnelli Jones Special if/when more info becomes available.

Ford loved the Bronco Hunter and by 1970 they were ready to announce the new Baja Bronco. By that time Holman-Moody pulled out of the partnership, Bill Stroppe & Associates would be putting the finishing touches on the Baja Broncos.

The picture below shows Bill Stroppe with his two transmission options, the C-4 with custom adaptor and the Top Loader 4-speed, which used the factory 3-speed adaptor.

Before getting too deep into the woods, I think it is important to say this, not very many of the 500 or so Baja Broncos were equipped with identical options and parts.

For starters the Baja Broncos were built on 1971-1975 models, which there were a few factory changes during those years. For instance, Ford added power steering and automatic transmission as options in 1973. It would stand to reason that the Baja Broncos made after 1973 would be ordered with those options, rather than performing the conversions at Stroppe's Shop. This means that the 1971 and 1972 Baja Broncos with power steering used the Stroppe adapted GM Saginaw box, while Baja Broncos produced in '73, '74 & '75 (most likely) had the factory supplied steering box.

Secondly the Baja Bronco buyers were allowed to add or delete options.

Lastly, Ford dealers often had "dealer installed" options that were either sanctioned by Ford or were independent of the factory. These parts may or may not have been supplied by Stroppe.

See the order sheets below:

The list of standard Baja Bronco equipment (added by Stroppe) includes:

Roll bar
Cushioned steering wheel
Automatic transmission
Power steering
Gates 10.00x15 tires (including spare)
8.5 x 15 painted (white) steel wheels
Chrome lug nuts
Dual shocks front & rear
Rear fender flares, trimmer front fenders
Trailer hitch
Front bumper braces and bumperettes
Baja Bronco trim (decals & spare tire carrier)

We'll get to the optional items added by Stroppe later

The Stroppe team took a Bronco rolling chassis and installed all of their upgrades to it. The upgraded parts were painted white, while many of the factory parts were painted metallic blue and the frame was painted orange. We'll dig into those color choices in a bit.

The Baja Broncos all started from Ford as a U15 Sport Wagon, meaning they had the Sport model trim package with a full hardtop and a 302 ci V-8 motor.

Let's discuss the colors of the Baja Bronco. The tops were painted metallic blue, which I am told is Astra Metallic Blue. The middle section was painted Wimbledon White, a signature color for Ford used on every make and model of Ford for years. The bottom was painted "Poppy Red", I put that in quotes because the color is actually orange, a bit of a reddish orange, but orange, nonetheless. The hoods were painted a flat or satin black and the grills painted an argent/silver.

The paint scheme came from Stroppe's many race cars that he had been building since the 1950's, the color scheme of a blue top, white middle and orangish red bottom became Stroppe's signature.

The flat black hood was a result of Stroppe's off-road racing experience, it cuts down on the glare, here is the Big Oly Bronco when it was called the "Crazy Colt".

Badging was also important. The Baja Broncos came with a special sticker mounted under and in front of the B in the Bronco fender emblem. Even though these were Sport Bronco models, Ford put the standard Bronco Script in lieu of the Sport Bronco emblems so that the sticker could be added later.

Out back the factory swing-away spare tire carrier now held a larger spare to match the bigger tires. Stroppe included a special spare tire cover emblazoned with the Baja Bronco logo.

Perhaps the first modification to Broncos in the early days were the addition of larger tires. The Broncos originally came stock with puny 7.35-15 tires, which were about 26-27" in diameter. In order to fit the 10.0-15 tires and 8.5" wide rims (about 30" in diameter), the rear fender skirts had to be cut.

Here is a picture of James Duff's first Bronco (1966) with cut out fenders. Duff was a body and fender guy by trade. This was probably done before Stroppe started selling the rear fender flares.

Gates Commando tires and a choice of 8.5" x 15 steel rims in white, optional chrome steel wheels or Ansen Sprint aluminum 5 slot wheels.

The tire/wheel combo was not just taller (3-4") but also wider.

The bigger tire/wheel necessitated some sheet metal trimming. In the front the fenders were trimmed at the front edge, at the rear new fiberglass fender flares were engineered to match the body lines of the front wheel well.

The fiberglass rear flares were made by Viva Broncos in San Diego and installed by Stroppe and sold in his catalog.

Note: Baja Broncos never came with front fender flares.

Here is a comparison of a Stroppe trimmed front fender and a stock untrimmed fender courtesy of BajaBronco.com

One innovation that came early in the development of the desert racing Broncos was double shocks. The Mono-Beam, coil spring front suspension, combined with the short 92" wheelbase made the Bronco buck like its namesake. Adding larger tires and their additional unsprung weight made things worse.

For the rear shocks, different locations were tried early on, like the rear set below, mounted inside the frame rails. These are on the Larry Minor/Rod Hall Bronco that Stroppe built in 1968. They appear to be a set of truck rear shock mounts, that Stroppe had in his catalog.

This worked on race Broncos because they used a fuel cell mounted in the bed, Baja Broncos needed that space for the factory rear fuel tank, so they needed to mount them outside the frame.

The obvious answer was to duplicate the factory rear shock mount and mount them in front of the rear axle. I don't know if Stroppe built these or bought them from Ford.

The front required a bit more ingenuity, they built brackets from 1/2" thick steel, cut at an angle to fit the in recess of the front coil spring bucket

While writing this article and posting the pictures I noticed the front springs are painted white, while the rears are painted blue. Is it possible that a front spring upgrade was offered by Stroppe?

In the early days, before lift kits were available, Bronco owners would buy new front coil springs from their local Ford dealer. They would specify springs for a 4WD F-150 that came equipped with a 390 engine, as they had a higher spring rate to compensate for the heavier FE block engine, which weighed some 190 lbs. more than the 302 and 260 lbs. more than the 170 six cylinder.

Another feature of the Stroppe Baja Bronco was the automatic transmission. Ford did not offer an automatic in the Bronco in 1971, so a transmission to transfer case adaptor had to be designed.

While Ford did offer an automatic in the 1/2 ton Ford 4WD pickups, those transfer cases were divorced and did not need an adaptor. The Bronco was too short of a wheelbase for a divorced transfer case and so an adaptor was required. I don't know if Ford had any hand in the design, but when Ford did offer the C-4 Automatic in the Bronco (in 1973), the adaptor was identical to the one above, minus the Stroppe name cast into the side of course.

Because the Bronco did not come with an automatic as an option, the radiator was not equipped to cool the fluid, so Stroppe added an aftermarket transmission cooler. It was mounted under the fan so air could be pulled through it. An expanded metal grate acted as a grill.

Keep in mind that not all Baja Broncos got the automatic transmission. We know of at least two that came equipped with 4-speed toploader transmissions.

This a relatively easy and not too uncommon swap as the Ford 3-speed and 4-speed toploaders share the same case. It did, of course, require the use of a floor shifter.

While I haven't seen these 4 speed Baja Broncos, I imagine that Stroppe swapped the steering column collar with the 3 speed shift provisions, for a collar from a floor shifted Mustang or F-series truck.

The adaptor and cooling were just part the battle in installing an automatic. The factory three speed steering column had to be jettisoned and replaced with a modified F-Series truck automatic steering column.

While we are talking about the steering column, we should also mention the steering wheel. Stroppe wanted to use the stock wheel, but off-road racing taught him that more cushion was needed. The steering wheel would often be ripped from your hands when running down a wash at speed.

James Duff put Stroppe in connection with a Canadian firm that could dip the factory wheels in a foam solution, that when cured left a soft yet durable coating. Stroppe added these to every Baja Bronco and also sold them in the catalog. When you ordered one from the catalog, you had to pay a core charge or return your old steering wheel to Stroppe, who would then send it off to be coated and sold to another Bronco owner.

Moving onto the rest of the steering. Broncos had manual steering boxes until 1973, which worked fine with small tires and street only cruising, but quickly went tango uniform when the Bronco wore big tires and hit the rough trails. A solution came in the form of a GM power steering box and a factory Ford pump and brackets.

To mount the box, Stroppe engineers had to build a new front driver's side body mount.

After 1973 the Broncos just came from Ford with the factory power steering.

The front of the Baja Broncos almost always had a set of bumper braces and usually bumperetts or the optional "Cactus Smasher" pushbar.

The bumper braces:

Another standard item was the roll bar. Stroppe designed this to support the roof in the event of a roll over. Stroppe's bar had 4 mounting points. The two rearward bars ran along the bed rails, just visible in the rear windows. I believe he built them like this to minimize blind spots

A signature feature of the Stroppe roll bar was the hump in the center. This is probably for strength, but he was about the only one who built roll bars this way. Another thought is maybe it makes the rolled over Broncos easier to right?

Here is an early version of his roll bar on the HMS/Hot Rod Magazine Bronco.

Note the Gates Commando front tires and Goodyear Terra tires in the rear. Also take note of the rear fenders, they were custom flared using sheet metal. This may have been the first Bronco to get its fenders cut and they got it spot on.

This next Stroppe fitted standard part had less to do with off-roading and more to do with utility. Stroppe designed a nice, compact tow hitch that would tuck between the rear bumper and the fuel tank and attach with the factory bumper bolts.

Now that we have covered the "typical" Stroppe standard items, we can get to the large list of optional items.

The diagram below shows some of them.

We'll start with an obvious one, the "Cactus Smasher" push bar.

Most of the Cactus Smashers came with light tabs, but at least one has been discovered without them (perhaps it was an early production unit?). The Cibie lights shown below were yet another option.

This also comes from Stroppe's experiences in desert racing. Here is the Bronco Stroppe prepared for the Larry Minor/Rod Hall team in 1968. The Cactus Smasher and bumper braces installed on this rig made their way to the Baja Bronco.

The Cactus Smasher was usually painted the orange body color, but sometimes it came chrome plated. We have also seen them in white and black. These were possibly added later as the Stroppe catalog offered them in white and black.

While we are at the front end of the Bronco we might as well talk about the tow bar. These tow bars could be installed on a Baja Bronco or purchased from the catalog.

On the interior Stroppe offered a full roll cage that connected with the rear roll bar.

A third/middle seat was also offered along with carpeting, a column mounted tachometer and competition seat belts (not shown)

A unique option was the rear side sliding windows

Stroppe also offered air bags for the front coils and a set of air bag/coil overloads for the rear

Engine performance mods were among the common options. Stroppe's shop was, after all, used to building race vehicles. These options included:

Headers and dual exhaust
Four-barrel manifold and carburetor with low profile chrome air cleaner
"RV" Camshaft
Flexalite fan
Distributor cap cover (to keep moisture out)
351 Windsor motor swap, with the above options and a Mustang Boss 429 hood scoop

Air Conditioning was also offered as were Detroit Lockers.

Rumor is that a couple of Bajas were ordered in solid color, not sure if wimbledon white or poppy red.

At least one Baja Bronco appears to have come with a rear sway bar installed.

And two Baja Broncos have been documented as to having Stroppe installed rocker panel guards.

As mentioned above, another rare option was the 351 Windsor motor swap. The 351W is wider and slightly taller than the 302 and thus required a hood scoop. Stroppe chose to use the Boss 429 Mustang's scoop.

Some of you reading this may have been asking yourself: What did Stroppe do with all the factory parts he removed from the Baja Broncos? He sold them of course!

Over the course of the five years (1971-1975) somewhere between 400 and 650 Baja Broncos were produced (depending on who you ask). This makes them pretty rare.

There were other Broncos, that were prepared by Stroppe, outside of the Baja Bronco program. The number of these rigs is unknown.

In November of 1974 Bill Stroppe ended the Baja Bronco program, apparently for financial reasons. Ford was left with dozens of Broncos, already painted and ready to be shipped to Long Beach. These were all 1975 models, as with most car makers they begin shipping the next model year by July/August of the previous year.

Kurt Strecker, the infamous baja racer, former owner of Viva Broncos and creator of the fiberglass Bronco fender flares, was now working for Ford in Colorado. He had the idea to market these not-yet Baja Broncos and got local Ford dealer Golden Motors on board.

These Broncos had a paint scheme that matched that of the Denver NFL team....also called the Broncos (if you didn't know) the idea was spawned to order up these surplus blue, white and orange Broncos and sell them as "Denver Bronco Special Edition" models. These of course were Sport Wagons with all of the factory options that came on the Baja Broncos, which included power steering and automatic transmissions. Somewhere between 50 and 100 Broncos were initially delivered to Golden Motors, who then sold or traded them to other Ford dealers in the area.

There were a few ordered later in 1975 with the Ranger trim package in orange or white paint with contrasting stripes and blue interiors. The roofs were painted blue by the dealer, then sold as "DBSE" Broncos, but these aren't considered the real deal.

The Broncos were delivered to Golden Motors with the rear fenders intact and many of the DBSE Broncos are still wearing their skirted fenders.

It is also possible that Golden Motors (or some of the other Ford dealers) added Stroppe accessories for the customers, like roll bars, Cactus Smasher push bars or fender flares, creating a mess for people in figuring out if their Bronco is a Baja or Denver Bronco.

The District Sales Office or DSO code is one way of telling them apart. The build date also helps as does the lack of certain parts like dual shock mounts.

You would think the market for faked Baja Broncos would be ripe for counterfeits, but according to Andrew of BajaBronco.com that hasn't been much of a problem...at least not yet.

I did find this Bronco, which the owner was honest enough to advertise it as a tribute.

It does have some things that tell a well-versed Bronco nut that this is not an original Stroppe Baja Bronco, including: wrong roll bar, front fender flares, painted head light rings and it appears to have the wrong paint color.

The Baja Broncos continue to be popular; I think it was in 2018 that Revell began offering a 1/25 Bronco model kit, a short time later they offered a Baja Bronco kit. So now, you can build your own.