This former Border Patrol 1996 Ford Bronco ended up as a farm truck in Mississippi before being rescued and heading to its new home in Chicago where it would get restored to its Border Patrol days.
The Border Patrol’s $750,000 “Bronco Body off/Frame up Restoration Program (Restoration Program)”, which operated in early 2001 was responsible for rebuilding 129 Broncos out of a fleet of 1800 vehicles in San Diego. See the .PDF below:
U.S. Border Patrol’s Vehicle Disposal And Sales Program
According to this report, it seems that later only 23 running (meaning not scrap) Broncos that had gone through the restoration program were sold to wholesalers, who resold them to the public. Each had an average of $10K spent on new mechanical components (labor was not included) and were driven an average of 19 months and about 14,000 miles beyond their restoration, before selling them in 2003.
The Border Patrol did not leave these suspensions stock. Some of the Bronco’s in the San Diego area received a Rancho 4-inch lift, MileMarker Manual locking hubs, extended radius arms, Bilstein front and rear shocks with straps to keep from overextending the shocks. This Bronco was one of them. Tires were 31×12.50’s.
This Bronco was in great shape mechanically (the owner did replace and update the steering box) but had a lot of cosmetic issues. The seats were replaced with ones from a donor Bronco, and the door panels are actually new old stock (NOS). The worn-out smelly carpet was replaced with a new one.
The rear of the Bronco received a Federal Signal AS-2 blue and amber halogen light, while the front grill received red and blue Whelen lights. The interior received a center console with a Motorola radio and a Whelen siren.
A new prisoner cage and window bars were built from scratch.
The Bronco wasn’t fully repainted, just the areas that needed it.
The fleet number, H6230, is the original number that was assigned to this vehicle. The faded outlines of the number, as well as the assigned station (CHU) were still visible when the Bronco was bought. Replacement decals were made by a local sign shop.
I was wanting to feature a fullsize Bronco and thought it would be interesting to feature one used for law enforcement. In my search I found this Bronco online from a post dating all the way back to 2012. I really have no idea where the Bronco is today, but it’s definitely cool.
Photo Gallery:
Click the photos to enlarge.
