Hagerty Video: Will Driving A Car in DEEP Water Kill Its Resale Value? 1971 Ford Bronco | The Appraiser

Hagerty Video Transcript

– [Colin] 1971 Bronco. It’s not correct. It’s not original, it’s not restored. – It’s like having a Labrador Retriever. Everybody’s happy to see it. – It’s been bashed around a little bit. – [Corey] Well, it’s a Ford if you don’t ford a stream. – (laughs) Okay.

When it comes to value, however, condition does matter. Turn your driving dreams into a reality. At hemmings.com, the world’s most trusted collector car marketplace since 1954. Hemmings offers live online auctions and tens of thousands of collector cars, trucks, and bikes daily. Corey? – [Corey] Yeah. – [Colin] Hey, I’m Colin. – [Corey] Good to meet you. – [Colin] Nice to meet you. So early Bronco. – [Corey] 1971. – [Colin] You really brought one of these to be appraised or you nuts? – Oh yeah. (both chuckles) Well, they’re all worth $100,000, I’m told. – $300,000.

– Oh, excellent. Even better. – Yeah. – Even better. – Stick in a pair of jacks- in them. – Awesome, awesome. – That’s what they go for. – Okay, kids that need to go to school, that’ll work. – (chuckles) Kidding aside, tell me a little bit about it.

– I’ve always wanted a car that sort of is welcome anywhere. – [Colin] Uh-huh. – And the great thing about having a Bronco like this is that I can go to Ferrari Concour, I can go to a Hot Rod Show, I can go off-roading. Whatever it is, anywhere you go, people are like,

“Oh, dude, ride Bronco.” It’s like having a Labrador Retriever. Like everybody’s happy to see it. ’71 is kind of interesting ’cause they went to a Dana 44 by then. So from an off-road standpoint, it’s a little better equipped from the factory. – But you sent us a video of this thing going

Through water up to about here. – [Corey] Well, it’s a Ford if you don’t ford a stream. – (chuckles) Okay, well so you wheel it, you drive it on the street- – Yep. – You have fun with it. I mean, what’s your intention going forward?

Are you gonna leave it alone or are you gonna do more to it? – My family all loves it. My kids like to be around it. So it’s something that I’m sure we’ll just continue to do little things too and improve it. At some point, you know, we’ll make it nice

And hopefully that doesn’t ruin the fun. – That that’s always the problem. – [Corey] Absolutely. – You gotta balance that. – Exactly. – Well, you know, why you’re here? You’ve agreed to let me do- – [Corey] Sure. – An appraisal of it.

So if it’s all right with you, I’d like to spend some time, poke around it, look through it, and in the meantime we’re gonna lock you away and we’re done. We’re gonna come let you out of jail and have a conversation. – No worries. No worries at all. – [Colin] All right, cool.

– All right. – Talk to you in a little bit. – Thank you. All right. – Thank you. So I’ve completed my inspection of Corey’s 1971 Bronco. Now, obviously you can look at the truck and tell it’s not restored, it’s not a concours vehicle and it’s also not a perfect original vehicle. It’s basically the equivalent of a Swiss Army knife at this point. He uses it for an intended purpose.

He takes it off road. He has fun with it. He drives his family around in it, and he’s a disruptor at car shows when he rolls in with this thing that’s like 15 different colors. So we’re not gonna get deep into the condition

Because as you can see, it has a lot of faults to it. But that’s not the point here. It’s been made to suit, again, his particular purpose. It has a suspension lift, it has a body lift, it has rock sliders on the rocker panels, everything on it. It’s just purposeful and nice,

And it does what’s supposed to do. It’s been bashed around a little bit. He sent us a video of the thing going through a stream up to the headlights. So he’s having fun with his truck and there’s nothing wrong with that. When it comes to value, however, obviously, condition does matter.

So somebody’s gonna look at this truck and it’s kind of like a roll in rectification of Corey’s. Now, if somebody’s gonna buy it and they want something perfect, they’re gonna factor in that they’re gonna have to pull this thing off the frame and do the body and interior and make it nice.

Now, nice means different things for different people. Right now, this is his version of nice and I agree with it. If you’re gonna use something and go off-road and climb rocks and go through mud and water, why make it perfect? So let’s take a look inside and see what’s going on in there. Corey said he had the truck blown apart. He was gonna do a bunch of work to it. He had it off the chassis. He was gonna make it really nice. He stopped that project, put the body back on the frame and started driving it again.

So you can see like the dash has been refinished. There’s no dash pad, there’s no headliner in it, there’s no wiper cover. Some stuff in here is missing aftermarket door panels. This is just something that gets driven and used. It’s not correct, it’s not original, it’s not restored, but it’s fun.

And that’s kind of the point with a vehicle like this. You get in it and you have fun. So under the hood it has a 302 V8. It has obviously four-wheel drive, it has all that stuff on it. It has a three-speed manual, which it came with.

It’s been converted to a floor shift. Let’s start up, see what it sounds like. So it lights right up. You can hear, it’s a small block forward, just idling along. You know, it’s got this, like I said, this Hurst shifter conversion in it ’cause originally it would’ve been three-on-the-tree. So feels like it needs a little adjustment but it sounds nice. He drove it in here. (hands thud)

I don’t see any problem with the actual function of the vehicle as an off-road machine. All right, let’s take a look under the hood. Same deal under here. It’s just a little 302 V8. Everything looks neat and tidy. The wiring has a lot of… I see a lot of Weather Pack connections ’cause if you’re off-road and you don’t want to get water and stuff, the battery is nicely secured.

It looks like all the service items are up-to-date. It sounds good. It has power steering. It’s had a power disc brake conversion. It has a outer sock on the air filter to keep the mud and dirt out of it. Again, it’s just a functional machine. So this isn’t anything we’re going to judge

On a show car level or put in a condition rating because it’s a number four, maybe a little bit below that because it needs to be restored if that’s your intention. But the owner of the car, it’s not his intention. So there’s no leaks. It sounds good.

The exhaust is nice as far as I’m concerned. It’s all good under here. So I’ve completed my appraisal of Corey’s 1971 Bronco. I know what I think it’s worth. So let’s pull him back in here and have that conversation which I hope is not uncomfortable. Hey, Corey. – [Corey] Isn’t she a peach? – Yeah. (chuckles) It’s a cool truck, man. – [Corey] Thank you. – I mean, I like, it’s a neat old rig. I mean, great job with the chassis. It’s all nice and tidy and you can tell you’ve done a lot

Of updating and stuff and you’ve used it. I appreciate your rolling restoration- – Mm-Hmm. – And rectification. So before I give you my number since you’re the owner, I always like to hear what the owner thinks their vehicles were. So you’ve gotta have like an opinion of,

If you’re gonna put on the market today. – I paid $11, 48 years ago. I probably have the same additional money into it by the time I did all the chassis- – Sure. – And all the mechanical and stuff on it. So I’ve always felt like my money is safe- – Mm.

– But it’s probably closer to like a 30 or so, if I was truly gonna sell it. – Like you said, it’s got a solid chassis under it and goes down the road and all that stuff. – Yeah. – Yeah. Somebody might wanna restore it,

But it’s not that hard to restore a Bronco. – No. – So I think today, I think you’re light. I think the number on this truck is probably, you know, in that 45 to 55 grand range- – Yeah. (chuckles) – Because for a Bronco that’s ready to go wheeling today,

You can’t really go buy much. – Mm-hmm. – I mean, And you see people selling completely rusted out pieces of crap just for the title and the tag, so they can- – Right. – Buy a new body and a new chassis and make a new Bronco.

I mean, those things are selling for 10, 15, $20,000. I think you’re definitely money safe and I think you’ve got a great truck and I appreciate the way you use it and that you’re enjoying the thing with your family and that’s what it’s all about. – Cool.

– Thanks so much for bringing it. – No worries. Let’s go wheeling. – Appreciate it. Yeah, anytime. – All righty. – It’s not everybody’s cup of tea. It’s not how a lot of people look at Broncos. I’m stoked that he saw what it’s all about that it was all about building a nice, usable, fun car. But the emphasis definitely being unusable. I’ve never gotten in it and thought, “Oh, this stupid old car.”

Even when it’s having some sort of little mechanical issue it’s just, it’s fun to fix and you’re back on the road.