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\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on the Broncos for about three years,\u201d says Mikulasovich. \u201cBecause all of us have jobs outside of the Broncos, we only go to the shop after-hours or on the weekends. For the most part, all the hard work gets done on Saturdays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the team is building the Broncos with the intent of selling them once completed, they\u2019re more of a passion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe three of us are hanging out, we\u2019re working on the trucks, we\u2019re listening to music, and we\u2019re just having a good time. It\u2019s fun, not work,\u201d Mikulasovich said.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Mikulasvich got his start with cars when his grandfather gifted him a 1963 Ford Thunderbird for his 13th birthday. \u201cThe Bird,\u201d as he calls it, had been sitting at his grandfather\u2019s shop for 20 years, and needed some serious work before being roadworthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the following four years, Mikulasovich spent as many weekends and evenings as he could rebuilding the motor and suspension, restoring the body and interior, and searching high and low for increasingly rare replacement parts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the Thunderbird that sparked Mikuasovich\u2019s love for all things automotive, and eight years later, he\u2019s pouring his love into these two Broncos. <\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/03\/Image-5-1024x768.jpeg\")
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on both at the same time. The \u201873 got a complete frame-off restoration. The body and the frame were sandblasted and epoxy coated, all the body work and welding was done at the shop, and it\u2019s just about ready to get pushed into the paint booth, then rolled out the door. The \u201874 still needs the frame redone, the body put back on, the drivetrain installed, etc., but it\u2019s about to get its first round of body filler. I figure maybe another year-or-two before it\u2019s finished,\u201d says Mikulasovich.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Quite a ways off, but good things take time. Mikulasovich explains that although the drivetrain swap for the 1974 isn\u2019t rocket science, it\u2019s actually not too difficult either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLucky enough it\u2019s actually fairly easy, and it\u2019s also quite simple. These are very sought after trucks, so over the years people have gotten their hands on them, made their own parts to see what would work when doing a Coyote swap, and now you can go online and purchase the custom parts required to do the swap. The motor, transmission, and transfer case all sit and fit in the car perfectly fine once you install the custom mounts. The wiring harness gets routed the same way, but we\u2019re also going to pull out any wires from the harness that we don\u2019t need. It\u2019s pretty much just plug and play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As far as the parts going into the Bronco, Mikulasovich and his team opted for nothing but the best. The motor and electronic control unit come from a 2019 Mustang GT, which is good for a hearty 460 horsepower. From that same Mustang comes the Bronco\u2019s new transmission, Ford\u2019s lightning quick ten-speed masterpiece. The transfer case was sourced from a \u201cnewer\u201d F-150, which will allow the Bronco to retain its original four wheel drive capability.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/03\/Image-7-1024x565.jpeg\")
Unless you\u2019ve spent the last couple decades underneath a rock on another planet, then you know restored and resto-modded 70\u2019s Broncos have been the darlings of auction houses. They\u2019re not common, but they\u2019re not hard to find — and usually sell for more than a brand new 2023 model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for the team\u2019s expectations, they\u2019re hoping the restored 1973 model will fetch between $35,000 and $40,000- a pretty penny for a truck that was purchased brand new for roughly 1\/10 of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The general rule of thumb with restoring classic vehicles is \u2018the most original parts, the higher the value.\u2019 However, that\u2019s not quite the case with the team\u2019s 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you go online and look at prices of similar resto-mods like what we\u2019re doing, you\u2019ll see the prices ranging from $75,000 to $100,000 depending on the condition and where it\u2019s sold,\u201d said Mikulasovich. His estimates appear to be conservative, as according to the leading online auction house for vehicles, BringATrailer.com, Broncos such as the team\u2019s are typically selling for tens of thousands more. In fact, the highest recorded sale price of a restored or resto-modded Bronco at auction was $220,000, set in Mar. 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/03\/Image-8.jpeg\")
When asked which of the two is his favorite and why, Mikulasovich said \u201cthe \u201874 is my favorite because this is a swap that I\u2019ve never done before. I\u2019m really excited to have my hands on it. It\u2019s a little tricky, but I\u2019m excited for the challenge, especially when we\u2019re doing it so meticulously. By the time we finish it and it\u2019s sold, it\u2019s really a huge feeling of completion and pride.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A team of brothers, Jimmy and Mike Lack, alongside friend Logan Mikulasovich, are undertaking the simultaneous restoration of two classic Ford Broncos. A 1973 model kept factory original, and a 1974 with a little surprise under the hood \u2013 a third generation Ford Coyote motor. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working on the Broncos for about three years,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":2004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","entry"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/03\/Image-10-scaled-e1678294444984.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/03\/Image-10-scaled-e1678294444984.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"JD","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/author\/joshua-dellett\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}