Four-Door Bronco… What The Heck?
What a minute! I thought Broncos only came with two doors. Well, that was until Bill M forwarded us a link to this monstrosity. At first, I thought it was a truck, but it’s clearly a Bronco. A little research revealed that there were a couple of companies who performed these conversions. They would take a F-series truck and a Bronco and mate the two creating this beast. It offered three rows of seating and a bunch of covered cargo area. Makes you wonder if this is where Ford got the idea for the Excursion, doesn’t it? It’s getting auctioned off tomorrow in Culpeper, Virginia and you can get more info here on Insurance Auto Auctions. Thanks for the tip Bill!
Here’s a scan of a Centurion brochure found on fourdoorbronco.com. Apparently, Centurion was a big player in the fledgling four-door Bronco market. I’m not sure if they are responsible for this rig, but I’m sure someone here can tell us?
Nowadays third row seating and four doors are required features for many families across America. Those options weren’t always available on 4x4s though, so those who didn’t want to drive a minivan or wagon really had a dilemma. Ford was building four-door trucks, but hadn’t released a proper full-size SUV yet. So, a few companies saw an opportunity and took it! The manufacturers eventually caught on, but you gotta give these guys credit for seeing into the future!
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Comments
Centurion also made crew cabs out of stock Z71 Chevrolet trucks in the mid 90’s.
It looks like it’s actually a Metropolitan Conversion; I’ve actually laid hands on a dozen or so of them. The Metropolitan’s had the badge you see on the rear quarter ahead of the tail lights.
You are correct — announced as a “Metropolitan” at the auction this morning. High bid was $1500 and sold “on-call” (didn’t meet seller’s minimum).
I think these were built by Ford……..used to see a lot of them when doing busisness in Mexico.
Might be from South America or Mexico, they had some oddities like late-model Dodge Ramchargers as well.
Basically a Suburban for the Ford buyer, before Ford bought out the Expedition.
Landmark made a lot of Chevy conversions. I had a ’97 dually crew cab version and it was built on the lowest basic platform. They even used the stock fixed front bench seat and moved it to the rear. That meant the back didn’t tilt forward for storage. No dome lights worked with the doors either. Generally cheap accessories and some flashy add-ons. I was not impressed.
The badge on the rear quarter does say Metropolitan. Centurion made a version of the four door Bronco called a C350. It was an F350 front end mated to the back half of the Bronco. The cool part was that you could get it with the venerable 7.3l diesel motor, as a result. Sadly, these are rare and getting really hard to find in reasonably good condition. I’ve got the Expedition now, after having a couple of the regular Bronco, but would love a modern version with a diesel.
If they build an Expedition with a diesel count me in.
I love the Broncos, especially the Bronco IIs. But this is a strange critter, indeed.
There were a couple of compainies that built.Centurion was probably the most well known.
They also built F150 crew cab shortbed pick ups,I own a Red 1995.Centurion 4X4 actually bought regular F150’s from Ford and built both the 4 door Bronco and the F150 crew cab pickups.
I am thinking about selling mine,I bought it to restore but my health isn’t getting any better.
I am not able to do the work anymore..
I’ve got a ’96 Lightning Bronco 2 wheel drive.
Actually a company just east of Sturgis Mich built lots of them Ford stopped selling them Bronco back ends and they scoured the U.S. for wrecks to keep up production They competed with Suburban for Ford only buyers and were very well received / Lee
Centurions were known to have problems with the bodywork on the roofs where they were put together, not sure about Metropolitan. Look at an Excursion if you want a diesel. Still a 3/4 ton drivetrain. Haul 8 people while pulling a 10,000 camper!
Actually, all Broncos of this era had a bodywork problem at the roof (well, at least the ones that were not delivered with a bolt-in 4-point roll bar)… They’d flex at the corner of the roof just above the top rear corner of the door, causing the paint to crack open over time, allowing the steel to rust at that stress point. Issue seems worse in trucks that were 4-wheeled &/or used for plowing.
I was Ford Lincoln Mercury service mgr back then, they had a bunch of issues but the people who bought them loved them anyway. Personally I loved Broncos and Blazers for surf fishing which didn’t help their life expectancy.We did tons of recalls for floor reinforcement plates under the seats, frame rail reinforcement at the steering gear mounting, ect. Great truck, even though they sold tens of thousands to every state, fed and local agency in north and south America some knuckleheads at Ford decided to cut them so the Expedition wouldn’t have competition.
Wish I had known about this a little earlier. I can’t get off work to check it out at the auction today. $200 for a bidding account (annual fee). It would be a fun dog car. I would love to pull up next to my friend in her Bronco and see her reaction.
I bought a used E4OD trans that came out of a Centurion two years ago for my ’93 Bronco, prior to that, I’d never heard of the things. A fairly rare curiosity…
Yes, centurion made these and the van/pick up too.
A second co. Cabrole` also made the van/pick up. The f.glass roof on it was the one that cracked at the junction to the metal not the true bronk. It had/has a gasket & top is removable like the 1st gen. bronk. No probs there.
Mine’s a 1995 C150 centurian, absolutely love this truck. Goes where I need it to go.