- Joined
- Nov 28, 2001
- Messages
- 10,156
I’m very pleased to announce the publication of my new Bronco history book entitled “A History of Ford’s Legendary 4x4, Ford Bronco”, published by CarTech Books.
It’s a hardcover book, almost 200 pages in length and suitable for shimming that coffee table leg that might be a little too short or helping insulate your leg from a hot Bronco floorboard this summer.
The genesis for this project started, as is typical these days, via social media about 2.5 years ago. My editor, Wes Eisenschenk, contacted me via FB Messenger regarding some information on a Bronco that he was researching for another publication (CarTech’s book on Kar-Kraft). I helped him with that project and then helped with the archaeology project we now know today as the “Boss Bronco”. A few months later, Wes said they were considering doing a Bronco book. I said “great” and suggested a few folks that I thought would be great authors for the book. Another month or two went by and Wes contacted me again, and told me they had approved the project, and oh, by the way, “Do you want to write it?” Uhhh….my first answer was no. But thanks to my wonderful wife, who’s a lot smarter than I am, I was able to “find my yes” and we were off to the races. Apparently I had told her a few years earlier when we got married that writing a book was on my bucket list.
So for the next 16 months, I spent a lot of time on the couch, with the Bronco resting in the garage - my head buried in documents of all sorts, along with emails, phone calls, visits (thanks Tim!), madly typing away, trying to meet what felt like unreachable word and photo count goals. On July 31st last year (the official due date), I turned in my manuscript and photos to Wes.
Then the fun began. About 3 weeks later, I got some edits back from Wes and the directive – cut a bunch of words and photos! Man, was it tough. Nearly 20K words and over 100 photos were scrubbed from the final document and resubmitted on schedule. A few days before Christmas, the first layout arrived and for the next 3 weeks, interspersed with holiday activities, I edited and refined as much as I could.
The first copy arrived Friday night and it was a surreal experience opening the package. I found one person’s name misspelled so far – I’m sure there will be other errors. But I have to admit that it’s pretty cool to hold something that you wrote.
The Bronco story is pretty well known already, particularly to many of you here on this forum – many of you know parts of it better than I do. My hope is that if you purchase the book, you’ll see a picture, illustration, or tidbit of knowledge that you haven’t previously seen or known before. I’m fairly confident that everyone will find at least ONE new thing because a few of the things in the book have “never seen the light of day” before. Interspersed with all the slog of writing were some memorable moments talking with some very interesting people – particularly those who developed the 1978-79 Bronco and invented the Twin-Traction Beam front end. I hope there might be a second edition so that the 2020 Bronco can be included and I’m already trying to gather more historical data to include. The current book covers all the 1966-1996 Broncos and also has a chapter on the Bronco II.
The book should be available for shipment in late April or early May. You’ll be able to get it from Amazon, CarTech Books (cartechbooks.com), some of the Bronco vendors, and I should also have some available as autographed copies once I get my vendor status worked out with Jon. I don’t know if I can match Amazon prices, but you’ll be buying them from a fellow CB member rather adding to the fortune of Jeff Bezos.
Special thanks to the following CB members for their help and contributions: Fordfan (Dennis), Viperwolf1 (Phil), bajabronco (Andrew), House (Chris), Broncitis (Drew), Broncojack (Jack), needabronco (Casey), Stroppe-Envy (Dave), eaglenest66 (Tim), 66bronco (Terry), Rumpfy (Eric), okie4570 (Bobby), lars (Lars), FRANKO289 (Franko), bbolander (Bruce), Scoop (Gary), Gud Racing (Ed), mmlfpa (Melissa), digger556 (Jesse), TheBroncoRanch (Tom), coachbarnes (Scott), Mono (John), Jeff10 (Jeff), Overton (Greg), builtfords (Mike), tomanna (Tom), Marschariot (Larry), hylndr (Eric), Elite Broncos (John), behemoth (Bill) and a few others whom I don’t know their usernames here.
I am also deeply grateful to James Duff and Parnelli Jones for writing forewords to the book and to Wes Eisenschenk for giving me the opportunity to write it.
I know people rarely buy books anymore but I'm hoping you'll add this one to your shelf!
Thanks,
Todd Z.
Below are some images from various pages in the book - sorry, I don't know how to get the photos upright but someone always fixes that for me
.
It’s a hardcover book, almost 200 pages in length and suitable for shimming that coffee table leg that might be a little too short or helping insulate your leg from a hot Bronco floorboard this summer.
The genesis for this project started, as is typical these days, via social media about 2.5 years ago. My editor, Wes Eisenschenk, contacted me via FB Messenger regarding some information on a Bronco that he was researching for another publication (CarTech’s book on Kar-Kraft). I helped him with that project and then helped with the archaeology project we now know today as the “Boss Bronco”. A few months later, Wes said they were considering doing a Bronco book. I said “great” and suggested a few folks that I thought would be great authors for the book. Another month or two went by and Wes contacted me again, and told me they had approved the project, and oh, by the way, “Do you want to write it?” Uhhh….my first answer was no. But thanks to my wonderful wife, who’s a lot smarter than I am, I was able to “find my yes” and we were off to the races. Apparently I had told her a few years earlier when we got married that writing a book was on my bucket list.
So for the next 16 months, I spent a lot of time on the couch, with the Bronco resting in the garage - my head buried in documents of all sorts, along with emails, phone calls, visits (thanks Tim!), madly typing away, trying to meet what felt like unreachable word and photo count goals. On July 31st last year (the official due date), I turned in my manuscript and photos to Wes.
Then the fun began. About 3 weeks later, I got some edits back from Wes and the directive – cut a bunch of words and photos! Man, was it tough. Nearly 20K words and over 100 photos were scrubbed from the final document and resubmitted on schedule. A few days before Christmas, the first layout arrived and for the next 3 weeks, interspersed with holiday activities, I edited and refined as much as I could.
The first copy arrived Friday night and it was a surreal experience opening the package. I found one person’s name misspelled so far – I’m sure there will be other errors. But I have to admit that it’s pretty cool to hold something that you wrote.
The Bronco story is pretty well known already, particularly to many of you here on this forum – many of you know parts of it better than I do. My hope is that if you purchase the book, you’ll see a picture, illustration, or tidbit of knowledge that you haven’t previously seen or known before. I’m fairly confident that everyone will find at least ONE new thing because a few of the things in the book have “never seen the light of day” before. Interspersed with all the slog of writing were some memorable moments talking with some very interesting people – particularly those who developed the 1978-79 Bronco and invented the Twin-Traction Beam front end. I hope there might be a second edition so that the 2020 Bronco can be included and I’m already trying to gather more historical data to include. The current book covers all the 1966-1996 Broncos and also has a chapter on the Bronco II.
The book should be available for shipment in late April or early May. You’ll be able to get it from Amazon, CarTech Books (cartechbooks.com), some of the Bronco vendors, and I should also have some available as autographed copies once I get my vendor status worked out with Jon. I don’t know if I can match Amazon prices, but you’ll be buying them from a fellow CB member rather adding to the fortune of Jeff Bezos.
Special thanks to the following CB members for their help and contributions: Fordfan (Dennis), Viperwolf1 (Phil), bajabronco (Andrew), House (Chris), Broncitis (Drew), Broncojack (Jack), needabronco (Casey), Stroppe-Envy (Dave), eaglenest66 (Tim), 66bronco (Terry), Rumpfy (Eric), okie4570 (Bobby), lars (Lars), FRANKO289 (Franko), bbolander (Bruce), Scoop (Gary), Gud Racing (Ed), mmlfpa (Melissa), digger556 (Jesse), TheBroncoRanch (Tom), coachbarnes (Scott), Mono (John), Jeff10 (Jeff), Overton (Greg), builtfords (Mike), tomanna (Tom), Marschariot (Larry), hylndr (Eric), Elite Broncos (John), behemoth (Bill) and a few others whom I don’t know their usernames here.
I am also deeply grateful to James Duff and Parnelli Jones for writing forewords to the book and to Wes Eisenschenk for giving me the opportunity to write it.
I know people rarely buy books anymore but I'm hoping you'll add this one to your shelf!
Thanks,
Todd Z.
Below are some images from various pages in the book - sorry, I don't know how to get the photos upright but someone always fixes that for me
.Attachments
Last edited:
