SEMA 2016: United Pacific Celebrates The First-Generation Bronco

Any 4×4 lover, deep down in his heart, has some love for the first-generation Ford Bronco. Compact, spunky and built to travel the outdoors, the Bronco was one of the first American SUVs to ever hit the market. It blazed a trail that many have followed, and is nothing if not an icon of the off-road lifestyle.

Age is the enemy, however, and with the oldest of these models hitting 50 years old, the time has come for a company to step up and offer top-quality replacement parts. That company is United Pacific.

During the SEMA Show last week, United Pacific was proud to pull back the veil on not just these new parts, but a terrific joint build with RMD Garage as well. We talked with UP’s Dan Wu and RMDG’s Ralph Holguin to better understand what these reveals meant for the industry.

“We have done this before by providing ’32 Ford hot rod customers full-steel replacement parts,” explained Wu. “Since first-generation Broncos have started to gain popularity and become more affordable, we looked at this as the logical next step.”

The build, dubbed “Urban Madness,” started with a 1969 Bronco that Holguin obtained after a friend encouraged him to get a Bronco build going. That same friend wound up purchasing the Bronco for Holguin and dropping it off in September, giving Holguin only two months to get everything ready for SEMA.

It was practically serendipitous for Holguin and Wu, since not only are United Pacific and RMD Garage a stone’s throw from one another, but both were working on their respective Bronco projects simultaneously. Holguin had reached out initially just to see about installing some of UP’s lights on the Bronco, and fortunately caught wind of the Bronco parts in development.

From there, UP donated several parts to the build, including lights, floor, firewall, and front fenders. “Our pride comes from producing perfect-fit panels,” said Wu. “The more quality we put into our parts, the easier it is on the builder. In this case, we took samples from our manufacturer and with our partnership with RMD Garage, we were able to see what sorts of adjustments we had to make.”

“After seeing how our panels fit on a real-world Bronco – too much of a gap here, shave it down there – we went back to our manufacturer and explained how to make the parts more perfect,” continued Wu.

We expect a lot more Bronco enthusiasts will find the courage to take on rebuilding one of these classic SUVs thanks to United Pacific’s groundbreaking work. Check out more on the company’s website, and look at more of RMD Garage’s builds on its website, too.