S
25SHOULDN’T A CONNOISSEUR of mechanical novelty
find solace in Land Rover’s charismatically imperfect off-
roaders? Jonathan Ward doesn’t love them, but there is
some nuance to the sentiment; Ward’s complicated relation-
ship with the British brand has intrigued me for a decade
or so. It wasn’t until Ward invited me to sample his latest
Derelict project, a 1966 Ford Bronco Roadster, that I stum-
bled upon the opportunity to untie that philosophical knot.
“Mind if I bring my ’63 Land Rover Series IIA?” I queried
casually, aware that my weekend toy would distract from
the main attraction. “Of course not,” he replied, an accession
that speaks more to his pantheistic automotive enthusiasm
than it does my potentially provocative intentions.
Ward is drawn to wear and tear just as much as if not
more than he is to perfection. His fondness for decay
led him to spin off his Derelict line, which preserves the
ravaged skins of rust-encrusted barn finds while applying
an ungodly number of man-hours toward modernizing
their internals. They’re typically priced just less than
Ward’s fully restored Broncos, which hover around the
$210,000 mark. But Derelicts are significantly more labor-
intensive, and working around each vehicle’s peculiarities
requires case-by-case problem solving.
Rescuing a car from the scrapper, or better yet, recon-
structing it while respecting the natural decrepitude of
aging, is never a linear process. It’s also a formidable un-
dertaking that triggers tangible excitement in Ward, with
bonus points when cars are accompanied by personal rec-
ollections and a trail of faded Kodachrome prints. “The
romance of the patina and the dents and dings, it makes
you wonder where it’s been, what relationships have been
forged,” Ward says. “Oftentimes I had to erase those parts
during a restoration, which kind of kills that personal story.”
The 1966 Bronco Roadster is Ward’s 13th Derelict res-
toration and his first Bronco to receive the treatment.
Bronco Roadsters, built between 1966 and 1968, are rare,
stripped-down variants of the stalwart American off-roader
that sacrificed niceties like doors and a roof in the name of
ready-for-anything simplicity. These models were under-
appreciated in their time, with waning interest in the back-
to-basics trucks leading to the production of only 5,000 or
so until they were discontinued.