When Ford unveiled the new 2021 Bronco, its rugged simplicity was one of its main attractions.
Now CNET has gone to the trouble of testing just how easy it is to take the SUV apart. In a series of four videos, host Craig Cole takes off the four-door Bronco Badlands’ soft top, doors, grille, and fender just to see how easy it is.
And it does turn out to be pretty painless, albeit not every job is as effortless as the last. Helping things along, though, is the toolset that comes standard with every Bronco. So you can leave your good tools back in the garage.
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Starting with the roof, in this case a soft top, there are three positions that it can be kept in, each a little harder to achieve than the last. The first step simply requires you to undo two big latches and fold the roof back to uncover the front seats. This is easy, but does require you to stand up, so probably shouldn’t be done at a red light.
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Next, the whole roof slides down onto the back tailgate and looks a bit like a traditional convertible. This requires you to slide out the rear windows, which means you have to get out of the Bronco but doesn’t require any tools.
The final position, off, does require some tools. The good news is, though, that once off, the soft top can be swapped for a hard top if you’re sick fabric.
Removing the doors, meanwhile, is nearly as easy but does require tools. With just a couple of bolts to undo per door, though, it’s a simple job. Lifting the doors and getting them into the back will require a bit of hard work, mind you, because they weigh about 40 lbs each.
If you want to swap grilles, it’s also a relatively easy job, if a little more involved. Between the nine plastic push pins and the four 10 mm bolts, the job takes a few minutes but is by no means difficult.
Once the grille is off, you can swap it with another, or you can take the opportunity to remove a fender. This is probably the hardest job Cole takes on and involves a lot of unfastening, but that’s kind of reassuring because you really don’t want a fender falling off as you drive down the road.
Even though it’s time-consuming and will require you to keep track of your fasteners, it’s not a particularly complicated job nor do you need specialty tools to achieve it. Any of these jobs could be done without too much trouble on the side of a trail or at a campsite. And doesn’t that sound like an exciting proposition these days?
If you want to see how the doors, fenders, grille, and hardtop come off a two-door model, you can watch Car and Driver’s breakdown below.