The new 2021 Ford Bronco—which is a wonderful off-roader and a direct competitor to the reigning king, the Jeep Wrangler—also features removable doors and roof panels. Curious as to how one removes said doors and roof panels? We got you!
During the Bronco’s media preview event last week, I got a chance to grab a door- and roof-removal tutorial with a couple of Ford representatives. The new Broncos come with Bronco-stamped tool kits to help you remove the doors and other parts. But if you lose the tool kit, I don’t imagine it will be very hard to head down to your local hardware store and find replacements.
This is the first time the Bronco has ever been offered as a four-door model. And all Bronco models, regardless of trim or package, will have removable doors. The hard-top, three-section roof comes as standard on the two-door Broncos. A soft-top roof is standard on the four-door models, though you can upgrade that for the molded-in-color hard-top for $695 if you wish.
What’s neat about the new Bronco is Ford designed it so that its doors would fit nicely in the trunk. The doors themselves are frameless and mirrorless, which means when you roll down the window, you effectively halve the size of the door. The front doors are still 48 pounds apiece, though, so if you’re short and weak like I am, taking them off might be a two-person process.
Similarly, the four-door roof removal process looks pretty easy until you get to the rear section that also includes the rear window glass. That panel weighs about 65 pounds and you almost certainly need a friend to help you take it off.
Check out the removal process for the doors and roof below!
As a fun little Easter egg, the Bronco’s hinges are also stamped to read “get unhinged.” Haha! Puns!
That’s not all you can remove, however. If you’re feeling adventurous, you also have the option of removing the Bronco’s front and rear fender panels. This is for if you anticipate a particularly rough off-road trail and you don’t want those panels scraped up. So leave ’em at home!
Effectively, your Bronco can go from looking like this:
To this:
Conversely, say you scratch or bang up a fender panel while you’re out. All you need to do is pop it off, order a new one from Ford, and replace it yourself. You’d probably want to get it in the original body color, but who is to say you can’t make a Harlequin Bronco?
Finally, if you have accessories or additions you want to make on your Bronco, there’s an easy way to tell which bolts you can fiddle or interact with. Ones that read “Bronco” on them are meant to be removed. Just look for ones like this:
Since Ford offers a truly dizzying magazine of accessories and options for the new Bronco, ownership sounds like it’ll be a mix-and-match experience. But it’s what the off-road community adores about its trucks. Customization is king and buyers will be able to outfit their Broncos to their hearts’ content.
The Bronco is a modern off-roader with removable doors and roof panels that can be optioned with a manual transmission. It’s so unique in that regard and it’ll be fun to see what consumers do with it. In the meantime, check out our first drive review!
Want to reach out? Hit me up at kristen@thedrive.com.