People are already beyond excited for the Ford Bronco, but here’s the thing. We’re only in the early stages of this off-road revival. Ford has already said a plethora of factory-backed accessories will be available when the SUV reaches dealerships. That should allow all kinds of customization for Bronco buyers, and while we don’t have full information regarding accessories, cool tube doors will be among them.
We’ve seen patents for these tubular doors that have airbags, but the thirsty Bronco fans
have gone a step further. The enthusiasts found a backdoor into Ford’s Bronco configurator that, among other things, showed us pretty much ever Bronco trim level and color option. We covered the dizzying array of photos last week, but there’s one we missed that Muscle Cars & Trucks picked up on – a Bronco with tubular doors.
What’s curious here is that the tubular doors appear to show up as part of the Bronco configurator. We normally don’t see accessories like this in a configurator, but then again, we don’t typically see new vehicles depicted with mud and dirt, either. It raises the possibility that tubular doors might not be an after-the-fact accessory but an optional door style. We recall a rumor from some time ago about the Bronco possibly having tubular doors with what amounts to a removable skin, leaving the inner structure in place. Ford still isn’t talking accessories or even in-depth options at the point, so for now, we’re left wondering.
Another point to ponder here is the thick vertical assembly at the top of each tube frame. We previously mentioned a patent for airbags in tubular doors, and these structures appear large enough to house them. That’s far from an official confirmation that the Bronco will have airbag-equipped tubular doors, but it certainly fits with earlier rumors about such things.
Of course, all of this is dependent upon the image being a legit capture from Ford and not a clever Photoshop job. Sadly, Ford shut down the backdoor that allowed all these images to surface in the first place, so there’s no way to independently verify this on our own. That said, the particular forum thread this came from was full of Bronco configurator photos that were the real deal, and forum member 72roadster is the same person behind all these shots, including the one here. In other words, we have little reason to doubt the credibility of this shot being real.
When will we have full disclosure on the tubular doors? At the latest, we’ll hear all about it when the Bronco reaches dealerships next year.