The desperation for is running dangerously unchecked. Enthusiasts are huddled around rumor scraps and wacky Photoshop renders while body shops are committing unspeakable acts of perversion to bring the Bronco back. Or at least, something resembling the idea of it.

Classic truck body-on-frame construction? Check. Seating for five? Yep. Off-road capability? Uh, we’ll get back to you on that. But conceptually speaking, this might actually be a decent next-gen Ford Bronco. Bear with me.

Ford has officially announced that, but they’ve been coy about whether it will be a real rough-and-tumble ragtop or just a rebadged practical crossover.

While most of the internet is still waving renders around and hoping against all probability that the new Bronco will a retrofuturistic Jeep Wrangler equivalent, but the torch-wielding wizards at have stepped up to actually make it a reality!

Sort of.

The platform for is, of course, a half-ton F-150 and not a mid-sized Ford Ranger on which the real new Bronco will be based. But it is the only modern body-on-frame Ford truck with a drop top I’ve ever seen!

After initially recoiling in horror at what this surgical procedure must have done to the F-150's structural rigidity, first I realized “probably not that much” since most of the important bones are in the frame below, but the I thought about the internet’s obsession with the idea of a Jeep Wrangler pickup. Is this not just a slightly heavier-duty manifestation of that concept?

No, even reading that sentence back once I realize it isn’t. But the most vocal internet commenters have demanded a Jeep pickup, a new Bronco, and that cool 4x4s are convertibles. So the sickos at Newport have acquiesced these requests into one weird custom F-150.