Ford Bronco Silver Lake Dunes: A Celebration of Customization and Freedom
When Ford set out to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Bronco, it was clear that the project needed to capture the essence of what the SUV has stood for since 1966: freedom, adaptability, and a spirit of adventure. The Bronco Silver Lake Dunes project vehicles are not production special editions, but rather custom-built showcases designed to highlight just how much you can personalize a Bronco or Bronco Sport using the Ford Performance catalog. The name itself is rooted in a place deeply tied to Bronco’s heritage—the Silver Lake Sand Dunes of Michigan, a natural playground where Bronco enthusiasts have gathered for decades to put their rigs through their paces in deep sand, open-air cruising, and sunset drives. Ford wanted these vehicles to not just look good but also embody the carefree joy of dune running, offering inspiration to Bronco fans everywhere. By creating both a full-size Bronco and a Bronco Sport version of the Silver Lake Dunes project, Ford has underlined a simple but powerful message: no matter which Bronco you drive, there is a world of customization waiting for you.
Why Silver Lake Matters to Bronco DNA
The choice of Silver Lake Sand Dunes was not accidental. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, this stretch of shifting sand hills has long been a mecca for off-road enthusiasts. Jeep, Bronco, and other 4x4 owners have flocked here for decades to climb the steep dunes, test their suspension, and enjoy the unmatched feeling of driving across an open sandy expanse. For Ford’s design team, Silver Lake represents the physical embodiment of what the Bronco was built for: exploring the wild with the wind in your hair, doors off, and roof removed. Bronco Chief Designer Robert Gelardi has spoken about his first visit to the dunes in 2017, when the sixth-generation Bronco was still in development. Seeing heritage Broncos driving across the sand, modified with roll cages, custom wheels, and unique paint jobs, left a deep impression that directly influenced how the new Bronco was designed. Modularity, easy customization, and open-air capability were baked into the DNA of the sixth-generation Bronco, and the Silver Lake Dunes project vehicles are a tribute to the place that helped shape that philosophy.
The Big Bronco: Built for Fun in the Sand
The full-size Bronco Silver Lake Dunes is a four-door model designed to showcase capability with flair. Ford equipped it with chunky BFGoodrich T/A KO3 tires that provide maximum grip in loose sand while also giving the SUV an aggressive stance. These tires are mounted on black-painted versions of Ford’s Heritage wheels, a nod to Bronco history but modernized for today’s off-road enthusiasts. Up front, the Bronco wears bull bars like those found on the Bronco Sport Badlands, paired with a Rigid light bar for evening dune runs. Yakima paddleboard carriers sit up top, reinforcing the lifestyle element of the build and suggesting a day spent out on the water before cruising the dunes at sunset. What makes the Silver Lake Dunes Bronco especially appealing is that it isn’t a fabricated showpiece requiring custom machining or rare one-off parts. Instead, almost everything on the vehicle comes straight from the Ford Performance catalog. This means that with some time, effort, and a willingness to wrench, a Bronco owner could replicate the same look and capability at home, turning their everyday SUV into a unique dune-cruising adventure machine.
The Bronco Sport Joins the Party
It would have been easy for Ford to stop at the full-size Bronco, but the inclusion of the Bronco Sport Silver Lake Dunes demonstrates just how serious the company is about expanding the personalization philosophy. While the Bronco Sport is often seen as the “little brother” in the lineup, Ford made sure it could stand tall alongside the full-size model. The Sport is fitted with rally-style wheels borrowed from the Mustang Mach-E Rally edition, finished in black and wrapped in BFGoodrich XL TRTERTA tires that are more suited for lighter-duty sand running. This setup gives the Bronco Sport a playful and athletic character, more rally-cross than rock crawler, but perfect for dune environments. Like its larger sibling, the Sport also wears Yakima paddleboard carriers, bull bars, and a light bar from the Ford Performance catalog. The result is an SUV that feels right at home on the dunes, even if its scale is smaller. By showcasing both sizes of Bronco in this project, Ford is making an inclusive statement: whether you’re driving a full-size Bronco or a compact Sport, you can be part of the customization culture and enjoy the same spirit of adventure.
Graphics That Tell a Story
Beyond the mechanical upgrades, what makes the Silver Lake Dunes projects stand out are their custom graphics. Developed by Ford’s color and materials team led by Kellie Walters and Brad Fishkin, the graphics were designed not just as decoration but as storytelling elements. The flowing two-tone design represents the golden dunes blending into the horizon line of Lake Michigan, rising into the blue sky. From a distance, it creates a sense of movement, almost as if the landscape itself is captured in the bodywork of the vehicle. The Azure Gray paint chosen for the base color ties the theme together, reflecting the tones of water and sky that dominate the Silver Lake area. While these graphics are custom to the project vehicles, Ford emphasizes that any talented vinyl installer could replicate something similar. This democratizes the look, encouraging owners to create their own unique interpretations. The graphics are a reminder that customization isn’t just about parts and performance; it’s also about visual storytelling, making a vehicle feel personal and connected to the places and experiences that matter most.
The Spirit of DIY Customization
At its core, the Silver Lake Dunes project is about showing Bronco owners what’s possible when they embrace customization. Ford has been watching Jeep Wrangler owners personalize their rigs for decades, often with wild results ranging from rock sliders and rooftop tents to questionable “angry eye” grilles and duck-themed dashboards. With the new Bronco, Ford is determined to create the same culture of creativity, but with its own flavor. The modular design of the Bronco makes it easy to strip parts off, swap components, and install accessories without major fabrication. With just an hour and a wrench, as Gelardi notes, you can completely change the look of your Bronco. The Sport has also been engineered with modular bumpers and accessory-friendly “Bronco bolts” that clearly mark where custom parts can be attached. By making customization easy, Ford is inviting owners to take pride in making their Broncos their own. Whether that means adding a paddleboard rack for weekends at the lake, bolting on a set of light bars for night trail runs, or going all out with new wheels and graphics, the choice is entirely in the hands of the driver.
Part of a Bigger Picture: Bronco’s Custom Culture
The Silver Lake Dunes project is not an isolated experiment. It is part of a broader philosophy at Ford to encourage a community of customization around the Bronco. Other project vehicles, such as the Bronco Off-Roadeo™: Arches Edition and the Bronco Off-Roadeo: Cliffhanger, have explored different themes tied to iconic American landscapes. These builds serve as inspiration, not production models, and their real purpose is to spark ideas among Bronco fans. By consistently releasing new themed builds, Ford ensures that the Bronco remains more than just a vehicle—it becomes a canvas for self-expression. The Silver Lake Dunes project, tied so deeply to Bronco history and Michigan’s natural beauty, stands out as one of the most meaningful examples of this philosophy. It blends nostalgia with modern design, lifestyle with performance, and accessibility with aspiration. In doing so, it reinforces Bronco’s identity as not just a rugged SUV, but as a symbol of freedom and individuality that has lasted for sixty years.
Looking Toward the Next 60 Years
As Ford celebrates six decades of Bronco, the Silver Lake Dunes project vehicles are more than just anniversary showpieces. They are a statement of intent about the future. Ford knows that the next generation of SUV buyers values personalization, modularity, and experiences over traditional status symbols. By creating vehicles that are easy to modify, easy to adapt, and deeply tied to lifestyle, Ford ensures that Bronco will remain relevant for decades to come. The Silver Lake Dunes builds highlight the fun side of this philosophy, but the underlying point is serious: Bronco is designed to evolve with its community. Depending on where your “favorite wild” is, whether it’s sand dunes, rocky trails, or forest paths, your Bronco can be equipped to match. That adaptability is what has kept the Bronco alive for sixty years and will continue to sustain it for sixty more. The Silver Lake Dunes vehicles are both a celebration of the past and a preview of the future—vehicles that remind us that the Bronco has always been, and always will be, about building wild.
