Sydney Sweeney is best known for her roles in two wildly popular HBO dramas: The White Lotus, in which she plays rich, mean teen Olivia Mossbacher, and Euphoria, in which she plays needy, boyfriend-appropriating teen Cassie Howard. A generational icon of sorts at 24, she has accumulated serious followings on Instagram and, inevitably, TikTok. But while she was in New York this week, it was not to promote a new film or streaming project but to talk cars. Specifically, the classic, candy-apple-red 1969 Ford Bronco she’s been restoring over the past couple years.
“I’ve done a bunch to this car,” she said of the Bronco, which was on display at the inaugural eBay Motors New York Auto Parts show at the Classic Car Club of Manhattan—on the Hudson River across the street from the Javits Center, where the New York International Auto Show was gearing up to open. “It was originally a manual [transmission] and I really wanted it to be my daily driver [in L.A.]…so I switched it over to automatic. I had to change out the front and rear axles. It was originally drum brakes, so I switched that to disc brakes so it would be safer. I changed out the entire interior. I changed some of the exterior details. I love chrome, so I added a bunch of chrome, a roll bar, new tires. It was quite a rebuild.”
Courtesy of Sydney Sweeney.
Sydney accomplished as much of the work herself as she could. But she had access to the facilities, and expertise, of famed Southern California vintage Porsche restorer Rod Emory, who is the father of one of her best friends. “He cleared out a section of his shop for me,” Sweeney said. “And whenever I was free, not filming, I would go in and learn and do as much of the work as I could.”
Sweeney shared snippets of this year-and-a-half-long process on TikTok, under the handle syds_garage. Every video has garnered millions of views. This may have helped draw her into a partnership with eBay Motors, from which she sourced many of the new and vintage parts for her restoration.
Sweeney’s affection for old trucks is hard-earned. She grew up in rural Idaho on a property that has been in her family for five generations, so when it was time to learn to drive, she did so on an old family car: a 1940s Ford pickup. “I was like 10 years old. My mom wouldn’t let me drive an automatic until I could drive stick. So that’s what I learned to drive on,” she said. As part of her automotive training, her mom also insisted she learn to change a tire herself.
Courtesy of Sydney Sweeney.