10/28/22

Plan? Of course I have a plan. What is it, you ask? I'll tell you. I'll buy some wheels. And maybe also a vanity plate.

What about getting it running and back on the road, you might be thinking. About that. Getting Dusty on the road again is the Plan, in a general sense, but how to specifically go about accomplishing that is the real question. Yessir. That's the real question.

My purchase of new wheels and tires was initiated by the continuously deflating old tires on rusty, mismatched wheels. Let's be honest, though, you don't really need a reason to buy wheels. It's just fun and completely changes the look of any vehicle for better or worse. I needed inspiration for this build and these hit the nail on the head, as far as I am concerned. The center caps say VISION, and it is a reminder of how to proceed.

The current engine is toast. It is a flathead 6, and the thought of buying another L6 to replace it doesn't really appeal to me. I want to WANT to drive this truck a lot. I want to run errands and drive it on the freeway at 70mph. That means it has to have more power and better suspension and brakes. I want it all, naturally, but am willing to take it in stages. First is the engine and transmission. The rear end will also be a weak link, so I will have to address that at the same time.

My first idea was to rebuild and install the 1969 smallblock Chevy 350 that used to be in Ginger. I could put a Muncie 4-speed behind it and have it all together for pretty cheap. I'll get back to that. For the rear end, a Ford 8.8 with drum brakes out of a 1993-2009 Ranger is within 1/2 inch of the correct width and the bolt pattern is the same as the Dodge. It will be able to handle all the power I care to put to it. The front brakes can be addressed with a disc brake conversion. DCMclassics.com sells a kit for $760 that uses the original straight axle and spindles. Later on, a independent coilover front suspension can be installed, but in the spirit of cheap, I think the straight axle will work for a bit. I wonder if I could do coilovers on the straight axle to eliminate the leaf springs up front? If I do that, I may as well just go ahead and do a MustangII suspension and steering.....down the rabbit hole.

For the body, I have a few issues, the main issue being rust. The frame is fine, but things like body mounts, step supports, and cab structure all have bad rot. I want to keep the outer look of the truck as unchanged as possible, so the repairs I make need to be pretty much invisible. After everything is firmed up, I can coat the truck with a low gloss clearcoat to protect it from further corrosion.

I want the interior to feel as factory as possible, so with that in mind I plan to recover the seats in a factory brown or dark green. I will add seatbelts for safety. I don't want to cut up the dash, so I will look for vintage style gauges that might fit the stock locations. We will see. I would also like to create new door cards and headliners to hide any repairs and sound deadening I might install.

The frame will have to be sandblasted and modified for shock mounts, new spring mounts for the rear end, new engine and trans mounts, and reinforced or boxed to handle the extra power. I'll then paint it black, though you shouldn't be able to see any of it once the body is in place. 

Back to the engine...It is the decision I am most unsure about. The Chevy motor would be the most inexpensive and easiest route to go. I have the engine already, and aftermarket support for the 350 is, to put it mildly, really good. On the other hand, this truck is a Dodge. It should have a Dodge engine. In a perfect world. To go down that road would cost more and be more difficult with fewer and more expensive aftermarket solutions available. If I do go Dodge, I then have the decision to make about which engine to go with. A motorhome 440? A 360? A GENIII Hemi? Which one will even fit between the fenders?!! You see what I mean. I really don't know yet.

For now, Dusty sits and watches me work on other projects. Golden Boy is the priority, and as much as I get distracted dreaming about cruising Dusty, I need to keep my head down and finish some things. That way when it's time, I can pour all my energies into the vision I have for him.