'77 D150 to W150 conversion and restoration

[bikinkawboy]

Around 15 months ago I decided to restore my old rusted out '77 D150 that had set unused behind the shop for 16 years. My son had taken in a shortbed W100 for a tranny job, so I decided to convert the D to a W. Both had lots of rust and the D had LOTS of serious rust; rockers had holes big enough to throw a cat through, the lower corners of the doors were totally gone and the wide trim strip was sticking out in the air with nothing behind it plus serious rust in all the usual places. I had to cut out the frame cross members to swap them, the D 318 was locked up from condensation collecting in one cylinder and the 360 in the W was totally shot. Considering that chunks were torn out of the rod bearings, cam lobes worn down, a busted ring had worn a cylinder and so on, I'm really suprised the boy was able to drive it 25 miles home.

I had to do a lot of mixing and matching of parts between the two and rebuilt a later model 360 using several engines for parts. I still have to work on the long bed, which is in really bad shape. The short bed W looked a lot better than it was because someone was a really good at finishing bondo. I did a lot of bondo removal and hammer and dolly work straightening things out. Just got the new window channel and wiper strips installed over the weekend and between a lot of repairing and sealing of the cab, 4 hours of door adjusting and all the new seals, the cab is more air tight and the doors close tighter and better than they did when I bought the D at 1 year old and 14,000 miles. Yeah, the Dodge factory sure wouldn't have hired me to install doors as slow as I was.

Here's before and after photos. When It's all said and done, literally the only thing I won't have repaired, replaced or refurbished will be the title. The only thing I didn't do myself was install the windshield and the front and rear window locking strip. I know my limitations and wasn't going to risk busting the windshield. Otherwise, I did all the body work, paint, grind valves, engine work, sandblasting, wiring, etc.

 

[bear]

Wow she's really come a long way . I know it probably feels like a long journey but the end result will make it all worth it .

 

[bikinkawboy]

In the spring of 2013, my son and I went to a Mopar show and there I saw a couple of really rough '70s pickups and it got me to thinking. I had quit driving the D150 16 years earlier; it was suffering from body cancer, the engine was tired and since we owed 22 doctors and hospitals money for medical problems everyone in the family but I had experienced, I had to cut expenses. So the truck set. I had dated my now ex-wife in the truck, we drove it home from the hospital after losing our first child, we brought home later babies, fetched Christmas trees with it, hauled kids everywhere with it to the store, hauling grain, fertilizer, seed, hay, all over the farm, the boys and I would get a root beer float on the way home from the babysitter and so on. Two years earlier a mountain lion had killed about $8,000 worth of sheep and I had to haul off scrap iron that winter to make the farm payment. I considerd scraping the 150, but the truck held so many memories I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I know sentimental value is meaningless except to the person who feels it and even though I've expended an inordinate amount of time and labor in it so far, I feel comfortable with my endeavor. I hope that when I'm gone one of the boys will hang on to it. I know they both encourage me, although maybe just so they will inherit a fixed up old truck. Ha!

 

[bear]

It's good that your able to resurrect it just for the memory's of the truck . Some people just don't get it when you tell them why your doing something like that . Keep on pounding away at it and you'll have something to be proud of when your done .