Gustav
Active Member
Well, not sure if this will be a "restoration" technically, but I did want a place to document progress on this refresh.
I found this truck for sale at a junkyard that moderately "repairs" vehicles and sells them at pretty good prices. I hadn't actually known about 1st gen rams at all before laying my eyes on this one. The front grille just really caught my eye. I went to look at it more out of curiosity than anything - never had a truck before, but had been looking for one for work.
It said "rust free" on the windshield. I rolled my eyes, as up here in the northeast that's usually code for "rusted only underneath". But as I poked around, I actually saw chalk markings and stickers on the frame... this was legitimately rust free. A week later, I took it for a test drive, hoping it was in good mechanical shape, like the body, and wooo boy this thing was a mess. Felt like engine had no power at all, barely got in gear, and after a 1/2 mile drive, it was smoking out of the engine bay. Valve cover gaskets were like paper. The power steering lines had ruptured at some point and sprayed the entire bay in oil, filthy, etc. But the interior was pretty perfect, and with such a good frame/body it felt like a good project. Made the seller an offer wayy below asking price and waited.
After about a week we had a deal.
Got to work repairing the little things I knew were wrong - valve cover gaskets, plugs, wires, cap rotor (the plugs were crazy irregular in soot), new belts, fixed the alternator bracket so it actually held tension and could charge. That got it running well enough that I could drive it around the neighborhood a bit.
Also replaced all the window and door seals so it kept water out, and generally cleaned it up as best I could. Didn't take long to realize that the radiator was toast.
It was cheaper to install an aluminum rad with more rows than install a replacement. Hopefully having two different metals in the cooling system won't be an issue. I also replaced one rotten freeze plug on the back of the head passenger side. It had holes in it. Needless to say, it worked a lot better after that!
I picked up free motorcycle with it, which felt like it made the project worthwhile up to this point, hahah.
Don't know the story on the Indianapolis 500 stickers on the cab. Maybe it grew up around there? Did it go on the track at some point? Who knows.
Transmission issues got solved by my local mechanic, who's a mopar genius, and races a 'cuda in historic classes up and down the northeast. I forget what it's called, but it has to appear stock (ditto the engine), bias ply tires, etc. but anything internal can be changed and modified like bore stroke, etc. He runs 10s with that thing. Pretty impressive.
Anyway, he solved the shifting issues - a couple of the valves were stuck and a few other things. I have no clue with transmissions so leaving it to him felt good. He also replaced the center link in the suspension. The truck had been lowered by some previous owner using van control arms. It is LOW. So I think the geometry was all messed up. New center link solved those issues.
At this point it was mostly usable, running pretty well, and not a basket case to drive around.
I found this truck for sale at a junkyard that moderately "repairs" vehicles and sells them at pretty good prices. I hadn't actually known about 1st gen rams at all before laying my eyes on this one. The front grille just really caught my eye. I went to look at it more out of curiosity than anything - never had a truck before, but had been looking for one for work.
It said "rust free" on the windshield. I rolled my eyes, as up here in the northeast that's usually code for "rusted only underneath". But as I poked around, I actually saw chalk markings and stickers on the frame... this was legitimately rust free. A week later, I took it for a test drive, hoping it was in good mechanical shape, like the body, and wooo boy this thing was a mess. Felt like engine had no power at all, barely got in gear, and after a 1/2 mile drive, it was smoking out of the engine bay. Valve cover gaskets were like paper. The power steering lines had ruptured at some point and sprayed the entire bay in oil, filthy, etc. But the interior was pretty perfect, and with such a good frame/body it felt like a good project. Made the seller an offer wayy below asking price and waited.
After about a week we had a deal.
Got to work repairing the little things I knew were wrong - valve cover gaskets, plugs, wires, cap rotor (the plugs were crazy irregular in soot), new belts, fixed the alternator bracket so it actually held tension and could charge. That got it running well enough that I could drive it around the neighborhood a bit.
Also replaced all the window and door seals so it kept water out, and generally cleaned it up as best I could. Didn't take long to realize that the radiator was toast.
It was cheaper to install an aluminum rad with more rows than install a replacement. Hopefully having two different metals in the cooling system won't be an issue. I also replaced one rotten freeze plug on the back of the head passenger side. It had holes in it. Needless to say, it worked a lot better after that!
I picked up free motorcycle with it, which felt like it made the project worthwhile up to this point, hahah.
Don't know the story on the Indianapolis 500 stickers on the cab. Maybe it grew up around there? Did it go on the track at some point? Who knows.
Transmission issues got solved by my local mechanic, who's a mopar genius, and races a 'cuda in historic classes up and down the northeast. I forget what it's called, but it has to appear stock (ditto the engine), bias ply tires, etc. but anything internal can be changed and modified like bore stroke, etc. He runs 10s with that thing. Pretty impressive.
Anyway, he solved the shifting issues - a couple of the valves were stuck and a few other things. I have no clue with transmissions so leaving it to him felt good. He also replaced the center link in the suspension. The truck had been lowered by some previous owner using van control arms. It is LOW. So I think the geometry was all messed up. New center link solved those issues.
At this point it was mostly usable, running pretty well, and not a basket case to drive around.