Finally got my 1st gen!

Hey guys. I have always followed this forum but I have had 3 2nd gens and parts and resources are abundant. Figured I would create an account for my first gen. It's an 85 W250 with a 318. Some background. My first vehicle was a 94 2wd reg cab long bed 360. 320,000 miles and dunno what the factory color was because of the rust lol. My second was a 98 4wd reg cab short bed 360 that after returning from Iraq I sunk $22,000 into. Absolutely a gorgeous truck. Traded it for a 99 2wd quad cab short bed 360, about made me cry but my first son was on his way. Ended up trading it in on a 05 4wd quad cab short bed 345 hemi. Loved that truck, but went threw some though times and had to choose between it or the family Nitro R/T. So things are looking up and the exact truck I have always looked for landed in my lap. Over time I will do rims and tires. The truck already has a 2 inch lift and minimal rust, especially for Indiana. But I want to repaint and fix the body. Redo to interior. So some motor work, Mopar performance breather, Mopar performance valve covers, headers other little things. The first thing will be exhaust, the old all rusted and fell off so it's loud as hell. Then on to the interior. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the length, just wanted to thoroughly let y'all know that I am all Mopar or no car lol.

Forgot to add pics lol, they are up now.

Nice truck! Have fun fixing her up. Just replaced the carpet on my '85 last year and it was SO worth it.

Thanks! Mine has black vinyl flooring, but I plan I doing carpet. Paint the dash, reapolster and paint the metal. I hate red interiors lol

Sweet. Be sure to post more pics, we'd like to see the progress.

welcome. that is a nice looking truck. if you plan on using this truck as your daily driver you may want to see about buying or building a headlight relay harness for it. makes a huge difference to how bright your lights are and make your headlight system more reliable since it is one of the weak spots on dodge trucks when they get a bit older.

Can you explain further? I'm good with electrical, so just replacing existing lines that go to the lights or a whole new system?

a relay harness pretty much replaces the headlight harness at the lights and gets it power straight from the battery so it makes your headlights brighter and takes stress off the old stock wiring and connectors. in my opinion it was one of the best upgrade i have done. i even got my daily driver setup to keep the low beams on when the highs are on so that when you need more light you got it.

crazzywolfie said:

i even got my daily driver setup to keep the low beams on when the highs are on so that when you need more light you got it.

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That's an awesome idea, that I am interested in doing! I found a HD harness on LMC for like $30. So yeah I definitely want to do that. I hate that I can't put HID's in this truck. Any suggestions on the whitest brightest units?

ya. if you actually try it out even just in your driveway you can see the huge advantage to keeping your low beams on while your highs are on. ya lmc sell a harness fairly cheap. if you had all the parts sitting around you could make one cheaper but most people don't usually have the stuff kicking around. you can get HID's or LED's but i am not a big fan of HID lights in trucks not designed for them and LED lights are not exactly cheap. i think i got the sylvania Xtravision lights on both my vehicles because the parts stores were selling them fairly cheap for a while and i like them better than the standard bulbs i have sitting around as spares.

TWO Truck Lite 27450C 5" X 7" Rectangular LED Headlamp HI LOW Beam Headlight | eBay

My headlights are all one assembly. Is there a replace.ent where you can put your own bulbs in?

ya. there are housings that you can put your own bulbs in but there is usually no huge difference in light output with them. i had some in my 93 and i ended up just swapping back to normal sealed beams.

Bought a new tail light today to replace the busted one in the first pics. Makes the passenger side one look like crap lol. New Sylvania xtravision headlights. Much much better than the Wagner's it had on it.

with how old these things are it is kind of hard to replace one side without making the other side look bad especially since the aftermarket tail light don't look like the stock ones.

now the only way you could get any better light is if you installed a relay harness. also if you wanted you could also check your headlights to make sure they are aimed properly. eventually the front ends always sag a bit which could result in the headlights being aimed a bit low. might need to replace the headlight adjuster clips if you do go to adjust them. i have yet to see one that wasn't fragile. most usually break

Yeah they looked pretty fragile but the suspension was replaced last year by the original owner with all 1 ton suspension so if anything they are a bit high, but yeah I'm not going to mess with them until I feel like replacing the adjusters lol

well to tell the truth those adjusters are really simple to replace and you really only usually need to replace the 1 adjuster that adjust the up and down on the lights since that is the only thing that really changes unless the other adjuster is broke.

Again awesome to know, thanks man!

True duals, with Magnaflow glasspacks. I run that setup on my Ramcharger.

You can either weld in new steel, or get aftermarket floorpans if your cab rust is that bad. If you plan on using it AS a truck (tracking mud, water, and snow in it), consider eschewing carpet, and just rhinolining the floor. Add some of the generic-sized Weathertech floormats, and you're GTG.

On behalf of a grateful American - thank you for your service.

The War Wagon said:

On behalf of a grateful American - thank you for your service.

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Thank you!

I am thinking stay true duals but go flowmaater 40 delta series. Dumped out the passenger side

Oh and there is no rust one the floor pans !