new (to me) truack and new to forum

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benjamminfla

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Hey fellas, new here. Just bought a '91 W-150 with minimal rust, working 4wd, 4-speed manual, <100K. I think I added pics of how it was when I received it as attachments. Plans include losing the tailgate, regular maintenance, exhaust work, rust & dent repair followed by paint, fixing radio, tires. What else do y'all think it needs? It'll be used for mostly non-industrial projects, getting around in the snow, tame off-roading. Thanks, it's nice to join an active forum. BTW my other vehicles are 1984 Audi 4000S (slightly modified), and 2016 VW Jetta Sport (slightly modified).

Edit: the no spell checker on forums got me again- *truck not truack
 

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MADDOG

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Looks pretty clean!

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the upgrades.
 
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benjamminfla

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Looks pretty clean!

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the upgrades.

Thanks!

Forgot to mention that the first thing I did was drain and replace all the oils (engine, transfer case, differential [both]) and didn't find anything alarming, and replace the wiper motor and wiper arm bushing, oil and air filters.
 
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benjamminfla

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Dude that thing is sweet, so clean

Thanks very much. The rear tire well rust was repaired (not perfectly, but acceptably), but the tailgate was shot. Other than that, I was very surprised how clean it is. Also, the paint is a poorer quality roll-on epoxy, and I plan to do a dark blue and gold Monstaliner two-tone job to even it all out with the Monstaliner texture. Should be pretty nice when complete.
 

Joe w.

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Nice looking truck keep us posted on your progress with it
 

R.L.K.

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Nice in deed Sir!
Welcome
 
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benjamminfla

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What are your plans for that tailgate? Any dents or dings? I need one for my '92 W-150.

Thanks

Bill

Sorry Bill, the tailgate was terribly rusted and did not function (latch or swing) properly, so I promptly discarded it and replaced it with a tough bed net.
 
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benjamminfla

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Thanks for the compliments guys. The truck works great and will get a much needed rear bumper, small dent repair, ignition tune-up and Monstaliner midnight blue paint job in the next couple months (with pics to follow). First things first though-moving into a house with a garage!
 
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benjamminfla

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So......after hauling tons of stuff, replacing the PS pump, sprucing up the interior, fixing rust, installing fog lights, having the steering repaired to get rid of steering wheel play, replacing the fuel tank straps, taking out the DURALINER, some cheap exhaust fixes, getting new (old) wheels and new tires, undercoating the bottom side, there are only a few things left to do before paint prep and paint:

put on the new bumper, find the paint that UPS lost, finish my custom (read: makeshift) grill.

Then the truck is finally ready for paint prep and paint! Will post some pictures and some details about the completed work sometime soon.
 

ric3xrt

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91 is a good year for these trucks. love the manual truck deal. my only question would be ...has the 84 Audi ever come home with out you?.........had to go there(lol)
 
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benjamminfla

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91 is a good year for these trucks. love the manual truck deal. my only question would be ...has the 84 Audi ever come home with out you?.........had to go there(lol)

Are you referring to the cruise control/acceleration issue the Audi's had back in the 80's? Or the car breaking down? Mine's a 5 speed with disconnected cruise control, so the car drives fine.....when it's running. I recently had to replace the entire fuse box and front engine harness and gauge cluster due to a *ahem small fire. But she's back to her former glory.
 

Sniper X

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Nice truck indeed. I have basically the same truck but a short bed. There ia a laundry list of what little things you'll need to address as time goes on on that truck. At some point I'll do a written list of them and possibly a link to the fixes. I also have a couple cars. I still have my 1985 BMW Dinan 535i, and a commuter car, a 2004 Focus ZX3 5 speed.
 
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benjamminfla

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Nice truck indeed. I have basically the same truck but a short bed. Why remove the tailgate? There ia a laundry list of what little things you'll need to address as time goes on on that truck. At some point I'll do a written list of them and possibly a link to the fixes.

Thanks ******! I like the truck a lot. The tailgate that was on it was terribly rusted, even the hinge it pivoted on was completely rusted off on one side. So the tailgate would go up and down sideways and even licked in the upright position, if there was any weight on the bottom it would tilt and screw things up. To be able to use a new or better tailgate at all, I'd have to weld on the pivot piece. I went with the net because-cheaper option. A list of maintenance items would be helpful.
 

Sniper X

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Here is the short list of stuff that'll happen from tomorrow-150K miles. The Hall Effects sensor in the distributor will start to flake out. If the truck begins to stall, or be hard to start intermittently, that's it, replace it and it'll be good for another 50 years.

The in tank fuel pump, it is also the fuel gauge level sender. USUALLY the gauge gets wonky and inaccurate, but not all the time right before the fuel pump goes bad. There are three ways to fix the fuel pump. One is the hole in the bed way which I'll never do, the tilt bed way or the drop the tank way. Usually also you fill the tank the day before the fuel pump goes out and dropping the tank is a nightmare. I did the tilt bed deal.

Gauges, get wonky. Usually this is due to the circuit board on the instrument panel getting loose connections. Luckily I am about to do the entire Dodge First Gen gauge cluster upgrade so I'll be doing a wirte up and pictures and step by step instructionons on this one. This is where the gauges get wonky and inaccurate or stop working all together. I also will fix the next one on this setp.

Trip meter and odometer stop working. This is due to YOU or the PO resetting the trip meter whilst moving. That breaks the little teeth off of the drive gears that are the mechanical part of the electronic speedo. These drive the trip meter and odometer. I'll do these on the entire cluster upgrade so you'll see how to on that.

Heater blower motor quits. This is easy all it is is the fuseable link that supplies it has gotten hashed, replace it and all fuseable links under the hood with fuse holders and be done wit it. I'd do this FIRST and NOW. Fuseable links on first gens and prior gen Dodges has been the main reason for burnder down Dodges world wide.

Windscreen wipers intermittent problem. Manifests itself by loosing the wipers except in the medium and high position and possibly the park position goes away. There is a little wiper delay control box under the dash that is the culprit. I may do a writeup on that as well. but it can be fixed. First the wipers intermittent control goes away permantly or becomes wonky. The contacts in the little box go bad or get dirty and stop working. They can be cleaned but you have to cut the box open.

Thats it for now but I'll make a list someday!
 
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benjamminfla

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So my truck has had a relatively significant Christmas break and I wanted to share the updates with you all. Comments, advice, concerns and questions are welcome and appreciated.

A couple days before the 25th, we installed the new rear bumper finally, a carbon steel 2" ball, and did a few other things in preparation for our road trip to Florida. We were giving our Audi 4000S to my brother to use while he's in college until he graduates, so the W150 would be towing it on a car hauler trailer for over 900 miles. It was definitely not an easy task for the old truck, but if it got the job done (well), then it would receive a new paint job and more "fun" upgrades.

The car was loaded with gifts and tools, the truck bed was loaded with pet supplies, clothes, extra gas, more tools, paint, and much more that I'm forgetting, and in the cab were me, my wife, a good friend of ours, food and our cat. Quite the crew!

On the 24th, we arrived near Daytona Beach. Rough trip stats are as follows:
-about 12 MPG average driving at 70 MPH for most of the trip
-chugged along at about 45 MPH up the mountains
-a normally 12 hour trip was done in about 15 hours with this payload
-burned about 1 qt of oil (mostly staying in gear going down the mountains is my guess)
-transmission got a little warm but never acted up
-truck brakes were good, but trailer brakes were funky towards the end

While at my folks, my dad (professional painter) helped figure out the Monstaliner paint I got for the truck and we did some of it down there. The rest was finished when we got back home. Truck also got some amber rear side markers and license plate lights as well as fun tow hooks.

So anyway, I'm sure there are a few details I left out, but that's ok. The bottom line is that the truck has proved itself to me and now it looks much better than it did and is more capable. Weight down with tires and wheels in the back, it more than handled the 3 inches of snow we got this week and I'm excited to get more snow to have fun in. On to the pics (links)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-K0pEm3zFVuckxKY2FweUZSekU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuZER6OUtscXhrQWc

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVudUhqVHJhV0NQVGs

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuZ3FNaGJPbnVjeVE

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuS0M4bG9pZk56cU0

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuNDZkdGw3aElZVjQ

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVudThLeGd0R29uamM

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVuck9RcWZvN0ZmMWs

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0pEm3zFVua3pFeWhBUUVHcG8

Thanks for checking it out!

-Ben
i'm still working on my homemade grill.
edit: forgot to mention that
 

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