Kodachrome Wolf
Junior Member
Admittedly I'm surprised I'm here, since I never had planned on buying a Dodge (or even a truck for that matter) and come from lineup of Mercurys that have been my mainstay for years; but when a 1986 D-150 was offered to me for $400 through a friend who's co-worker was looking to find it a new home, I figured I didn't have too much to lose on this. I always found the D/W series to look pretty decent and lacking in representation on the roads down here.
Anyway, the truck itself is currently not running and has been sitting for several years. To my knowledge the current owner received the truck from her father who was the original owner. Many years back the transmission reportedly started to fail to get it going in Drive, and would only occasionally catch in one of the low gear selections. Well her father said there was a guy who could fix it, and said guy kept the truck about two years, attempted to get the title off of her aging parents to "figure out what transmission it needs", cut a hole into the transmission tunnel, which while he did that set the carpet on fire damaging some lower duct work, and broke the TorqueFlite beyond repair. No foolin', the upper half of the bellhousing is still stuck to the engine.
So here we are, many years after the truck stopped going. Luckily it hasn't been excessively long since the engine has run. It's not locked up, but the chucklehead left the air cleaner off the carbuerator, but the only rust I could see was on the blades. Valve covers were pretty darn clean looking through the oil fill.
Apologies, but it's definitely sad looking right now:
While it looks bad, I think it'll turn around a bit with some love. It's a pretty darn straight body, lived in Georgia for the longest so there's no rust that I could find. Cab and bed seem sound. The grandpa special running boards were solid and I was able to stand on them without any worry of them ripping away from the truck.
Current plan is to source up another TorqueFlite. The pan design looks like the A727, and based on what I've scoured from the internet, any small block LA A727 should bolt up assuming it didn't come from an early push button car, but feel free to correct me since it's a bit unfamiliar to me. Luckily there's a few around here for not too much money (sub-$150), and even if they need rebuilt, the purchase cost of the transmission won't really hurt.
After that, it'll be get it running good, then go through brakes, bearings, fluids, tires, fix the floor and interior bits, fix the wiper linkage, and other remaining odds and ends.
Like I said at the beginning, it's gonna be a bit different getting familiar with a Dodge.
I'll definitely be asking questions and hopefully getting this truck mechanically well sorted.
In case anyone's curious about my other cars, the Ford Panther platform has been my strong suit. I've had my '97 Marquis for a little over 10 years now and it's been very mildly warmed over from stock. My '87 Colony Park was supposed to stay mechanically stock, but after I lost a valve seat in PA and drove back to GA on 7 cylinders, I gave it a top end rebuild and was converted to the HO 302 configuration during that job. The '64 Comet was more a field find and needs a good amount of work to get it driveable again.
Anyway, the truck itself is currently not running and has been sitting for several years. To my knowledge the current owner received the truck from her father who was the original owner. Many years back the transmission reportedly started to fail to get it going in Drive, and would only occasionally catch in one of the low gear selections. Well her father said there was a guy who could fix it, and said guy kept the truck about two years, attempted to get the title off of her aging parents to "figure out what transmission it needs", cut a hole into the transmission tunnel, which while he did that set the carpet on fire damaging some lower duct work, and broke the TorqueFlite beyond repair. No foolin', the upper half of the bellhousing is still stuck to the engine.
So here we are, many years after the truck stopped going. Luckily it hasn't been excessively long since the engine has run. It's not locked up, but the chucklehead left the air cleaner off the carbuerator, but the only rust I could see was on the blades. Valve covers were pretty darn clean looking through the oil fill.
Apologies, but it's definitely sad looking right now:
While it looks bad, I think it'll turn around a bit with some love. It's a pretty darn straight body, lived in Georgia for the longest so there's no rust that I could find. Cab and bed seem sound. The grandpa special running boards were solid and I was able to stand on them without any worry of them ripping away from the truck.
Current plan is to source up another TorqueFlite. The pan design looks like the A727, and based on what I've scoured from the internet, any small block LA A727 should bolt up assuming it didn't come from an early push button car, but feel free to correct me since it's a bit unfamiliar to me. Luckily there's a few around here for not too much money (sub-$150), and even if they need rebuilt, the purchase cost of the transmission won't really hurt.
After that, it'll be get it running good, then go through brakes, bearings, fluids, tires, fix the floor and interior bits, fix the wiper linkage, and other remaining odds and ends.
Like I said at the beginning, it's gonna be a bit different getting familiar with a Dodge.
I'll definitely be asking questions and hopefully getting this truck mechanically well sorted.In case anyone's curious about my other cars, the Ford Panther platform has been my strong suit. I've had my '97 Marquis for a little over 10 years now and it's been very mildly warmed over from stock. My '87 Colony Park was supposed to stay mechanically stock, but after I lost a valve seat in PA and drove back to GA on 7 cylinders, I gave it a top end rebuild and was converted to the HO 302 configuration during that job. The '64 Comet was more a field find and needs a good amount of work to get it driveable again.
