Hi all! long time no see. To make a long story short, I sold my 95 Dak because it was becoming more of a hassle than it was worth (probably should have kept it or kept some parts). I never got my first gen ram diesel like I wanted. A good friend of mine sold me his Ford F350 IDI Diesel for a STEAL. Well its much more of a project than I can afford $ or timewise, so I went out and picked up my new 1 owner 93 Dakota. Needs some stuff, like a windshield, typical fuel gauge, and wondering how to fix a high releasing clutch (its not old, have paperwork too). The only regret about this truck is that its a v6, not a v8 but hey it was pretty cheap and has working a/c! (My old one was a factory non a/c truck).
And a few pics, because a thread without photos is worthless!

Right before I loaded it on the trailer



On the trailer behind my Ford at work, I didn't have time to stop home before work, it was a 100+ mile drive each way to get this thing!

 

Nice Find! Your not already thinking about a V8 are you? lol

 

Congrats. I too have an idi but its an f250 to go with my dakota. Its a good truck but slow as **** lol.

 

I love that f350, but its a pain in the a** because it constantly needs something. Its a never ending battle fixing that truck. However mine's pretty damn quick and has no issue hauling a 6000lb trailer thankfully.
In other news, with help from a friend, I got all my purple tint off, I think it looks 100x better already. Sadly when I removed the cap to get to the back window to heat it to release the tint, I realized when the roof was repainted they didn't remove the cap, so there's runs and dirt in the paint over the back window.

 

I had an 89 D350, cummins, dually. A MANLY TRUCK! Engine and running gear were first rate, but the truck was the worst piece of ca-ca. Regular cab, big uncomfortable, cheap bench seat, and a too strong throttle spring. Literally would be cramped and crippled if I drove it more than 50 miles. Worst truck I ever owned and I swore I'd never own a Chrysler product again.

Like lots of folks, I kinda fell into owning my '96 Dakota, Club Cab, 4wd, V8, Automatic. The guys a Dodge solved all of the stuff I hated about the big Dodge, and the Dakota is by far my favorite truck (tho I did love my Datsun club cab diesel.) While I think the split bench seat is pretty dreadfully ugly, it's quite comfortable. And the club cab makes all the difference. V8 and overdrive mean decent highway range and mileage.

I guess I wouldn't worry too much about the runs on the back of the cab. You could sand them out and use progressively finer wet/dry paper, then polish.

Looks like a pretty decent truck, tho.

 

Just noticed. Holy Crap! It's bucket seats with a console!

We are all envious!

 

If I had a nice 4wd manual cummins I'd MAKE it perfect to me, and I don't care what it'd take, but they are impossible to find for decent prices that arent DESTROYED.

And yes I'm VERY happy it has buckets and a console, I love an armrest with storage in it!

 

unless its a project that the owner doesn't want anymore or has to get rid of. i've seen 4 first gen diesel rams going for around 1500 over here in the past year. if my idi ever bows up i'll put in a cummins. or i'll just put the cummins in my dakota...lol

i'm jealous because you have the club cab. i miss having one

 

I wish it was like that around here. $3000 buys you a beat to hell 2wd automatic truck with 300k miles. You are in a very different part of the country, I wish it was like that around here.

 

Yeah, I'm the one who hated my 89 dodge with the cummins.

Easy to say "I'd make it my truck." It was the top (I guess) of the line truck for Dodge that year. Dually, two toned paint, chrome stuff, & I'd say it had a 4.10 or 4.11 whatever rear end. It would tow anything, but if you were towing a car or a truck (I towed a f/s F250 from California to Washington) you'd better load the bed with a half ton of sand, or the towed vehicle would drive the towing vehicle.

It was the first year of the Cummins. It had a set of throttle springs that would break your leg, struggled to do 72 mph, got about 17 mpg, had no cruise control, regular cab and a poorly designed bench seat with no headrests (so your head in an accident would go through the rear window) and painful to sit in for any length of time. It was bad quality, switches stopped working (windows that go down and up are important,) the paint had defects, and cheap a-s-s Chrysler Corp didn't even deign to include a spare tire or a jack & tire wrench.

At the time I said it was a decent running gear attached to the worst excuse for a truck possible.

I've had lots of trucks, including the aformentioned F250, that I couldn't keep a working engine in. The D350 was my least favorite.

And, as I said, I'm a fan of my 96 Club Cab Dakota. Even with the 4wd and the 5.2, it gets 20ish mpg on the highway (because it has 3.55 gearing) and has moderately comfortable seating and more room than the big truck. I still think that Chrysler, over the years, has been run by bean counting *******, but I'm happy with the little truck.