Well with the help of My Dad I recently purchased a 1992 Dodge Dakota off my cousin whom I helped switch it over to a 5.9 L v8, well there's been quite a story between me and this truck and I am slowly restoring it and doing some upgrades but (being 16) it is a very difficult process, do you guys have any ideas what I should do to it from here, so far I've got a new 518 tranny, new 3.90 gears, the front shocks have been replaced recently and I need to do the same to the back, on the interior I've installed 3 Pioneer 10's and I've got a bed liner installed, I have the idea to get the hood painted soon after I finish the payments, well here's the pics tell me what ya think:: Oh, ha as a sidenote, I just noticed that under the dash in the pictures all of the dash peices are removed to hook up my subs and fix some wiring issues, so i know that there's supposed to be a little less chaos down there.

 

Looks a little rough, but has lots of potential.

 

Welcome to DodgeForum!!

Not bad looking at all except the silver stripe. Mine peeled the same way, just like every other one ever made... I didn't bother putting that stripe back on when I repainted mine.

Anyway, before we can help you out, what vision do you have for this truck? Just a nice daily driver, or a bada$$ offroad truck? If the engine/tranmission/axles are in good shape, it sounds to me like its time for cosmetics! Is there much rust on it? Give it a bath and take some more pictures for us! :P

Just out of curiosity, did you do the diff gears yourself?

 

Haha, well it rained and I couldn't help getting it a little dirty =p
luckily there is zero rust, but the grill needs to be replaced

I want it to be a truck I can drive around and not fear going off the road, I don't need a massive lift, the only plans I have is to maybe up the wheel size and get the paint done, does anyone know any good sites to order replacement parts?

 

You should start by reading through the faq and faq2 pages (two of the stickies at the top of the 1st gen dakota page). They cover regular maintenence, typical problems, general info, lift/performance ideas, and links to good replacement parts and performance parts sites. A good OE site is moparpartsamerica.com.

As for lift, I have my torsion bars maxxed in front, a bigger rear axle with taller spring perches, and coil over towing shocks in the back (about equal to 2 inch blocks without the blocks), and a 2 inch body lift on 265/75/16s (31.5x10.5). Is this about the same lift you're looking for?

DSCN0377.jpg?t=1256684068

 

Welcome to DF. Looks like a good project truck! Plenty of stuff you can do just depends on what you want to do and what you can afford.

 

That's the perfect lift! Exactly what I was thinking but I don't know if I can afford to do something like that....doesn't maxing the tortion bar have a bad side affect on the front when off road?

 

Maxxing out the torsion bars makes for a harsh ride, so you feel every bump in the road, but you have to do it to fit bigger tires on without them rubbing. It doesn't have bad side effects offroad.

Lol, that is the cheapest possible lift you can do. IIRC, the torsion bar keys are $60-70, the body lift I got from ebay for $75, and there are several options for the rear. You can put blocks on the leaf spring perches. This IMO, is the worst of all the ideas. You can also find a 2wd and swap the rear leaf spring hangers. This will lift the back 2-3." Or you could repack the leaf springs with add-a-leaf, or full size truck leafs and get coil over shocks like the monroe sensatrac towing shocks. Anyway, total cost is less than $300.

The best place to start for now is cranking the bolt on the stock keys, and if you want it higher, get aftermarket keys.

 

Cool, that's not a bad price but unfortunately our roads are miserably old and cracked, it would make driving through town horrible, I think slightly bigger tires would still clear the fenders, the ones on it aren't even close...I may look into a lift kit when the weather warms up, thanks! I got good news today too, I found someone who has all the gear to paint it when summer rolls around for fairly cheap, Yay! Oh, I had one of those amazing rollbars but when I put my bedliner in it wouldn't fit and while trying to fix by making it smaller I just f'ed it up, I can fix it but I unfortunately have to choose between rollbar and bedliner