1986 Ram D150 restoration project
 

I just signed up so I might as well introduce myself first. My name is Joe and I am a sophomore in college, I work at a classic car restoration shop in the summers and I am an avid BMW fan. Ive got a 1992 bmw 318is as a daily driver that I have done extensive work on. But none of you care about that so on to the truck...

Its a 1986 Dodge Ram D150 with the 5.2l v8 that my grandfather bought new back in 1986. He had it all the way until he passed away unexpectedly in 1999. My grandmother then sold the truck to a family friend for really cheap and we all slowly forgot about it.

I got a call from my grandma about a year ago and told me that the guy who had the truck no longer had a use for it and that he was looking to get rid of it. I immediately contacted him and he told me that I could have it for nothing since it belonged to my grandfather as long as I took good care of it and never sold it. The truck had been used as a campground utility vehicle for the past 12 years and hadn't seen the road for the last ten or so. It had, however, been stored in the barn (with a concrete floor) every winter so it was basically rust free! The downsides were, being a work truck, that it was covered in dents and the interior was destroyed.

This past summer I picked up a uhaul vehicle trailer and drove two hours to pick it up. When I got there, I learned that it had sprung a bad fuel leak which was believed to be a punctured tank. It also needed a power steering pump badly(it was making the dying cat noise) and a number of other things. After a white knuckle drive to the place where I would be keeping it, I unloaded it and immediately power-washed the years of dirt and other crap that had built up over the years. I then parked it in the garage and had to leave for school for the next few months.

I came home this past week for thanksgiving and have spent the last two days tearing into the truck. It turns out that the fuel leak was due to a ruptured hose right at the top of the tank so I removed the offending section and will be picking up a replacement tomorrow. I have also rebuilt the tailgate latch mechanisms, opened the passenger door that has been stuck closed for years, and have removed the grille/trim/etc on the front end to protect it while I work on everything under the hood (I will be refinishing it later anyway). I went ahead and removed the power steering pump and related hoses, and in the process managed to bump the radiator with the end of a wrench and cause a small leak. Seeing as the radiator was old and had a broken mounting bracket anyway, I went ahead and drained the coolant and removed the radiator as well.

I'd post pictures but my phone camera is acting up and won't save any images, i'll get some up as soon as I can.

Basically, since I know I will have a lot of questions that the Haynes manual doesn't answer I'm going to use this thread to ask them instead of making a million separate threads as well as document my progress on this sentimental project.

Are there any typical problem areas on these truck that I should check before I get too deep into other projects? Also, is there anywhere online I can get new interior parts? or would a u-pull-it/junkyard be my best bet? I need just about everything except the dash, steering wheel, and sun visors.

I have found a lot of good parts for our trucks at Pic-n-Pull yards. Another good source is networking. Set up your profile details with your location and meet up with some locals. I've made quite a few friends and someone always seems to have what I need or knows someone that does.

There's some good prices on RockAuto.
http://www.rockauto.com/
Tricky shipping though with their multiple warehouses. Group orders by warehouse location to save on shipping.

I also like 1aauto especially for weatherstripping. Free shipping!
http://www.1aauto.com/1A/-/Dodge/D150-Truck/-/-/1986

Remember LMC Truck stands for Lookit My Chitty Truck.

Another idea would be a parts truck thats a fairly common style truck so another could be found cheaply

Welcome to the forum. Lots of used parts on Ebay. Set up a saved search for your make/model and you will get emails every morning letting you know what has just been listed. I have a general search for my make and model and then some specific searches, i.e. I have been running 16.5 x 6.75 wheel search forever trying to get a new rim.

Also, Rockauto is a good source for parts as well as www.classicindustries.com (ask for their catalog). Mostly old Mopar parts 1960-1970, but they sometimes have small, hard to find items you cannot get elsewhere.

I agree with rabbit. I would find a good donor truck rather than pack your old panels with bondo. Find one that has a bum engine or tranny so you can score it for cheap.

as much as id love to have a donor truck I just can't get the space for two. I plan on leaving the body as it is for now until I get it running and driving perfectly. The only part that is truly beaten to hell is the bed so the plan is to keep an eye out for a good one to drop on there as well as a drivers door and passenger fender. I don't mind a bit of extra work if it means keeping as much of the original truck as I can.


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Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Do you have any good parts suppliers at work? Maybe you can bring it in to work to get the body straightened out.

here's some pics!

The day I picked it up:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8...16c3e62a_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8487/8...c34e6f67_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8060/8...445688f2_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8487/8...cbb45389_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8...687354c4_z.jpg

Started the process of getting it back on the road:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8067/8...27ebbbe7_z.jpg

Its amazing what a difference some simple cleaning can do!
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8060/8...3e3528ab_z.jpg

Our carb guy is a big mopar fan so hopefully he can point me in the right direction for things I can't get off rockauto, etc. The shop I work at is very small so we do not do bodywork in house, we work with the body shop next door when needed, and we deal in almost entirely GM cars (specifically corvettes) so I wouldn't have a good line of parts there. I'm hoping to eventually learn to do bodywork so I may try my hand at it before sending it out, but I've got a long way before I get to that point

before dumping any money into the carb you may want to think about what you want to do with it. from what i know and am seeing i would guess your truck has the lean burn system which sucks when it starts failing. the carb on the lean burn trucks is different then the one on trucks without lean burn.

I meant the guy at my work who specializes in rebuilding carbs is a big mopar guy, not that I was going to be touching the carburetor right now. It seems to run decently right now so im going to leave it be. What is the lean burn? and how can I get rid of it?


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