wow, that heater core has seen much better days. Almost like the condensate drain wasn't draining

 

Unfortunately, the truck suffered from a COMPLETE lack of maintenance. The people I got it from spent all their money on cigarettes. The just poured gas in it. It's a shame as when it was new it was obviously well taken care of. It didn't want to get over 130 degrees when I got it. Guess why.




The truck is turning into a fun driver. If I didn't need my Ram for towing, I'd sell it and keep this as my only pickup. While I have the interior out, I'm going to drop the headliner and put a new covering in. I bought the last couple of yards of "Eddie Bauer" camouflage material and may cover the sun visors too.

Here's the before and after pictures of the truck.





I need to do a little contrast painting as well as put some stuff back on but it looks a lot better.

 

I consider this a testament to how tough these pickups are. Still see plenty of them running around all beat up and loaded down, being used as work trucks here.

 

I've got the heater box back in and I'm doing some wiring work to add stuff and am about ready to put the dash back in. I pulled the headliner out while the cab is empty to make a new headliner easy to install. I'll say one thing about the old Dodges, no cardboard headliner boards. This one is fiberglass. I've spent most of the day scrubbing it with a wire brush. Tomorrow, I'll cut the material and glue it on. By toorrow ening I'll have the headliner in. I should have enough left over material to make matching sunvisors.

 

Well, plans tend to change. The original headliner material is water repellent. It's also glue repellent. I had to get more material. I certainly get odd looks standing in line at the sewing store. Especially when asked if I was sewing seats. I told the lady I was making a cute frock for the upcoming dance. The dash went in fairly well with the exception of those 5 screws along the inside of the windshield. Those things ate my lunch today.

I plan to finish the headliner tomorrow then get the steering column in. It won't be long after that before the old gal is back on the road.

 

I put in a junkyard headliner ten years ago. Still looks perfect today.

 

All the headliners that would fit my truck were as bad or worse than the one I've got. Mine was pretty bad. I have found the 1997 was an amalgam of parts from 1st and 2nd gen trucks. I found a steering wheel cover from a 1993 that fits perfectly, except it's red rather than black. I have paint though. I noticed a lot of parts were for 1998 to 2002 or 2004. Now I know why.

I got some green cloth that will glue in just fine. Not the look I was looking for, but the camo fabric won't go to waste.

 

I suppose I ought to rename this to rebuilding the Dakota. Redid the headliner today. The soft cloth isn't the look I wanted but it stuck pretty well. Plus, the softer material made it easier to get the creases out. It actually looks like I knew what I was doing. I've done headliners before but an extended cab is a little more challenging than the single cabs I've done before. I also slipped and snapped the cover I bought yesterday into two pieces. Anyway, hopefully the a/c parts will be in tomorrow so when I put the steering column back in, I can get it up and running again.





I'm going to cover some older, but better, sun visors with the green. Inside looks and smells MUCH better. I didn't realize how much of the smoke smell was cooking out of the headliner. I scrubbed the inner door panels while I was at it and that yellow tobacco stream came off them. It ought to smell better but I'll see if I have some little tree smell-um good hangers.

 

I got the old gal back together again and she fired right up. It didn't want to start at first but I plugged the connector into the new brake light switch. I wish I had replaced that when I had the dash out, but I didn't know it was bad. I had left it unplugged, so evidently something goes through it. The new lights work good and look great. At least I now have heat. I'll finish charging the a/c tomorrow while it's still warm and do some brke work and this puppy will be ready for winter.

I did make one modification though. I tore my hands up trying to get the fan, shroud and radiator out. I split the shroud into 2 pieces. A couple of small brackets to hold it together near the fan and radiator, shroud and fan took about 15 minutes to put n. No band aid's needed.