Hey all,

Well I am finally doing it! I'm starting the restore and customization of my very first vehicle, a 1974 Dodge D100 Adventurer. I loved that truck, 2WD, 440, leather bucket seats, tilt and cruise. Picked her up from my pops when I was 17. He was the second owner, my uncle being the first owner. I drove it for a couple of years before I picked up a brand new truck and parked the old gal.

Over the years I just couldn't bring myself to sell her, with dreams of doing some work to her and turning her into a custom ride. Well I think it is finally time. Got the space... don't really have the time, but meh.... doesn't have to be done over night. She has been parked for 11 years, occasionally being fired up and moved around, but for the most part, she has been parked.

Unfortunately being parked has been hard on her. Saying I got a little body work to do would be an understatement. I thought she was in better shape than she was. The part of her I shouldn't have to touch is the front fenders, the hood, the doors and ummmm... I think that covers it. Good news is I have all of the chrome and it is all in mint shape. The cab has holes under the doors so I will have to replace the rocker panels on both sides and the box will probably have to be completely replaced. I think that is the worst part. Just trying to find all the panels for that has been hair pulling. I was told my best chance would be to find another dodge with a box that is in decent condition and just steal it off of that. But saying "good luck" so far has proven to be another understatement. I was told that I can use the same body panels from the year 1972-80 but I am not 100% sure since I am not a body man. Not very many people are able to confirm that so if anyone can, I would appreciate that.

Anyway I have a lot planned for it if I can replace the box, if not, well I may just pull out the 440 and find a different Dodge to drop the 440 into. I just cringe thinking about scrapping the adventurer though. I think my best lead that I just found is rustrepair.com. Emailed them the other day to see if they actually stock the parts I need and weather or not they ship up parts to Canada. If not, I may have to do a road trip across the border.

If anyone has any leads or advice, anything is better than nothing. Probably the biggest project I have done (actually just starting) and my first try at body work. Yea yea yea, my wife is laughing as well!

 

I Have a 73 D100 with a 318 in it that I bought 4 months ago. It is my first time working on any vehicle. It sat in a field for about 5 years and has a whole lot of rust damage. So far I have replaced the brake booster, master brake cylinder, plugs, plug wires, cap and rotors. I just got the new interior door panels cause they were broken. I replaced the weather stripping in the doors and now the windows go up and down again. It has one of the built in tool boxes and the hinges rusted through. It was screwed in with metal screws and now I am going to try to get a friend of mine to weld new hinges onto it. I stripped the paint on that part and primered it so that it would slow down the rust on it. I just found out that I need to replace the alternator and the radiator just sprung a leak. So I will be replacing that soon as well. I want to slowly strip this thing down and sand and primer it one part at a time. It needs a lot of body work. It also has the rusted out sections under the doors. I would love to hear any details on how yours is going as I will be doing much of the same stuff on it.

 

I am currently assisting in the resto of two other old Dodge pick-ups. One being a 1979 Warlock the other a 1978 Lil Red Express. I'm also restoring my 1976 Dodge Warlock. So I say forget about pulling that 440 and just save her. Not that many old Dodges out there. Yes, your body panels are interchangeable from 72' thru 80'. Actually you can bolt up panels all the way to 91' they just have a diff body line. The drive trains were basically the same from 72' thru 91' aswell. Now the bad news. If your going for an all original resto may be difficult. Example: You can interchange the radiator core support in a Lil Red with any from 72' thru 91'. BUT, to get the correct molding and stampings you can only get one from select 78's and 79's aswell as some US military trucks ( those make great parts trucks if found in a junk yard). I'm sure Canada has something similar. If your going resto mod that shouldn't be an issue. We'd love to see some pics.