A couple years ago I picked this '96 Dodge up from a buddy...relatively straight, good (I think) Cummins six w/ 275K miles and a few Banks mods, wasted interior (typical) and wasted automatic transmission (also typical). $2500, if it had had a good manual trans it would have been three times that. What I don't like is that automatic, no rear doors, and I think I could really use 4wd once in a while which this is not. A plus would be, it's pre-smog 12-valve meaning it doesn't have to go to a smog station every two years, a requirement in CA starting for 1998.
With the negatives, I didn't have much love for this thing...in fact I just got it for parts and 'cause the guy needed money and it's gone nowhere, with CA registration fees piling up each year.
Lately however I've been looking at trucks to get a little more than the beater single-cab 2wd I currently use. After pondering market prices and conditions, I think what I'm going to do is combine parts of this truck with a couple others I've picked up cheap, and maybe my own one, and get everything I want in a tow vehicle and possibly come in under five grand if I include selling off extra parts. Labor costs not included! Some times I don't know why I do what I do, but that's what I do.
Three things I've got here that are a huge help for such a project are, driveway/yard space, a bigger engine hoist than what is the usual (Craigslist, $150) and a small tractor to lift and pull things around with. A forklift would do also, which could be rented for a couple days if someone needed but I think I'm set up.
Off comes the bed, eight bolts and a couple of wires. This is an OK bed if a little dinged up inside.
Reaching in from the side made lifting the cab off do-able. I don't know yet what portion if any I'll be using of that.
Here on the left is the remaining frame and drivetrain; on the right is the same part of a '96 V10/auto 4x4 I hauled home at the end of last year for $600 (damaged in front, with the motor half rebuilt but then left out in a sandstorm). The four-by has most of what I'll need to uprgrade the two-by chassis.
After lots of imaginative thought as to what I could do with that 300hp V10 I think the answer is, nothing. Sell or scrap later. I'll have a pile of other parts to sell off also.
Here's the four-by frame now, stripped and getting brackets etc. cut off. The 2wd and 4wd frames use the same rails but have the different stampings welded on.
With the negatives, I didn't have much love for this thing...in fact I just got it for parts and 'cause the guy needed money and it's gone nowhere, with CA registration fees piling up each year.
Lately however I've been looking at trucks to get a little more than the beater single-cab 2wd I currently use. After pondering market prices and conditions, I think what I'm going to do is combine parts of this truck with a couple others I've picked up cheap, and maybe my own one, and get everything I want in a tow vehicle and possibly come in under five grand if I include selling off extra parts. Labor costs not included! Some times I don't know why I do what I do, but that's what I do.
Three things I've got here that are a huge help for such a project are, driveway/yard space, a bigger engine hoist than what is the usual (Craigslist, $150) and a small tractor to lift and pull things around with. A forklift would do also, which could be rented for a couple days if someone needed but I think I'm set up.
Off comes the bed, eight bolts and a couple of wires. This is an OK bed if a little dinged up inside.
Reaching in from the side made lifting the cab off do-able. I don't know yet what portion if any I'll be using of that.
Here on the left is the remaining frame and drivetrain; on the right is the same part of a '96 V10/auto 4x4 I hauled home at the end of last year for $600 (damaged in front, with the motor half rebuilt but then left out in a sandstorm). The four-by has most of what I'll need to uprgrade the two-by chassis.
After lots of imaginative thought as to what I could do with that 300hp V10 I think the answer is, nothing. Sell or scrap later. I'll have a pile of other parts to sell off also.
Here's the four-by frame now, stripped and getting brackets etc. cut off. The 2wd and 4wd frames use the same rails but have the different stampings welded on.
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