Almost There!

Over the last couple of weeks, we have completed the cab mounts, motor, and floor pans. Here are the before and after pictures.

As you can see, Cab mounts were rusted through and much larger than originally designed. We welded on new metal and pounded it to fit the contour of the existing mounts. Then paired with brand new rubber bushings.

This is the Motor when I first pulled it out of the Durango.

Here it is after some TLC!

I hate RUST!

We got the truck completely torn apart and found some rust that we were not expecting. However we began to cut it out and replace it with new metal. The major problems were the floor pans, the cab mounts, and some cracks in the frame. Here are some pictures:

This is the driver side floorpan which was pretty much non existant.

This is just the frame before its painted with POR-15 paint.

Kyle had to take over welding the frame after I burned a pretty big hole in the frame. He's got a little bit more experience then I do. And yes the frame is tipped up on its side.

Here is the new motor, BEFORE we paint it and clean it up.

The front end is off the truck and will be replaced with the front end off the Dakota I purchased from Florida.

Plan B: Stage 2

Now that I have my trucks and my tools, Its time to do some work. I turned my truck over to my good friend, Shawn. As of today he is swapping the motor, re-installing the transmission, brake lines, fuel lines, trans lines, painting the motor and firewall, and many other misc. things. I will post pictures of his progress shortly.

As for my trucks, I started with the Durango. I need to "part it out", which means that you take the entire vehicle apart and sell individual parts. Here is the Before Picture.

A good friend, Kyle, and I began to dissassemble the vehicle Thursday night. We got the entire interior out, the glass out, and the doors off; leaving us this.

This morning we picked up where we left off. We decedided that the frame and the body needed to be separated. Which is a difficult task for 2 people. the body weighs about 700lbs. and the frame is probably 1000lbs. We made a plan and went with. In advance, I would like apologize to my parents who would kill me if they knew I was going to do this. However no one got hurt. It is a little ghetto but a very unique process that has been mastered by rednecks all over the country. Here is step 1:

Step 1 - Jack body up with jack and firewood pillars!

Step 2 - repeat on other side and in the rear of vehicle, and connect the 2 pillars with a 4x4x8. The key is to get the truck high enough that the frame just roll sout from under it! Like this

I call this "Redneck Jenga"! And yes this was about 4.5ft in the air.

Plan B: Stage I

Plan B is the plan that entails donor trucks, great friends, your own tools, place to work, and a buddy with a shop. All of these things came together. I purchased tools, i learned how to weld, and i also purchased 2 trucks. The first is a 1995 Dodge Dakota from Florida. It is in great shape. It does not run very well but the body was good and clean. Most importantly Rust-Free!

Truck #2 is a 1999 Dodge Durango. This truck has a wrecked exterior but a treasure inside! I was able to purchase this vehicle and pull the motor. My Dakota will now be blessed to recieve a newly re-built Mopar 5.2L 318ci. Magnum Motor!!! I will also have my trans re-built and the rear end from the Durango swapped over. Just a little well deserved horsepower!

Chapter 3

One side of the bed was fixed by some good friends: Thanks Joe and Randy. It was then primered. I was supposed to fix the other side as well. However I soon decided that this was too much work and I need to change to plan B. As it turns out Plan B has been amazingly sucessful and this is where the real Dakota restoration begins.

Chapter 2

In preparation for a beautiful paint job, I decided to sand the truck back into primer. I also decided to get a donor bed from a junk yard because it was supposedly better shape, turns out it was not better. However too late to go back I suppose. the wheel wells still rusty and the best part was that the new bed was silver.

I cut out the rust to prevent injuries to passer bys. This was not much safer!