1973 crewcab

[RAMMAN4]

I'm new here and thought I would share some pics of my 1973 crewcab. I found the truck in a lot behind a ring and pinion shop. After some bartering I was able to bring the truck home for $288. It has a 360/727 with a divorced 205 in it. The axles are a dana 44HD with drums and a dana 60 rear. I have a dana 60 front axle with disk brakes that will be going in shortly. Originally it had the gas tank in the cab behind the rear bench seat, but I have removed it and put in a ramcharger gas tank between the frame. Originally I planned on putting a 360 magnum in, but now I'm leaning towards a 6BT cummings turbo diesel and a 2wd NV4500 to keep the 205 divorced. There are more pics on my RCC page http://ramchargercentral.com/boards/...topic=29363.50

[RAMMAN4]

Some more pics for ya'll. I had to remove the bed with my torch because the bolts were so rusted up.

[RAMMAN4]

A few more pics. I cut out all the rust and welded in patch panels in the interior. I then primed the whole floor and sealed it up and then coated the whole thing in herculiner. I've also got a pic on there for my 1986 tilt steering column for anybody that would like to see a tilt steering column in a 70s truck.

[jimmie]

Did your 86 steering column bolt right up without problems?

Also did the 2 wire connector plugs for the 86 column hook right up or did you have to do a re-wire.

thanks
Big Joe

[74w300uteline]

bed question

I've got a 75w 200 crew cab coming up from New Mexico soon. I would like to replace the bed with a utiline bed. I'm doing this because I prefer the utiline look, but if its gonna be a tremendous hassle I'll pass. What do you think. I have my eyes open for a 6.5' utiline box but nothing definate yet.

[RAMMAN4]

Did your 86 steering column bolt right up without problems?

Also did the 2 wire connector plugs for the 86 column hook right up or did you have to do a re-wire.

thanks
Big Joe

The column bolted right up to the firewall. The hole in the dash for the column was a bit small and I had to enlarge it with my die grinder. The large plug, 8 wire I think, hooked right up to the column and the wiring is identical for that. For the ignition switch I've had to rewire to keep the 80s style switch.

[RAMMAN4]

I've got a 75w 200 crew cab coming up from New Mexico soon. I would like to replace the bed with a utiline bed. I'm doing this because I prefer the utiline look, but if its gonna be a tremendous hassle I'll pass. What do you think. I have my eyes open for a 6.5' utiline box but nothing definate yet.

I really couldn't tell you much about that, sorry. I personally prefer the original bed style. I'm putting a headache rack and a tool box on the back as it will be my daily driver when I'm done.

[RAMMAN4]

I got my donor/parts truck today. It's a 92 D250 with a cummins and a getrag 5 speed. The motor and trans will eventually be going into the crewcab sometime this summer hopefully.

[RAMMAN4]

Lately I've been working on fixing the roofline rust that dodges are notorious for. The previous owners decided to "fix" the truck by cutting out the rust and filling the area with lots and lots of nasty looking bondo.


The first thing I had to do to access the rust was unbolt the roof. Yes, I said unbolt.

[RAMMAN4]

Once I finally had the roof off I could plan my attack. I decided to use a circular saw with an abrasive blade, a hammer, and a chisel.


Once I went over it with the grinder and a wire wheel it cleaned up nice. That bondo may have been nasty looking, but it kept the steel underneath rust free.

[RAMMAN4]

And I had to put a little paint on it to keep it from rusting til I get the whole roofline completed.


Here you can see the amount of bondo that used to be in there. That gap was previously filled with nasty bondo.

[RAMMAN4]

Once I did the front I had to do the passenger side too. It was just as bad.

[RAMMAN4]

And then it was time to remove the "new" roof line from my donor part.

[RAMMAN4]

And of course then I had to see what it looked like on the truck. Now it really is starting to look like a dodge truck and not a train wreck.

[RAMMAN4]

Once I got that done it was on to fixing the rust around the window channel. Instead of just cut and patch the rust here and there I decided to cut out all the cancer and start with newer steel.