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I guess my fixation with Dodge trucks can be traced back to my father's '52 Dodge pickup which was about 10 years old at the time. My father bought it cheap with a seized motor to replace our Plymouth woody wagon which he broke the rear axle on carrying a too heavy load of bricks for what would eventually become the house I grew up in. The Plymouth's flathead 6 found a new home in the '52 Dodge. His very first car after serving in WWII was a '46 Dodge sedan.
That truck played a big part in getting us out of living in an apartment in the projects and into a nice suburban home. No doubt it helped define the lives of me and my siblings in ways we never imagined. We also had a '49 Chrysler Windsor 2-door at the time. That was eventually replaced with my father's first NEW car, a '64 Dodge Polara 4-door with a 383. The pickup was replaced by a '65 A100 Sportsman with a 170 cu. in. /6. Those were followed by mostly Chrysler products throughout my father's life. A '66 Coronet 440 wagon (which was parked beside a BRAND NEW tan '67 WM300 at the dealer when we bought it....the only NEW WM300 I ever remember seeing. What a truck! I'd love to have one today.)
Then we had a '70 D200 Camper Special, a '73 Dart Custom 4-door. And then the biggest beast of them all, an '80 W300 Power Wagon dually cab & chassis with a 360 4bbl, NP435 and NP205. I had the privelege of selling the W300 to my father from a dealer I started working for my last year of college and a little beyond. He designed and built his own diamond plate flat bed for it. We also picked up an '82 D150 and replaced it and the '73 Dart later with an '84 New Yorker and a '86 B150 Tradesman, the last Chryslers my parents owned. Their last car was a '96 Olds Cutlass of all things!
With all these Chryslers influencing me as a kid, did I really have a choice? While my first car in high school was a $100 Opel (later totalled by a blue hair in a '73 Swinger), my next car was a B7 blue '67 Coronet 500 with buckets and a console. This was later joined by my '70 Plymouth Satellite which got me most of the way through college. I replaced that with my first new car, a '78 Dodge Challenger. Then I ordered up a new '82 Ramcharger with the NP435/NP205 combo, skid plates, HD everything.
Yep, it's a disease. I've owned two dozen and had another dozen Chrysler cars and trucks as company cars over the last 20+ years. I
think I like Dodge trucks because they were always an underdog up against Ford and Chevy. I also like the WWII heritage of the Power Wagons which is why my father was hooked on Dodges from when he was in the Army. Their reputation for being simple, rugged and cheap to keep is was has always drawn me to Chrysler products in general.
Now I'm hoping to restore a Dodge truck when I have the time, money and a place to do it. I'm partial to the Sweptline-era trucks, probably because I learned to drive when we had our '70 D200. I do like the '57's because that's the year I was born. And the '58-'60s are okay too. Any year WM300 would be nice. I also like the '72-'8x Crew Cab Power Wagons for their uniqueness. And I like the weird stuff like a W500/600 appeals to me as well along with an L600/700 for restoration.....but they may be just too big to tackle.
That truck played a big part in getting us out of living in an apartment in the projects and into a nice suburban home. No doubt it helped define the lives of me and my siblings in ways we never imagined. We also had a '49 Chrysler Windsor 2-door at the time. That was eventually replaced with my father's first NEW car, a '64 Dodge Polara 4-door with a 383. The pickup was replaced by a '65 A100 Sportsman with a 170 cu. in. /6. Those were followed by mostly Chrysler products throughout my father's life. A '66 Coronet 440 wagon (which was parked beside a BRAND NEW tan '67 WM300 at the dealer when we bought it....the only NEW WM300 I ever remember seeing. What a truck! I'd love to have one today.)
Then we had a '70 D200 Camper Special, a '73 Dart Custom 4-door. And then the biggest beast of them all, an '80 W300 Power Wagon dually cab & chassis with a 360 4bbl, NP435 and NP205. I had the privelege of selling the W300 to my father from a dealer I started working for my last year of college and a little beyond. He designed and built his own diamond plate flat bed for it. We also picked up an '82 D150 and replaced it and the '73 Dart later with an '84 New Yorker and a '86 B150 Tradesman, the last Chryslers my parents owned. Their last car was a '96 Olds Cutlass of all things!
With all these Chryslers influencing me as a kid, did I really have a choice? While my first car in high school was a $100 Opel (later totalled by a blue hair in a '73 Swinger), my next car was a B7 blue '67 Coronet 500 with buckets and a console. This was later joined by my '70 Plymouth Satellite which got me most of the way through college. I replaced that with my first new car, a '78 Dodge Challenger. Then I ordered up a new '82 Ramcharger with the NP435/NP205 combo, skid plates, HD everything.
Yep, it's a disease. I've owned two dozen and had another dozen Chrysler cars and trucks as company cars over the last 20+ years. I
think I like Dodge trucks because they were always an underdog up against Ford and Chevy. I also like the WWII heritage of the Power Wagons which is why my father was hooked on Dodges from when he was in the Army. Their reputation for being simple, rugged and cheap to keep is was has always drawn me to Chrysler products in general.
Now I'm hoping to restore a Dodge truck when I have the time, money and a place to do it. I'm partial to the Sweptline-era trucks, probably because I learned to drive when we had our '70 D200. I do like the '57's because that's the year I was born. And the '58-'60s are okay too. Any year WM300 would be nice. I also like the '72-'8x Crew Cab Power Wagons for their uniqueness. And I like the weird stuff like a W500/600 appeals to me as well along with an L600/700 for restoration.....but they may be just too big to tackle.
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