It's probably best that I stick to what I know, and low and behold, another project vehicle has claimed residence at the Amberlight Garage. My latest acquisition is a 1989 Dodge RAM 4 wheel drive truck. This was the last of the "box styled" pickups and the big ram head hood ornament always reminded me of the bulldog ornament on a Mack truck. Bought as a former daily driver, it's not exactly a restoration candidate, but more of a drive it while you fix it up project.
I had been looking for another horse to put in the stable and was really in need of a pickup. Even when I am not in the market to buy I still pay attention and monitor classic car prices. It's like the stock market for me. There had been a steady decline in asking prices and after the usual feeding frenzy (as I call it) I noticed that vehicles were starting to take longer to sell. This is the perfect storm scenario for buying. Now the only challenge was finding a truck that was relatively rust free and that's not an easy feat in the neck of the woods that I live in. The vast majority that I looked at made most rust buckets look good. I'm talking Titanic levels of rust. The ad for the Dodge did not mention rust and that is usually a bad thing. Folks like to brag about "rust free" but tend to forget to mention it when it's bad. To say I was surprised when I looked at this truck would be an understatement. It had California levels of rust, as in Southern California, as in none! Sure it had a few spots of surface rust, but no cancer, rot, or flaking metal. I couldn't even find any bondo! The person selling it was the second owner, the original being his grandfather. He had a lot of the original paperwork for it and even had the stock rims that came on the truck from the factory! Now I had been watching this particular truck for a little while so I knew it had been for sale for more then a couple of weeks so I made a cash offer lower then the asking price. I didn't want to low ball him too bad because I wanted the truck and I don't think he realized just how few rust free trucks there are where we live! Honestly I didn't know why the truck hadn't sold sooner just for that fact. Remember what I said earlier about the perfect storm? Well I think this was it and that was confirmed when my offer was accepted almost as fast as I had said it.
As I do with all my projects, I started a list of repairs and modifications that I want to do on the Dodge. The suspension is all original with the exception of some of the steering components so one of my first mods will be a complete suspension kit. The truck still has it's original exhaust system so that will be replaced as well. The engine is all stock, original, and runs well but a Magnum 360 swap might be a future mod. Shoot, half the fun of getting a new project is planning what you are going to do to it! It has been quite a few years since I have owned a truck so I am going to have fun with this one. Little by little I'll get it done. I just have to keep on truckin'...
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