Project: Doitall Dodge

[Metcalf]

The truck made another 1500 mile trip over the 4th of July weekend. Average mileage for the trip was 18.X mpg. 75mph on the interstate tends to eat away at mileage a lot. I also filled up with B100 in Moab both ways. The truck ran GREAT on B100. I have been running it around all week on bio also.

We slept in the back on the way up. I ended stipping the old sleeping platform out of the truck. I wrapped a 4x8 sheet of plywood with carpet and laying it on the floor of the bed. This worked great to make the floor nice, flat, and skid resistant for the dogs. I then threw an old futon matress on the carpet to sleep on. This worked much better for us. the back of the truck is much more spacious now, and you can sit all the way up in the back of the truck now while in bed. the matress is easy enough to roll up out of the way if you have to haul something. There is still more than enough room for gear storage and a regular sized spare tire.

I have a pic or two to post later.

 

[wrigh003]

Very interesting- I have spent more time than I should have this weekend starting at the beginning and following through til now. Glad to be able to see how the sectioned fenders are turning out- they really look great. I think especially once you get it all one color, there will be a lot of folks looking at it and going "hm. Those are real big tires- he must have done a huge lif- oh wait, it's not really that tall - what the..."

Nice work/ looking good/ keep at it.

 

[Metcalf]

Thank you for the encouragement and compliments....

I finally got the passenger side fender filled, sanded, and primed this evening. It turned out pretty good, perfect....no...but pretty good for this old truck. It defenetly doesn't look like the fender was sectioned.

I do indeed get people that look at the truck and do a double take, it looks very different in person. The proportions are WAY off to the eye, the truck looks huge until you get up close. Then people just scratch there head.

I will get some pics of the fender tomorrow in the light. I am going to try and get the cowl and the hood sanded and primed this week. There is no body work to be done on those. Then its onto the doors, bedsides, or tailgate.

I did snap a few pictures today....

I had about an hour in the machine shop after work on Friday helping a coworker after work so I decided to turn up a shift lever for the 4wd lever. It was a free project and only took a bit. I made the shifter out of some aluminum round stock and gave it a nice brushed finish. I wanted the shifter to be long enough to reach from the drivers seat without having to bend over much at all. I can go between 2HI and 4Hi not without having to move at all. I couldn't find the right tap to make it thread onto the stock lever, I think it was metric, so I used 8 seperate 1/4-20 set screws to hold it on. Its on there TIGHT now! I also stamped in the shift pattern on the top for the s.o. just in case she has to drive the truck in this winter.

Here is a shot of the new super simple rear setup. The sleeping platform was nice, but this is so much more useful for us. It allows us to just roll up the futon mattress when hauling stuff in the bed. The floor is nice and flat. Stuff doesn't slide around that much with the carpet on the floor either. The compact spare tire is mounted up against on of the sides out of the way. All the dirty stuff like the jack, tire iron, oil, etc all go in the rubber bin. This setup is super simple and works great....at least for us. With the futon mattress on the carpet floor it is really comfortable to sleep in and you have massive headroom, enough to sit upright in the morning without hitting your head! There is still plenty of storage space since the futon is only about 6' long and the bed is 8' long.

Hopefully more this week....

 

[redthies]

You must have a very tollerant lady! While mine has camped in the back of the pick-up a few times, she has now decided that the comforts of home should be dragged along behind the truck! :sombrero: It takes a bit more effort, but it is nice to have the basecamp along...

 

[Metcalf]

Yes I do! When we make the move to full time international exploration travel we will look at having something with more creature comforts.Every time she threatens to make me take more stuff, I threaten to make her go camping out of my 1942 Willys MB

 

[Rambow]

I have been following this for the last couple months since I found it on DTR. Got to say GOOD JOB that thing is a beast. love the fender work. I have been wanting to run 37-39'' tires(4'' lift)on my 93 1st gen when mine wear out(35's), have searched on clean fender trim jobs and yours turned out killer. Looks like lots of work but worth it, keeping COG down and plenty of room to run large tires.Very stock looking.
Sorry I got a handfull of Questions for you. 1. what are you doing with your inner fender wells front/rear? 2. Are you going to change your r/p gears from 3.55 to ? Is it that drivable w/ 39's 5spd.? 3. What tires are you plannin on runnin when those michelins wear out? dang they are hard to find!!
Keep the pics coming! its gonna look great painted.(I did like the multicolor armagedon look). Keep up the good work and sorry for many ?? Over and out.

 

[Metcalf]

1- I welded up the inner fender around the air box, it turned out ok. I have yet to patch the rest of them up. It is a pretty big pain in the rear. In the rear I added some supports to keep the outer panel more rigid. If I was going to do it again I think I might do something like MoPowa's build on DTR. He just redid the front and back of the fender instead of moving everything like I did.

2- I didn't think that the 3.55s would work that well, but they work just fine. Is it perfect, no, but its better than stock I think. The biggest problem is the limited RPMs of the stock governor spring, a 3200 spring would fix a lot of the gap between gears. With my current setup you have to start in 1st like a normal car/truck. 5th gear is only for 65+mph. The new taller gearing works great for the interstate also. I can roar down the road at 75+ very easy now....not that I really want to go that fast, but I can. In an ideal world I think 3.73 gears could be better, and 4.10s would work fine too. I think 3.73s would allow the use of 5th gear more...but 1st gear would become shorter...but I might be able to start in 2nd then? The best answer might be something like a G56 six-speed, early model, with its deeper 2nd gear and shorter overall gear spacing.

I will most likely be installing a 2003ish GM 14-bolt rear with disc brakes at some time in the future. These only come with 3.73s and 4.10s. The 3.73s would probably work the best, but 4.10s lend themselves to easier junkyard gear swaps for the front. Finding a set of standard rotation D60 4.10 gears is EASY in just about any junkyard. TONS of 70's ford trucks ran these.

I think with the stock 5-speed transmission 3.73s might be the sweet spot if you installed the 3200 spring and ran 38-39" tall tires. However, if I already had the 4.10s I would just keep those, install the 3200 spring, and put up with the mileage loss on the interstate.

My truck currently gets 18mpg driving at 70+ all day long in less than ideal weather, wind, and up and down hills. I am pretty happy with that for a 7000lb brick.

3- Tires. While the Michelin's are good tires, they are very hard to find, very heavy, very tough, and wear kinda fast on the highway. I do like them, but they are not easy to find at all. I totally lucked into my set. My set was used and still lasted me about 2 years now. They are about done though. They are down the the wear bars. I will be replacing them before the winter I think....

I have been looking around for tires lately....

The best option I can find so far is the Pitbull Maddog Radial. They offer it in a 38.5x13.5 in just about any rim size you could want. I'm torn between 16, 16.5, and 17s. I am leaning toward doing a set of recentered 12-bolt H1 wheels, but I don't want to invest a bunch of money in wheels that I won't be able to find tires for in the future. I'm thinking a set of nice heavy duty 17" steel wheels might be the way to go?

 

[Rambow]

Hey thanks for the answers.. Yes mopawas bild is very clean also.His is my
2nd fave. I would probobly do something like his when i do mine just for simplicity reasons. unless I have a bunch of time to do it like yours. Iv checked out those exact same pitbull radials.Read a few reviews and its what Im leaning toward also.10ply,Actual 38.5''ride heighth,and very skinny for a 13.5'' tire, about the same or less as a 12.5'' tire. I hate wide tires.Could probably get away with runnin them on my 8'' wide wheels.
When I do this I guess Ill have to live w/3.55's for a while.you say it works pretty good tho.actually makes it a 5spd. When you finish your front inner fenders post up the pics(im sure you will anyways) im curious how they turn out. Mopowas turned out very clean,I think he used a little fibergass to fill in the gaps.

 

[mopowa]

Hey 2nd place is ok in my books! Haha

Yup, sure did end up using fiberglass, I was sick of messing around with the inner fenders and didn't want to spend the hours re-welding material to bolt to the lip like the stock inner would. It was actually my dads idea to fiberglass the inners, says thats what he did for his mudding trucks back in the day, and he never had a problem with strength. Only issue really is if I ever need to take off the fender...will be a bit of a PITA. Otherwise it was quick easy and looks REALLY good. Fiberglass is so easy to do, but horribly messy!

Can't wait for some pics of the body metcalf...i've been waiting patiently :sombrero:

 

[Bogie]

Great project Metcalf, just a note check out Ramcharger Central we have a great bunch of guys and a number of diesel guys in the Co area.

I will be following your build along, and will probably section my front fenders using yours as a guideline, pics of my 84

 

[teleturns]

Sweet Build

Metcalf

I love the build up of your Cummins. You have me convinced to put the 37x12.5 Goodyear Hummer tires on my W250. I would love to see your truck sometime. I have a lot of family in the Durango and I am in the area all the time. In fact I will be there the next two weekends. Keep up the good work!

 

[Metcalf]

Its just an old beater It does just about anything I ask it though...
I'll be around all weekend. I like talking truck. I think we are tubing the river today if the weather is nice. Shoot me a PM with some contact info. We could meet in town just about any evening for a frosty beverage or something.

 

[Rambow]

Im wondering how many rpm's you pull at 35mph in 3rd gear? If you have a tach? hows the body work comin along? ddaaannngg (joe dirt) You have the the sweetest dodge ever! I really want to copy the fender mod...I have to buy new tires before winter, so I keep askin myself-Is it time for 38's...
cant wait to see your rig one color, Ill buy you a beer or 10 if I ever get to colorado..

 

[Metcalf]

Thanks. The body work is going SLOW we got some early monsoons here in durango so working outside hasn't been the easiest....DANG i need a shop!

I would suggest modding the fenders like the mopowa build on DTR. I think it would be much easier to do the body work on this variation of stretching the fenders than mine. He was able to run 38s with only leveling springs in front I believe.

The math says that the rpm at 35 in 3rd would be just shy of 2000rpm. I tend to use 3rd for 35 if I am trying to accelerate, but I can still use 4th if on a mostly level road just rolling with traffic.

This truck is very Joe Dirt

 

[Metcalf]

My buddy was giving me a hard time for not updating.....

The truck is SLOWLY getting painted. So far the front clip and bed are painted. I am having to do it in sections since I am working outside. Its far from perfect and there are still lots of little dinks that I just primed and painted over. I would have spent a 1000 hours trying to get the bed all the way back straight. You can't really tell the fenders where sectioned however, most of those mods covered up nicely. All I have left to paint is the cab and doors. The inside of the bed needs some bedliner sprayed in too. I just painted the bed to the rails, not the inside.

I'll get some pics up when its all one color and the shell is back on.....

I need some new tires soon also.....post up your ideas on that one! I need some input.