Hello anyone who would like to follow along, and welcome to this folly. This project has been long in the making. Like decades, let me explain a bit.
First what we are starting with is a 1985 W350 Crew Cab. We have owned this truck for roughly 17 years or so. It started life as a U.S.A.F. truck, standard issue 360/727 Dana 60's. It had 17K on it when we bought it. How we acquired it is a bit of a story. We were moving my parents from Wis where we lived at the time, to Neb. My thien girlfriends big block 1986 Chevy C20 got enclosed trailer load #3 to Nebraska and about 12 miles from our destination, it broke the crankshaft. It manged to stay running, we made it to her new home, and that was the end of that engine.
A local car dealer had this W350 for sale, wanted far more for it than I was willing to spend. The long story short, a cash offer, his annoyance with non paying Ebay bidders (he had the sold the truck 4 times on E bay) and his need to sell, and he grudgingly accepted my offer. We hooked my 28' enclosed trailer with my wifes C20 in it, and headed home to Wis. I had to rebuild the carb on a picnic bench at a rest area, redo the trailer wiring that was set up so the first time I turned on the headlights at 60mph it locked the trailer brakes, and other fun adventures. The hood ended up in the trailer somewhere in Iowa (overheating) it bruised my now wife's kidneys, and got us home at about 50mph and 5mpg.
Due to our trip home and what we had learned I should have sold the truck. But my now wife loved that old thing, it was growing on me also, and well..... a new 500ci Big block, a built 727, 4.56 gears, a rear 14 bolt, a pair of lockers (detroits) and some 39" Xml's, a 4" Alcan set of springs, and we now had a truck.
We drove it this way all over the USA/Canada and Mexico to the tune of about 100k miles or so...many grand adventures, a LOT of gas, a few sets of tires, and it was getting used up. Then we moved to Nebraska..... and it got taken apart to swap in a new engine.... and life got in the way, and it has just been in pieces ever since. Many projects latter, and like 12 years, and we now have a barn find Crew Cab Dodge in a few 100 pieces. (we have most of the pieces I hope LoL)
So now that I wrote a book, lets get on with the project... next post the "plan"
First what we are starting with is a 1985 W350 Crew Cab. We have owned this truck for roughly 17 years or so. It started life as a U.S.A.F. truck, standard issue 360/727 Dana 60's. It had 17K on it when we bought it. How we acquired it is a bit of a story. We were moving my parents from Wis where we lived at the time, to Neb. My thien girlfriends big block 1986 Chevy C20 got enclosed trailer load #3 to Nebraska and about 12 miles from our destination, it broke the crankshaft. It manged to stay running, we made it to her new home, and that was the end of that engine.
A local car dealer had this W350 for sale, wanted far more for it than I was willing to spend. The long story short, a cash offer, his annoyance with non paying Ebay bidders (he had the sold the truck 4 times on E bay) and his need to sell, and he grudgingly accepted my offer. We hooked my 28' enclosed trailer with my wifes C20 in it, and headed home to Wis. I had to rebuild the carb on a picnic bench at a rest area, redo the trailer wiring that was set up so the first time I turned on the headlights at 60mph it locked the trailer brakes, and other fun adventures. The hood ended up in the trailer somewhere in Iowa (overheating) it bruised my now wife's kidneys, and got us home at about 50mph and 5mpg.
Due to our trip home and what we had learned I should have sold the truck. But my now wife loved that old thing, it was growing on me also, and well..... a new 500ci Big block, a built 727, 4.56 gears, a rear 14 bolt, a pair of lockers (detroits) and some 39" Xml's, a 4" Alcan set of springs, and we now had a truck.
We drove it this way all over the USA/Canada and Mexico to the tune of about 100k miles or so...many grand adventures, a LOT of gas, a few sets of tires, and it was getting used up. Then we moved to Nebraska..... and it got taken apart to swap in a new engine.... and life got in the way, and it has just been in pieces ever since. Many projects latter, and like 12 years, and we now have a barn find Crew Cab Dodge in a few 100 pieces. (we have most of the pieces I hope LoL)
So now that I wrote a book, lets get on with the project... next post the "plan"
