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'79 Little red truck

15K views 72 replies 13 participants last post by  jboarder785 
#1 ·
Hello all.

It is Dodge D100 stepside truck and it is red, but not the LRE.

My name is JP and I am from Finland. I have somewhat grown myself an
addiction to Mopars. Currently my fleet is '67 Plymouth Sport Fury
convertible, '71 Plymouth Duster, '84 Dodge Ram B250 and as the latest
the '79 Dodge D100.

I bought the D100 a couple of weeks ago from California and now waiting for
it to be shipped. It should be pretty rust free californian car, 318 4bbl engine,
727 tranny and 9 1/4 rear. It is in driveable condition, at least the seller has
driven short distances with it recently. Brakes are working. The wood bed
has rotten away and it has some temporary solution for that. Thermoquad
requires repair kit, it does not start cold without adding gas directly.

My plan is to keep as it is, nicely aged and patina. Might even consider
making it daily driver, depends a bit how well I can get it rust proofed. And
I've already learned a punch of stuff here on the site about problematic areas
e.g. the ammeter seems to be even bigger problem with these than it was in
earlier mopars.

I actually bought it for my wife as a birthday present, she once said
that if she would have this kind of truck, she would always go to the local
grocery store with it and put the groceries on the bed :D

The birthday is on the 10th of March and if everything goes well, the car is just before that in Finland. Let's wait and see.

Some pictures that I've got from the seller.











 
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#7 ·
#9 ·
Looks good the series in 78-79 are my favourite truck of all time I was 13 14 drooling when they came out if you ask me RAM needs to bring out a new reg cab short box stepside with stacks SRT style little red express midnight express and 4x4 warlock on a 2500 chassis I would buy one of each tomorrow. On another note how would my mega cab look with step side in black chrome stacks 6" lift 37" tires with warlock stripes and door decals
 
#14 ·
The car is now on the way to Finland. The mail has already bought the FSM and the repair kit for the carb.



Well, now it just long 6-8 weeks before the truck gets here. It is pretty sure now that it will not make it by the birthday, so I have start planning how I shall give it to her without the physical car :)

In the mean time, I can just watch these pictures...

the bed looks pretty good in the picture, should not be too big deal to put the wood in place.



 
#15 ·
Box wood is easy to do after you either paint those straps or change them in for some polished stainless
 

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#16 ·
Wow, looks great.

Did you get the woods ready from somewhere or manufacture them by yourself? What tree is that made of and would you happen to have the measures available?

I was thinking to do them myself and would like to get some measures to check the availability of such board.

Thanks,

JP
 
#17 ·
#18 ·
Wuhuu, the birthday gift has been given. The car itself is still cruising on the sea, so I bought a die cast :grin



I also showed her the videos that the seller has posted:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ehrOnqYfLdWJ2TAy-B3QWoLyg70c8OU

It was a success, she really loved it!!! She said it was actually good that the car was not yet here, she could have had a heart attack otherwise :)
 
#21 ·
if you have problems getting the truck started cold after the carb rebuild. consider the fuel pump. if the pump has a leak in the diaphragm, it wont fill the fuel bowls and the truck will have a hard time starting.
 
#22 ·
by the way, the email you requested is sending as i write this
 
#28 · (Edited)
Oh yeah, on the way to home with the truck. We were able to get it started and running and first it was idling very nicely.

Unfortunately we had to put her on the trailer, the windshield vipers do not work (both move like they are not attached to anything) as well as the blower switch is not moving. And it is raining so the driving home was not an option.

When putting the car to trailer, I forgot the ignition on for about ten minutes and after that the car did not really idle and the running was quite rough. So let's see whether it was just the gas not flowing properly or something with the ignition.

Seems that there is a bit more work than expected but other than that, I am so happy with the condition it is in and I am sure the boss is too :)

JP

First time seeing:



Loaded on the trailer.


On a coffee break...



Finally home, giving some extra power to drive off the trailer.


The washer bottle can be called shot... :D



And now it is time for batter reconditioning...
 
#29 ·
Well, I got some things done. I took the cowl grille out and the reason for the wipers not working was that all the rubber bushings from all 3 positions were gone...(?)

I was earlier thinking that I will just rebuild the TQ, but I don't know. The emission control seems to be quite
complicated and seems that a lot of things are already disconnected or missing. So I was thinking that I will
remove the emission controls totally.

But does ThermoQuad work normally without emission shit and is it worthwile to use or should I take an easier route and put Holley on it?
 
#30 ·
holley. and i was going to say, the reason it was running rough with the ignition on after 10 mins is because the electric choke was open when it needed to be closed. the coil was probably over heated due to leaving the ignition on without any airflow.
 
#31 ·
Thanks, I was suspecting that myself yesterday when I took the air filter out. All the wiring looked like that there is no way that the electric choke would have opened. I have 2 600cfm Holleys for my Duster tunnel ram waiting, but that is so long project that I can borrow one (and perhaps get smaller ones for the tunnel ram eventually...)
 
#33 ·
Seems that there is a lot of loose ends in the wiring.

The horn has been lost:



This I don't recognize, does it have something to do with that white bracket in the top corner of the picture?
Something has been there...
And the battery base requires some welding, I don't think that will pass the inspection.



Under the dash there seems to be some wire ends:


And also by the carb and emission controls, a lot of female connectors, less males...


I took the carb out and part of the emission vacuum stuff. I need to get the adapter for the Q-jet -> Holley.


I've also ordered the CP7985 voltage meter, unfortunately it also takes a few weeks to arrive. But in the mean time,
I will try to get the carb and ignition stuff ready.
 
#34 ·
Yeah that sort of looks like a mess. Usually the horns have one wire going to them and ground through the radiator support. Is that second wire a ground? The loose wire in the dash looks like someone used it for an accessory. The engine area is a mess though. Do all the gauges in the dash work?
 
#35 ·
According to FSM green and light green goes to horns, I suppose the other one has to be ground.

All the gauges work, but I suspect that some of the warning lights do not work, there is only one light bulp available.

Those loose ends in the engine bay are probably for all sorts of EGR timing etc., which would seem to be missing. Anyway, I am planning to do the ammeter bypass and I think I will take all different wirings out, dismantle them, clean and fix possible broken wires and leave all "empty" wires out when taping them back. At the same time I can get those bypass wires "inside" the taped wiring.
 
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