74Dusted

Very nice rides guys. Here's my beater / daily driver....she's completely stock (hahaha). yeah right. It's ugly as sin, hard to find parts for and did I mention its ugly as sin? ok, just so we're clear on that. LOL 1984 Dodge D50 4x4. Once upon a time it had a 2.6L 4-Banger, and a 2.3L Turbo Diesel, and then a 2.5L Intercooled Turbo Diesel, and then another 2.6L, and a couple other engines. Now it has a 273 Small Block from a Formula S Plymouth Barracuda And my '78 Yamaha DT175E. I've never seen one of those Orient Buckboards before, bamford. Cool!

I know a bunch of you have more than just antique flattie mopars (nothing wrong with em, I've got a B1B and love it), so let's see em. Here are some of my other rides to get the ball rolling. My '73 340 Duster. "Mildly" Modified 340, Manual Shift 727, 8-3/4" Rear with 4.10's and a Spool My '74 Duster (also the reason I use the nickname 74Dusted) The 73 was my dad's first car, I bought it from him after it sat untouched in the garage for 17 years. It was the car that made me love Mopar A-Bodies (Dusters, Demons, Darts), I have fond memories of riding in that car when I was little and it was the reason I went out and bought my '74 so I could have my own. (didn't get the 73 until years later). I don't know what's been done to the 340 in the '73, but it is FUN. My dad says he doesn't remember, and then laughs like crazy. My '74, I picked up when I was in my teens, back then it was completely stock and still had the original 318, 904 Torqueflite and 8.25" Rear with 2.45 ratio gears. The same night I brought it home, I noticed it needed new Freeze / Expansion Plugs so I pulled the engine out... And thats when things went downhill in a hurry. LOL. I decided while I had the engine out, I might as well upgrade to a 340. If I was upgrading to a 340, might as well install a Manual Shift 727 Torqueflite, if I was going that far, might as well install an 8-3/4" Rear with Sure Grip. I drove it as a Daily Driver each summer from 2006 - 2011, every winter I pulled the engine out and upgraded it further and further. It got to the point where it was putting down enough power to break motor mounts, and I had to chain the engine down. Toward the end, it had reached the point where the whole car would twist under heavy throttle. Slam the throttle to the floor and you could feel the seat move as the floor twisted. When I stopped driving it in 2011, It was because I decided the car still didn't have enough power. So I pulled the old 340 (last picture is the old 340, with a 6-71 blower sitting on top to test fit the new hood) and started building a brand new R3 6-71 Blown 340 for the car. I decided the 727 wasn't going to survive behind that, so out it came and in went an 18-Spline "Hemi" A833 4-Speed (with an Offset Console Shifter Adapter & Pistol Grip Shifter). It was immediately obvious the 8-3/4" Rear would die a miserable death too, so I built a Dana 60 for it. Then came the obvious fact that the engine would tear the car apart, literally. So in went Torque Boxes, Subframe Connectors and a Rollcage is in the works as well. The original plan was to tear the car apart in 2011, install the new motor and drive it in Spring 2012. Here we are, Spring 2014 is almost here and the car is still in pieces.

My bad, I didn't actually mean to lead the thread in that direction. Or better phrased, I didn't think it completely through. Knowing that I'll need to find the Barrel/Cylinder & Bezel to install with the Latch Mechanism, are the Barrels/Cylinders the same for a car? Or does the Barrel have to be for a B series?

Here's some of my '48 B1B (these are from about 8 months ago) Has a '53-ish nose on it (wish it still had the correct nose, the 53 nose was on it when I bought it), and I didn't have the parking lights for the 53 Nose or a Grille, so I improvised on both of those items. Someday I want to put the correct nose on the truck, but it doesn't matter right now. I'll be happy to drive it in the spring. Frame was also damaged at the front (Bumper mount area), the Mounts were missing for a long time apparently and the previous owner WELDED the bumper to the frame and then must have hit something with it. Because when I bought the truck, the front bumper was laying in the bed, with about a 2" chunk of frame still stuck to it on each side. You can also see in the Rear pictures, where the previous owner had the Rear Bumper tilted (slotted the holes in the bumper brackets) so it didn't block the license plate. When I installed the new lights, I relocated the license plate so I can return the Rear Bumper to the correct position Before : After : Not shown in the pictures, but I pulled the both frame rails to the right (they had been tweaked to the left when the bumper had been ripped off), and made new bumper brackets (in the After picture the bumper was just hanging on the end of the frame) And this one spends about 50% of its time running around on 16" Pilothouse Wheels. The other 50% of the time, it looks like this...

Good to know it's an easy mod (using an Aussie latch & lock assembly). It'd make it easy to lock the truck at the gas pump, long story there. Short version : One day I stopped for some fuel and when I came out of the gas station after paying I found a guy getting in my '74 Duster. Now I lock all of my vehicles at the gas pump. I spent more than enough time doing the "unlock passenger door, avoid the shifter & slide across the seat" routine with my '75 Dodge D300 Dumptruck when the Driver's Side Door Handle broke. Had a spare handle and parts, but no free time (and it wasn't a serious problem, I make time for Brakes, Suspension, Fuel, etc. or drive another vehicle until I have time), so I put off the repair for about 8 months. 8 months of that routine was enough to make me never want to do it again. Desotodav, what's the going rate/price on one of your Left Side Latch/Lock Mechanisms?

Anybody know if the lock & latch mechanisms from a 40's Dodge/Plymouth car will work in a truck (modifications expected). Like everybody else, my '48 B1B-108 only has one lock. My grandfather's '48 Special Deluxe Sedan has a lock on each front door and it made me wonder if the parts for one of those cars couldn't be used to add a Driver's Door Lock to a Pilothouse. Currently it has no locking ability. Either someone replaced the ignition in my truck, the door, or the lock just quit entirely. I'm thinking maybe the ignition was changed at one point, if it is (never pulled the lock cylinder out of the door to check), it would be a simple matter of filing the tumblers to match the key for the ignition. No big deal, I made the spare key for my ignition by hand and have "key matched" more than a few lock cylinders over the years. But I figured, before I went through that work to make "one" lock work again, why not try to install locks on both doors.

Glad to be here, I'm sure my truck is too. Because it finally gets some attention/work again. After I did the 12 Volt conversion it pretty much sat in the garage for the next 2 years.

Are the rear bumper and heater hard to find? or just unusual options for one of these trucks? It also has 2-Speed Electric Wipers, when I got the truck I didn't know much about it (just that I wanted it!) and my grandfather told me that most had vacuum wipers instead of electric wipers.

Figured I'd introduce myself, My name's Chris and I've got a '48 B1B-108 with 48,xxx original miles, last driven in 1977, it spent its life as a farm truck (a 1-family truck) until I bought it. Here she was on the day I towed her home with my reliable '75 Dodge D300 Dumptruck, after dumping a little gas in the new fuel tank and borrowing my grandfather's spare battery for his '48 Special Deluxe I managed to get the truck fired up for the first time in over 30 years. Drove it into the garage and promptly converted the truck over to 12 Volt and began to fix some botched body work left over by the shop that was "restoring it" for the previous owner (no wonder he lost interest in the truck) Instead of replacing the body mount bushings and realigning the doors/fenders, they just smeared body filler on it to match the body lines. I've had the truck for over 2 years now and it spent most of that time sitting in the garage without me doing anything to it. I needed a Nose/Grille for it, because the shop that was doing the restoration threw away the original nose and bolted on a '53 nose Only I can't let her sit anymore. I decided to drive it this year, I'll finish sanding the truck down and paint it in Black and drive it with the '53 nose until I decide to convert it back to a '48. Oh and since you guys are into the old Dodge/Plymouths, here's the car I drove for a few days last summer while I installed a vinyl top on my '74 Duster. Borrowed my grandfather's '48 Special Deluxe. I've always been a die-hard mopar nut. With a huge line-up of cars/trucks. The '48 Dodge B1B-108 of course A '65 Formula S 'Cuda '71 Duster (Viper V10 / 6-Speed Project car) '71 Demon (540 Blown Hemi Project car) '72 Demon (numbers matching 340 / 4-Speed) '73 Dart Sport (numbers matching 340 / Auto) '73 Dart Sport (numbers matching 340 / 4-Speed) '74 Blown 340 Duster (R3 340 with a 6-71 Blower & 4-Speed, Summer Daily Driver) '74 Scamp (numbers matching Slant 6 / Auto) '75 W300 ClubCab Towtruck '76 Dodge Ramcharger '83 Scamp GT (2.2L Turbo / AWD 5-Speed conversion) '84 Dodge D50 (My First truck. Now on 40" Tires and powered by a Chrysler 273 Small Block) and a '92 Dakota Extended Cab 4x4 as a beater/work truck.