My trucks, past and present



This is the truck that started it all!

My very first Dodge classic was a '57, back in 1972. I remember driving down main street in Springfield, Oregon and seeing the light yellow pickup with chrome wheels on the elevated display stand in front of a car dealership. I couldn't turn around fast enough! I looked it over and bought it. There really wasn't anything spectacular about it but it was clean and beautiful. I may have been attracted to it because it was different too. It had a V8 and 3 speed tranny with a big back window. Over the course of a couple years I put on a custom steering wheel, custom door and window handles, floor shift, and tinted the side windows and back glass. I took the V and letters off the front and filled in the indentations on the nose grille bar so it was smooth and then painted it. I only painted a couple of rigs at the time and was marginally successful. This beer bottle brown paint job turned out to be a horror story while I was painting it. It later proved to be a masterpiece. While I was applying the paint, it kept coming out in blotches or small globs. I didn't know it at the time but the air pressure was too low. Throughly disgusted, I decided to finish painting it. It ended up being a real conversation piece as everyone thought it was a trick or custom paint job. Everywhere I went somebody always had good comments about it. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it.


About 25 years later, after going thru several Chev pickups and a beautiful black hot rod '56 Ford pickup, my next purchase of a Dodge truck was this stripped down '57 with no motor or tranny, seat, steering wheel, grille, or bumpers.



Turning a frame, suspension, and sheetmetal into a hotrod.....

The first picture shows the frame turned upside down and being boxed from front to back and crossmembers. This adds weight but it sure stiffens up the frame for launches under severe stress, as in drag racing. The next pic shows the Chassisworks rear racing suspension with Koni coilovers. The rearend was narrowed and filled with Dutchman Motorsport axles and bearings. The pot was a "742" with posi and 4:30 gears. Kind of high for highway driving but not out of reason. The rpms were figured at about 2700 to 3000 at 60 to 65 mph. The rearend had disc brakes too. The third pic shows the 392 cu. in Chrysler FirePower engine and the power booster that was mounted under the floor. It had a GM tilt column, custom steering wheel, and Blazer bucket seats. Things you don't notice are the flared top bed rails. The bed came off a '56 parts truck and the bed was shortened 6 inches. Mickey Thompson Sportsman Pro tires (the biggest street legal tires they made at the time), and Centerline Con Vo Pro wheels, and Fatman Mustang II IFS. The rest of the pics just show the rig before I sold it. Man, I'm still kicking myself for doing that!


I found this '57 Sweptside on a back lot of a used car dealer in west Eugene and thought long and hard about it before I went down and dickered the price down to $500. It was basically all there, just in bad shape. Ended up selling that one too. The buyer is going to rebuild it to customer's specs for a guy in Germany.



This one I found on the internet and bought it. It didn't run and it wasn't as good as I was led to believe, but that's what you get when buying sight unseen. It came from eastern Oregon and they delivered. I took the flatbed off and put this stepside bed on. About a year later, my friend Korey and his brother wired it for me, and I finally got it running. This one has been sold too, and delivered to mid California.



I bought this truck on ebay last fall from Nampa, Idaho. This one has a Chev motor, tranny, rearend, front Camero clip, and bucket seats. I'm going to fix this one up and keep it. It would be nice if it had a Mopar motor, but that's the breaks as they say. I'm going to replace the small back window with a big one, and I've got other things up my sleeve.

Go to the "My Truck" page to see the latest on this one.



This has a '79 LeBaron front clip, '73 model Dart 318 motor/tranny. '76 Dodge van seats and brand new tires. It isn't completely wired yet, but not far from it. A paint job, custom wheels, and a few little things and this truck will be my daily driver til it's sold. It's listed now in the "Trucks 4 Sale" section if your interested in buying it.

This truck has been sold locally.



This red and white one was purchased in Seattle and is fairly rare as it is a shortwide Sweptline with a big back window. Lots of small window ones around but very few big window ones. I plan on starting to fix this one soon. It is for sale if interested. Look in the "Trucks 4 Sale" section. The yellow one on the right I got in Portland and it is in really great shape bodywise so it is going to be my donor parts truck for the red and white one.



My parts trucks....these trucks have all been sold for parts or as is.