Since my last entry, I’ve been searching for a suitable, short bed, standard cab S10 or Dodge Dakota donor for my project. Unfortunately it seems so is everyone else! So everything I found was so far gone, or too nice to cut up and they wanted way more than my cheapskate budget allowed for. I went so far as to check in with some local junkyards, and even though they had the EXACT chassis that I needed; they wouldn’t sell for legal/title reasons. I resorted to going back to craigslist and broadening my search for a long bed truck.These aren’t nearly as desirable, much cheaper, and you don’t have to look hard to find a beat-up one for sale on the web. I got even luckier when I found one that was approximately 5-6 miles from Eastwood headquarters for “pennies”. I made my way over with a friend to grab the truck, and after a jump start we had it on the trailer, and on our way back to Eastwood.
This truck has been sitting for a few years after a fuel leak, rust, and the need for maintenance became too much for the previous owner to deal with. I am happy it is safe enough to drive in and out of the shop under it’s own power. That will save us a lot of hassle jockeying cars around the lot when I want to work on it. So late last week I began tearing right into it. The first initial goal is to test fit the front end of Pile-House over the donor chassis. Once I get the front end position of the body sorted, we can then start working on the cab position in relation to the front clip.
I snapped a few pics of the process of the front end removal. Some parts just basically fell off due to rust around the mounting holes. Made for a quick job of removing the front end!
I then jumped into the interior and got to removing the dash. This truck has been “messed-with” before, so a some of the bolts were either loose or missing for the dash. Needless to say it was pretty easy to get the dash out. With the dash removed I can start to eye up where I want to cut the cab to retain the donor firewall and how I will graft it into the Pile-House firewall/cab.
After attending a Hotrod show in Philadelphia this past weekend, and chatting with a few guys that had done the same basic project with their old 50’s truck.. I really have the itch! So stay tuned more to come this week!
Oh and anyone need some spare S10 parts? I have a bed-full already!
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i am doing the same project 1950 dodge pickup that has been in the family for thirty years. I am putting it on a early 90s s10 frame. I am not doing the firewall thing though.this is my first project i am hoping that a few suggestions from some friends will get it done.