Look what I stumbled across yesterday...
That is a very tidy ute. It's a nice as anything you'll find here. It's missing the dash pad though, they've filled and smoothed the holes where it attaches - it took me a moment to work out what they've done there. I'd fix that striaght away because it looks odd as hell. But to find a ute as straight and rust free as this is very rare. It's nicer than either of my utes to be honest.
The Dodge was the base model of the Aussie utes. It's factory white with Tan trim (that colour trim isn't original) and the options indicate a 3.23 Sure-Grip Diff (D53) and a Laminated Windscreen (windshield) (G18). Who knows if either of those are still with the car. It appears to be a factory Auto ute as well. Not sure it's that rare but as far as I seen most of the econo-spec Dodges were workhorses and bought with column manual transmissions.
It's obviously been resto'ed at some point and some of the paint runs (and the way they've done the dash) makes me wonder about the quality of the resto. The engine is a non-factory colour. Get me an engine number and I'll tell you what it is, it could be a 215, 245, or 265. The 265 wasn't available in these utes but given that it's over 40 years old anything is possible now. If it's a 265 you're on a winner. To identify look at the engine number and the first two digits D1 = 215ci (which is poo, the slant is better), D2 = 245ci (okay), D3 = 265 which is want you want to see. to put it in perspective think small block v8s, 318 is meh, 360 is nice, but everyone wants the 340. :)
Someone has given it some love though, and condition of the tray area (especially the inner guards) leads me to believe it's had a very easy life. The air-con is non-standard and the car does look pretty good overall. Get your bondo magnet out though because the utes are moisture traps and prone to rust.
If the car is as rust free as it appears it's an easy $10-12K car here in Australia, but not particularly rare or special so don't feel bad if you want to drop a small block into it (I guess the Hemi would be a bit of a talking point over there though). If you're lucky someone has swapped a 265 into it as some point which would make it a lively driver.
What are they asking in terms of sticker price?