Another straggler followed me home!

[sireland67]

I know a guy in Ohio that most likely will have any part for that Ramcharger

 

[gdrill]

That may come in handy. I’m sure some of the trim is difficult to come across. I am going to sort through this machine today and see the real story and missing parts.


I’m thinking it just may become known as “The Hulk”.

 

[sireland67]

That may come in handy. I’m sure some of the trim is difficult to come across. I am going to sort through this machine today and see the real story and missing parts.
No problem I can give you is info, he makes a living of parting dodge trucks.

 

[gdrill]

Well , despite the “radiator”, it runs. I had to change the starter as it was locked up and hook a jerry can up as it wouldn’t run on varsol! The float was stuck and the bowl overflowed. A shot or three of carb clean and that was fixed. I’m going to dig through my collection and see if I can find a rad that will fit The Hulk. I was worried when I saw this. Wasn’t sure what happened. Would have been a real shame if the engine was seized. It is clean blue paint, as in freshly overhauled.

 

[dartnlo]

I love the original two-tone on the driver's door and fender!

 

[gdrill]

Ya know, I'm not the greenest guy, but that would have been a very nice looking combo. I have searched for a bit and found a couple similar. Too bad, I think they Tremcladed the truck when they patched up the wheel arches.

 

[gdrill]

It cleaned up pretty nicely. Overall this thing isn’t too bad! It needs front floor repair. I haven’t pulled the carpet up but I’m thinking homemade patches. Carpet throughout. It’s dried out and crumbling. That would make the interior livable. Short of new seat skins. I’m surprised the only lights in the interior are the one by the driver’s right knee on the dash and the glovebox light. I guess with the removable top they decided against upper lighting.

 

[gdrill]

Yesterday I installed an A-body rad into the Ramcharger. It's a 318 rad but it is waaaayy smaller then the truck one was! Oh well, I made some little hangers and it will work for now. I fired it up but it was running rough and would not idle. I found a vacuum line on the pass side of the carb open. Plugged that and it is a bit better, though still not great. Idle screws were out about 2 1/2 turns. I started at 1 1/2 and am going to play with it today. It did run long enough to shift into reverse and then drive. Clunk both ways! Oil pressure is low on the factory gauge so I am going to hook up a mechanical and see the nitty gritty.

 

[sireland67]

Those old W- series trucks are tough, I have had a bunch of them.

 

[gdrill]

Well, a little playing around today. I removed the pressure sender for the oil pressure, what a pain, and installed a gauge. It still only showed 10 psi at high idle. So I drained what was supposed to be oil and put in some 20W50. Bang, 20psi at idle. Then I removed the fuel tank. Gonna be needing a new one of those.

 

[sireland67]

Those are hard to find.
Some of the newer ones are plastic, I would look for them.

 

[moparmat2000]

They made the ramcharger up to 1993, but I think the late 80s carbureted ones also had the polyethylene plastic fuel tank with just a sending unit in it.

 

[sireland67]

My 77 had a steel tank, I found one in a 78-80 Ramcharger that was plastic.
It bolted right in place of the metal one.

 

[gdrill]

I heard those may new tough hunt. I might have a lead. We’ll see. The drivers side hatch hinge was broken. Probably could have found one of those too........but you know me! They have a solid pin pressed through brass bushings originally. I mimicked it fairly well if I do say do myself.

 

[gdrill]

Very nice!

 

[moparmat2000]

Necessity is the mother of invention. Kudos to you for fixing the hinge with what you had laying around. Grease it up good, it will last another 40 years

 

[gdrill]

I like clean projects. This one has issues but the good far outweighs the bad.

 

[Dartnut]

After seeing the truck in person the other day, I thought that it was a good project, but it just needed some lovin'...........
I love the green!

 

[gdrill]

Thanks Tom. Imagine that, you liking green! It’s gonna get some lovin’. The rest of the carpet is coming out today to see the extent of floor repairs.

 

[moparmat2000]

I'm not into green but its growin on me like moss on the north side of a tree

 

[moparmat2000]

But for real, I bet a fresh coat of the OEM green probably will "pop" really nice. The mopar greens all look great when newly applied. Might be the vfc reason why there were so many green MoPars. By the 80s the sun fade made em look awful.

 

[gdrill]

You know, I have been trying to find a pic of a clean two tone green Ramcharger. I found a 79 on Ramcharger central, but the pics are crappy. I found a blue one. They do look really good with that paint scheme.

 

[gdrill]

I’m not sure right now whether to order rock auto pans or not. This will never be a restored unit so patching would likely be fine. I gotta ponder this.

 

[Dartnut]

I think that you could patch them pretty easily.
Maybe get some old ''Trudeau for Prime Minister'' signs and weld them in there.
It would bring a smile to your face every time you get in the truck and stomp on the floor boards.

 

[gdrill]

I forgot about this thread..........
Well, the urge hit me and I ordered pans. I paid $70CAD for the pans and $109 shipping! Now what I did not realize was I paid for DHL express. 2 days, on my door step! I'm OK with that. Usually Border Customs delays things for days.

All tacked in. Just have to finish welding the edges. But today I'm on a road trip to pick up a Warn 8000lb winch for the front and an axle for my Nova.