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I am 4th owner of the truck (1985). Original owner purchased the truck new when he retired in MO. Drove the truck for many years until his passing. Widow sold the truck to neighbor. The 2nd owner only used the truck occasionally for hauling stuff. For several years only used a few times a year. In 1984 the 2nd owner (MO) sold the truck to his son-in-law (TX) who initially purchased the truck for his son (same age as me, 14yo at the time). His son had no interest in the truck. The truck was sold to me & my father the following year.
I spent 1985 and up until my birthday in 1986 when I turned 16 restoring and getting the truck ready to use. The truck was purchased all original. Only 31k original miles. Biggest problem with truck was years of neglect from lack of use. The 315 poly was running but on its last legs. Prior to my ownership the previous 2 owners only worked on the truck if they could not get it to start and then it was only the very minimum to get it running. Each month when my Hemmings Motor News would arrive in the mail, I would scour it looking for any parts that I needed.
I kept the drive train in the truck all original (at the time). Truck was never wrecked but did have damage and replaced the right rear fender. Running boards had a lot of rot at and had to be reworked as I did not what to remove/trash them. I did have the truck repainted in 1986 from the original Red/White (more like pink at the time) to something a little more modern at the time for a 16yo high school boy (Dark Gray/Silver with a dark Blue accent stripe). Drove the truck through my senior year of HS realizing that I needed a different vehicle (reliable) for college. The mechanical issues in the motor needed to be addressed and parts were near impossible to find in the pre-internet days.
I parked the truck in winter of 1988 (1987 is the last time the truck had a state inspection & registration). In 1990, I hauled to my uncle's for storage. In 1992 I started to tear the truck down for restoration. The 315 poly was badly tapered at the bottom of all 8 cylinders. The machine shop feared that so much material would have to be removed to fit new pistons that the motor would not hold up. Plus transmission also needed work. Already shelled one as a teen and took 4 months to finally find somebody who could and had the parts to rebuild it. My led foot also had the rebuild on its last legs. So it was trashed and I started building up a 318 with a 4 speed. As my career took off and I met my wife the restoration took a back seat. In 1997, I did drag the truck back from my uncles to our new home. Just not really enough room to work on it, plus family and career, so it has mostly sat the past 20 years.
Over the past 20 years I have considered selling the truck a few times. My wife always tells me I will regret it, plus she wants to see the old truck back on the road. So she always talks me out of it. We moved a few years ago. Now I have a huge shop so have a few more projects to knock off before pushing the Dodge in and starting its restoration. Right now spending time researching and deciding how I want to move forward. Right now looking to modernize all the drive train & running gear since the original poly is long gone. Thinking of making it my daily driver (work from home so not like it will get driven every day commuting).
I will look for some of the original photos I have of the truck from when I purchased it and then restored it and drove it in the 80s. Plus one of today. Just gotta find them to upload them. Until then I will keep researching on the direction I want to take this restoration. The one thing for sure is it will have MOPAR power.
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