Saturday, June 19, 2010

Automotive archaeology- chapter 2


I blogged about acquiring this 67 Dodge truck over a year ago. I had all sorts of intentions about getting it home long before now. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, as it were. Since this truck was in Helena, Montana. I can safely say that the road to Helena is paved with good intentions as well.



This truck belonged to the father of a friend of mine, Steve Celar. Steve is the guy who bought my convertible from me, and this truck was part of that deal. It got in an accident about 30 years ago and Steve's dad had intentions of his own to fix it, but never did.

It is a 1967 Dodge D-100 short box with a 225 Slant Six with a granny 4-speed behind it. The guy who owned it prior to its fender bender operated a septic company of some sort, and its working life was not easy, as evidenced by the many dings and dents on the body. The good thing is that it is relatively rust free in the doors and cab floors.

It was actually pretty cool to go through all the clutter of parts that were in the bed and cab. Most weren't for this truck, but I was able to find the owners manual and service records in the glove box. Steve's dad had found nearly every part needed to put this truck back together. In the midst of all the junk I was able to find all of the Dodge specific parts for it.

Last year, my friend Terry Krueger decided he needed more power in his customized 1963 Dodge truck. He also had some trouble keeping his hot rodded slant six together, so I bought it from him after it got rebuilt at the engine shop. It will go into my 67, along with the 904 automatic that he had with it. That has a stage 2 shift kit and is in great shape.



This is a shot of the engine after I picked it up from Terry's place in July of last year. Now you can cue the unfulfilled intentions of getting down to Helena to get the truck. It took until a month ago to get down there. I got teased by Steve and all my hot rodding friends about how long it took to go get it. I had plans to go a lot earlier, but family and winter issues prevented me.

Finally, I borrowed Greg Edwards' trailer and conned my Dad into bringing his shiny new Dodge truck on a road trip to get the 67. Gracie and Josh came with Dad and me to go get it. We left at 6:00 on that Saturday morning and headed for Helena. It was really nice spending time with Dad and the kids. They traveled really well all day, except for a little dust up in Great Falls on the way home. I can't blame them, considering they had been trapped in the truck all day, since we got the truck loaded and immediately headed for home.

I really enjoyed spending the day with my Dad and the kids. It was fun to hear him reminisce about his youth and to hear some hilarious stories about his less successful courting adventures.



The above picture was taken a few miles from Wolf Creek, Montana where we stopped to go potty and to check the tie down straps on the 67 to make sure that nothing fell off or out of it.

Once we got to the border, the questions from the US export officer were a little less teasing in nature about why it took me so long to come down and get it after it had been exported. Needless to say, it fit with the roasting I got from Steve when I finally showed up at his shop to get it.

So, I got it home and got all the goodies unloaded from the bed. I put my American Racing smoothie wheels that were on my 71 Dodge on it and set the rad support in place. It looks more like a truck now than a pile of parts. It is coming along.

Next on the list is to get the engine and trans pulled so I can put the slant six I got from Terry in there. It will breathe fire soon! Wish me luck!

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