New D50 owner - Kaos731

Greetings and salutations D50/Maxians!

My name is Frank and I am a proud new owner of a 1988 Dodge Ram 50.

Specs:

Color: White with fake pinstripe belt line molding (Painted on the body bump there)
Engine: 2.0 with factory 2BBL Carb
Wheels: Stock chrome 14" rims with 195/70/R14 walmart brand meats
Audio system: Broken after market tape deck with missing face. Lol yeah it will be a quiet 30 mile drive to work till I change that out.

A little background of the truck and simple plans:

I bought the truck off the second owner, he was using it as a work truck at a construction site.
So the engine and trans are in tip top working order. however the front end needs love badly and there are various dents and dings across the body.

I can knock out most of the dents and replace fenders, bumpers and valance that are beyond my hammer magic.
I'm gonna keep it simple primer grey, with lower rocker (below the fake belt/molding line gloss black). Then stick a giant Mitsu.Ram hybrid logo made of vinyl on the hood. and just throw 3 coats of clear coat over the whole truck.

To make it extra obnoxious gonna remove the cat and stick on a single in dual out flowmaster piped out the rear. LOL

Someone on this forum (forgive my forgetting who) painted their truck to look rusty. It looked rather cool.

These little trucks sure allow you to express yourself, and they don't seem to complain.

Welcome, Frank. We're anxiously awaiting photos.

Ok Folks here are the promised pictures of my new 1988 Mighty-Ram 50
The front end needs lots of TLC as the Grill, Passenger corner Lens assembly, Bumper and Valance are all broken or to damaged to restore.
The sides and rear of the truck have minor dents and dings that I can apply my mallet to and straighten out.
Once I have the body repairs done I was thinking of priming the whole thing and gloss blacking the lower potion.

Upon further thought I have decided to keep the base color white and and adding the black as I wanted. But I will be painint the hood black.
When I get the hood graphic, the Ram will be the base color of white and Mitsu triangle will remain red. I will tr and get a hold of an airbrush kit to add some shading to the graphic before Applying the clear coat to preserve the whole shabangs.


Attachment 8485Attachment 8486Attachment 8484Attachment 8483

Looks like a good truck, Frank. I was going to offer you a hub cap, but yours' are chrome. (Your windsheild washer reservoir should be on its way tomorrow, so let the resurrection begin).

The original "pin striping" seems to be in good shape.

Interesting rear bumper.

There are very few of these trucks with good front valances...1947panrider's is the only one I've seen that was intact since new. I took mine off when I first got my truck before it could FALL off from the rust. I like the rough-and-tumble look of the missing valance, personally.

Attachment 8487

Quote:

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Originally Posted by royster

Interesting rear bumper.

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LOL Yeah I guess since these trucks came with the roll-pan type bumper that melds into the tailgate. The second owner "Added" a make shift bumper with tow hitch I guess to protect the rear end....

Oh and before I forget. I will be naming this truck when done "Ragnarok".

Looks like I will be driving this puppy all the way till the end of days. LOL

"Before brilliance
there must be Kaos"
I Ching

Ok today banged out some of the dents and straightened the bumper and valance on Ragnarok.

Picks coming soon.

Ok got around to taking some more picks.

These are of the engine bay and I have a few questions too.

1st overview shot of the engine bay.
Attachment 8654

next some close ups and questions of what USED to be attached...

What was attached here on that Bracket?
Attachment 8655

And second what the hell did these hose connection used to go to? PO has no idea as he got the truck this way as well.
Attachment 8656Attachment 8657

Any help you guys can give me on this mystery would be awesome!

all those are for the A/C system. Can goes on the fender, lines go to the pump. Or the fender mount is for the power steering reservor

Hi Frank...glad the reservoir worked out.

The photos also reveal you're missing an inner-fender flap (keeps crap off the engine) and the bottom sheild for the engine compartment. Not sure how many old timers insist on that sheild, but I know for where I live, it's keeping a LOT of mud, gravel and water off the engine, and in particular, away from the timing belt covers. You might look to see if there are broken-off bolts underneith at the frame, which might be why it's missing. It is held on with 4 bolts.

You can see it below the engine in this photo, a black, flat pan (pulley is sitting on it). Also the left-side fender flap.
Attachment 8658

Ragnarök shouldn't go into battle without his sheild!

Quote:

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The word ragnarök as a whole is then usually interpreted as the "final destiny of the gods."[3] In 2007, Haraldur Bernharðsson proposed that the original form of the second word in the compound is røk,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k

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OK guys here is the customary video "walk around" that every new user should post of their baby's when they first get it.
It serves are good reminder of how it WAS before we started wrenching on it. LOL

http://youtu.be/hiDJr01_2Eo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fordubishi

all those are for the A/C system. Can goes on the fender, lines go to the pump. Or the fender mount is for the power steering reservoir

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Well I guess that's why the AC doesn't work, and why it seems that I have manual steering in this truck.

LOL Not like I miss AC or power steering as My old '73 Duster didn't have those amenity's either...

Its like home I guess can't miss what you never had in the first place... LMAO

I guess the logical thing to do is to remove the remnants of the AC system and the power steering as I do not plan on putting them in.
I kind of like roughing it , in my vehicles anyway. I always drive with the windows down as it is. And I can always use the arm work out that manual steering gives (keeps my arms buff and strong like bull). Only thing I care about is heat, and THAT works flawlessly. LOL

Starts right up! Plenty of potential in this truck.

My guess about the high idle is there might be vacuum leaks, and that's why it runs rough if you lower the idle.

I have noticed that I have exhaust blow by as I think the exhaust manifold is cracked where I can't see it.
Looks like headers are in my near future... then I can remove the cat and put a performance muffler on it!