Hi everybody. I've had an 87 Ram 50 (2wd, 2.0/5speed) for about 10 years now. The majority of the time it's been sitting in the shed with a bad engine. The truck is rust free, straight and has a lot of family history so it got saved rather than being scrapped.

I'm a recently retired mechanic (been building hot rods since the 1960s). Now that I have a bit of time the Dodge is in the shop getting a small block Chevy/T5 swap with the occasional help of my 12 year old Grandson who's learning the ropes.

I've been lurking here off and on for a couple of years seeing how others have been doing their V8 swaps and now that mine is finally underway I figured I join and post a build thread on mine. Anyway here is what I started with as it sat in the shed just before being moved into the shop.