New member - 1980 Dodge D-50 Sport

[Scotty G]

Hi, all. I'm new to this club/site/forum, and I'm also a first-time Dodge D-50 owner; hopefully D-50 owners are welcome? I found an original, one-owner 1980 Dodge D-50 Sport a little over a week ago and bought it for full asking price after a short test drive. I was surprised at the condition, there's hardly any rust at all even though it's a Minnesota truck; they must not have driven it in the winter. I drove it home, three hours away, and it worked great at 65 mph the whole way. That was quite a gamble having never driven this truck before or really knowing its history, but it seemed like it could make it and it did! I've already tracked down and ordered an OEM left tail light lens to replace a cracked one and am on the hunt for an original air cleaner assembly, although with a replacement Weber carb I'm guessing that it won't fit? I'll check the forums on that, I'd really like to have it be an original-spec jewel box. There is just a little rust hole on each front fender at the bottom, and that's literally it. I'll fix those for sure and paint only as needed, I want to keep the upper part as original as possible. It's orange with the classic stripes and is a fantastic little truck! There is still a lot of original paint underneath and it looks like great. Thanks for letting me in to the club, hopefully D-50 Sport owners are welcome here.
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[ragragtimetime]

welcome! super "barn find". "original air cleaner assembly" will not fit a weber without modification. someone certainly loved the truck....hot plug was installed for cold days.

[Uncle Spence]

That's really great! I'd like to see one of those old sport models in person one day.

[geezer101]

Welcome to mightyram. Are D-50 Sport members welcome here? Hell, you literally get a VIP pass for owning one! The great thing about a community like MR50.net is the only thing you need to join is an interest. Don't need to own one and if you do own one, it doesn't need to be running (as you will find with a number of people here who are in the process of resurrecting the dead or building a tough project). The Weber upgrade is a worthwhile trade off if you don't mind your truck not being 100% original. Get another air cleaner box and adapt it to the Weber so at least you have the factory carb and intake just in case you want to retrofit it.

[pennyman1]

You can get an adaptor for the weber carb to use the original air cleaner assembly. Geronimo is an 80 D-50 Sport, and I have a Dodge Ram 50 Big Horn and 86 Ram 50 Custom model. I have been tracking a 1980 D-50 Sport in yellow a mile from my house in similar condition - it was a garage find by the current owner. Geronimo was the black model with the 4 color block stripes like the one in the 1980 brochure. Welcome to the forum!

[Scotty G]

Thanks, folks! And, thanks for the great info on a possible air cleaner assembly adapter/retrofit kit so at least it could look original-spec under the hood rather than having one of those chrome, rectangular air cleaners. I hate to see the empty holes on the exhaust manifold shield. I'll start searching now. Thanks again!