87 Ram 50 Sport - Labor of Love - Restoring the first vehicle I owned 25 years later!

[lithonius]

Welcome, and gratz on reclaiming your old steed!

That dent in the driver's door should pop out pretty readily if you just remove the inner door card and give it good shove from inside the door cavity. You don't need to entirely remove the card, as once you pop the retainer clips around the lower edge and sides, the top edge will remain attached by the vinyl covering, so you can just flip it up out of the way. You'll prolly break some of those clips, but I got this clip kit including plenty of those and many others you may eventually need anyway:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/232800265368

Appreciate this link! I just ordered the kit thank you!

Quick update - I got the dent out of the drivers side door that I created during transport with the ratchet straps. I actually was working on remove the drivers door interior panel to get to the metal on the backside and 'pop' it back into place, and while doing so I rolled the window down to get to the interior door panel better and as I rolled it down....POP.....the window regulator going down must have hit it just right because she's back the way she used to be!



zasher303 - thank you again for the service manual link from ebay, I bought those exact books. Funny enough the seller was only 30 minutes away from my home in Milwaukee so not only was it here the next day, but clearly was meant to be mine. Now if only I could figure out where Bob Smith Dodge is/was? Google didn't tell me anything - who knows, maybe this belonged to Bob Smith and he had a Dodge Ram 50



Invested in the Harbor Freight sale this weekend on their 3 ton jackstands for $29/pair and refreshed my old set with 4 new ones for this project - this was the validation/reason I gave my wife and it worked, I think. She didn't say anything, so that can go either way! Got the truck off the ground and wheels removed for soon-to-be new tires. Not that it's going anywhere anytime soon, but I want all 4 to be able to hold air and move around the garage as needed, so that will be taken care of soon. Still shopping around on which ones to get, the 215/70/14 BFG's on there now are pretty much the most expensive variety I could find online at almost $175/ea, and not being sure if I am keeping the stocks in the end, may go for something cheaper. Interestingly, the spare under the bed is still the OEM Yokohama with a 1987 date stamp...now if I could just find 3 more of those I would have factory correct dated tires to go with the truck .





Back in 1999 I should have just covered the entire truck in gold Rust-Oleum paint, seems anything that was covered in it was spared complete rust annihilation! Almost forget I had sprayed the rear drums, rear shocks and even the frame rails with it 25 years ago....



Not sure the Rust-Oleum would have been a match for Florida saltwater however...this truck did see flood waters from the nearby ocean/rivers up to the door jambs because it was sitting practically on the frame as the tires were sunken down into the sand. Totally ate up the rocker panels, and my C-pillars are complete trash as is the roof and fenders. I am working on getting OEM MB# parts for all of the above, and have had success locating everything mentioned with genuine OEM deadstock so I am genuinely optimistic once I start getting the sheet metal in that I need to, for lack of a better word, fill in the gaps...that I will be heading in the right direction. Here's some detailed pics of the cancer that is coming out.



Making good progress, maybe at a snails pace for some but that's what still working a 9-5 and having 3 kids and a wife at home (who also works FT) gets me....evenings after work and a month of Sunday's but it's more progress than the truck has seen in over 20 years, having sat for the last 15 in a "ran when parked" status. Knowing the history, knowing my father and having been the owner of the truck myself at one time in this 1-family owned truck, I know it will run again! As far as it 'running' I will be pulling the motor out for a full teardown. At 149k original miles, it needs a refresh but certainly sitting for so long, the whole thing is going to be gone through and every part I can replace I will.

Except for these...the low-hanging door mirrors! I didn't even know these were an option, to be honest as I started looking around at Ram50/MM trucks on the interwebs, pretty much none seem to have these, all are mounted at the pillar. It wasn't until I stumbled on a picture of one in a salvage yard with the same set, and then I looked at some 87 Ram 50 factory color sales brochures (since purchased - thanks ebay) and saw these are ALSO an option. This truck just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter! Thanks everyone for following along!