So I decided I wanna go fast. This lead me to buy over 4,000lbs (probably) of the ugliest Dodge truck I could find for $400. I might have an issue with this whole "fast" idea.
And here's the donor truck that's actually nicer than the project truck, but the donor is 4wd with an exploded transfer case.
More on this mess soon.
Are you going to go nastruck on them? Looks like it will be fun!
I've always found that era of Dodge truck and Durango to be very visually appealing. I wouldn't mind having a Durango 5.9 R/T, if it could be had with a row-your-own gearbox.
Definitely interested to see where this one goes. 
Can you just un-4x4 the shortbed with the bits from the other?
In reply to patgizz:
Not quite that easy the 4x4 until 97 is a straight axle and the 2wd is a a arm front
This had better end with a 24v and a turbo bigger than my head
calteg wrote: This had better end with a 24v and a turbo bigger than my head
Well, he already has a cummins truck that he's forgoing modifying in favor of a non-boosted gas engine, so i doubt it!
The donor truck has a 5.9 Magnum. Plan is to pull the engine and most of the wiring and put it in the white truck. Hopefully the 42rh doesn't throw too big of a wrench in the works, if it does I'll deal with it when i get there. I'll actually start doing things tomorrow. Wanted to today but apparently to be able to afford this sort of thing you have to go to work occasionally, so I did. I'll get more pics tomorrow too.
Now that I'm at a computer. Here are the things I'm thinking of that made me think this was a good idea.
Hmm, They're all old C10s. Dang it, I knew I did something wrong.
And the white truck has a toolbox on the bed you can re-sell to go into the budget.
Thought you were trying to thin the herd? 
What drive train are you pulling from the white truck?
In reply to TIGMOTORSPORTS:
It has actually 2 toolboxes, I like them so they are probably going on my red truck.
In reply to maschinenbau:
Technically still am, this truck is a means to getting rid of the grey one... or something.
In reply to Dusterbd13:
3.9 V6, 42rh, Chrysler 9.5 with I think a 3.54 gear. I think I can keep the 42RH at least briefly. I will probably end up looking for a different trans eventually, T56 was considered but that's sort of the opposite of el cheapo since I think you either have to buy/make bits to make a GM T56 work with the Magnum or track down a Viper trans.
crap. ok.
I have a serious want of a nitrous 318 magnum and nv3500/ax15 to stuff in the challenge spirit.
Did you accidentally just find a cool name for that car or had you thought of it already?
I think I just accidentally found a cool name. It's actually nicknamed the holey spirit due to the billions of empty screw holes. I think I like challenge spirit better.
I didn't actually get any work done on the truck because I was pulling the engine out of the Firebird, but I did get pics finally.
It has brown 16" steel wheels because the 15" wheels that were on the truck would I got there were on it when I got the seller's house were flat against the front brake calipers and wouldn't allow the truck to roll, so I ended up buying these from him for $100 so we could move the truck. I got the spare too.
So once again my biggest worry with my new project is rust.
The floor on the driver's side sort of doesn't exist. The frame is solid so I'm thinking I need to look into what it takes to build some sort of a-frame rig and swap the cab from the donor onto this truck too. Though I seem to recall on the old square trucks the front suspension on the 2wd trucks was most self contained on the cross member and the frame rails were the same. I might investigate and use this as a suspension and transmission donor instead. The cab swap sounds more fun though, and I somehow prefer the proportions of the long bed on this era truck.
I think(hope) all I need to do to start the V6 it is crimp the wires back together where somebody hot-wired it, and then start it with the key. If it takes too much of a fight to get the V6 to start, I'll just go straight into the 5.9 swap and pretend I know the 3.9 runs when I go to sell it.
So I get a whole day off to play with this thing and it's raining. I might go ahead and move the trailer up closer to the garage anyway.
EDIT, Because I don't feel like triple posting again.
It's official, I have to get off my ass and get this thing built, since I've somehow convinced 2 of my friends to come with me if I get this thing together in time for $2017.
Ok so I decided to go ahead and take a look at fixing those wires and starting it, looks like the connector that goes to the ignition switch is gone, I could dig through the pile of the previous owner's junk in the cab and hopefully find it, or try some spade terminals and figure out the right pin out. I could cut the one off the donor truck but I think the switch is different and it doesn't make much sense to cut on that harness anyway since I plan on using it
Chadeux wrote: and pretend I know the 3.9 runs when I go to sell it.
Am I missing something or are you saying you'd represent the motor as a runner when you have no idea if it runs to a potential buyer??
That's what those words mean. I don't think I'm actually capable of that though.
Chadeux wrote: That's what those words mean. I don't think I'm actually capable of that though.
don't be that guy, have a conscience.
Exactly. As the recent victim of that guy, don't.
It supposedly has 76k miles on it. It sounded like it had good compression when we cranked it with the exhaust cut off. It /probably/ runs better than the 360 I'm about to put in it. But yeah, I'm a terrible liar and I still feel bad about the last engine I sold even though I knew it was junk and told the guy that bought it was junk. He looked at the same one headed water logged 350 I did and handed me $100 though.
In other news the truck is finally off the trailer and I have 3 days off. I might try getting the 3.9 started or I might go ahead and drag the grey truck up to the garage next to the white one and start tearing them both apart.
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