1989 Dodge W100 – Matt K.

This is a truck that me and my brothers rode in as little kids. It was put away after my brother’s father unfortunately passed away. He was a mechanic and had plans to get the truck back to road worthy condition. After he passed away in 2013, it sat a barn for roughly 12 years untouched. When our mother decided she was ready to move, the old Dodge needed to go somewhere. My brother’s and I decided to fix it up and get this old Dodge back on the road. We took everything we could find that we believed went to the truck and stored it at my house. This is a TBI truck and we lucked out that the computer was still good on it. After changing the oil and filter, replacing the battery, spark plugs, plug wires, cap and rotor, and cleaning out the already drained fuel tank, we put a new fuel pump in it and began trying to get this old 318 Dodge engine to start. We had more road blocks before we could successfully get it running again. The catalytic converter was bad so we just cut it out and just ran a straight pipe to the muffler. Both injectors were clogged so we replaced them as well. After just those few basic things, to our surprise, the old 318 turned over and came to life! We were so happy to hear it running after all that time. We then moved on to the transmission with a fluid change and new filter. We also filled the cooling system with coolant and we got the truck to move under its own power forward and backward. Another big win. We moved to the brakes, we had discovered we had a stuck caliper so we replaced them, bled the whole system and surprisingly we had no other leaks. Once we started driving the truck a little around my neighborhood we discovered the radiator had a hole so we replaced it with an aluminum one along with new upper and lower hoses. From there, we decided to paint the truck and fortunately I work at a hotrod and we specialize in fixing and restoring/upgrading/modifying classic cars. I was able to bring in parts to bodywork and paint them over several months and eventually got the truck painted and reassembled. We upgraded the wheels and tires too. I even was able to save the old badges and emblems and restore them as well. The truck has original glass in it, all original body panels, original engine, transmission and rear end too. It’s was virtually rust free as well. We decided to fix up the interior with a black vinyl floor, new seat upholstery and new seat belts. There were countless other things that eventually had to be replaced pike the water pump and mostly all the rubber lines that go bad with time. But, all the main stuff still worked and worked well. Not bad for an old Dodge that sat for 12 years in a barn.