1996 Dakota aka "Donnie"

fordwheelinman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2009
Location
Randolph County
This little truck has been around for a while. My wife's brother in law had it for years. He hit a deer, and I had fixed it.

Note the wrinkle behind the light and the messed up lip.
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The drivers door broke a hinge, and I fixed it. Then he gave it to me.

After chasing an electrical bug, that I still haven't found, I resolved to fuse every circuit (about 9 or them) that fed off the ASD fuse. Been using it for 18 months, then a few months ago, this happened.
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A probably 8 pointer decided it was smarter to double back across 2 lanes instead of running off into a field. So I went through my options. Thought about selling it, parting it, scraping it. Finally I realized I now have the reason to take the bed off and flat bed it like I wanted to do in the beginning. I search the interwebs and believe it or not found all the sheet metal for $150 bucks.

After a month or so I finally had all the stars align to allow me a day to work on it. And work on it I did.
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Yeah the radiator is screwed up, when I bought all the parts, nothing was available. However a new one should be here Thursday, along with a new cooling fan motor, which I just found out was busted.

With the truck disassembled, I turned my attention to the door. I don't have before pictures, forgive me. The lower hinge on this door had ripped free sometime ago, limiting usefulness of the truck. So I set about to fix it. Added some extra material, and welded it in more spots than the factory did.
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The old blue Harbor Freight unit burned it in well with the flux core wire (hence the nastiness). Found out the top one had started pulling away, bent it back down, tacked it, and added material and weld just like the bottom.

Then reassembly started.
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I've got the rest of the lighta to put in. I have a grille, that is less broke than the original, but I'm thinking I may do something custom. Maybe some expanded metal or something along those lines. Also have the original bumper, but for my intended purposes with the truck, I'm thinking something heavy duty.

I'd like to get some more height out of the front, and I'm gonna need some weight carrying capacity if I do a heavy duty bumper. What would be my best bet? I was thinking finding some v8 coil springs. I've looked and can't find any air shocks, so I'm not sure how else to proceed there, any thoughts?
 
This little truck has been around for a while. My wife's brother in law had it for years. He hit a deer, and I had fixed it.

Note the wrinkle behind the light and the messed up lip.
View attachment 362177

The drivers door broke a hinge, and I fixed it. Then he gave it to me.

After chasing an electrical bug, that I still haven't found, I resolved to fuse every circuit (about 9 or them) that fed off the ASD fuse. Been using it for 18 months, then a few months ago, this happened.
View attachment 362176
A probably 8 pointer decided it was smarter to double back across 2 lanes instead of running off into a field. So I went through my options. Thought about selling it, parting it, scraping it. Finally I realized I now have the reason to take the bed off and flat bed it like I wanted to do in the beginning. I search the interwebs and believe it or not found all the sheet metal for $150 bucks.

After a month or so I finally had all the stars align to allow me a day to work on it. And work on it I did.
View attachment 362178View attachment 362179View attachment 362182View attachment 362183View attachment 362184

Yeah the radiator is screwed up, when I bought all the parts, nothing was available. However a new one should be here Thursday, along with a new cooling fan motor, which I just found out was busted.

With the truck disassembled, I turned my attention to the door. I don't have before pictures, forgive me. The lower hinge on this door had ripped free sometime ago, limiting usefulness of the truck. So I set about to fix it. Added some extra material, and welded it in more spots than the factory did.
View attachment 362185View attachment 362186
The old blue Harbor Freight unit burned it in well with the flux core wire (hence the nastiness). Found out the top one had started pulling away, bent it back down, tacked it, and added material and weld just like the bottom.

Then reassembly started.
View attachment 362187View attachment 362188View attachment 362189View attachment 362190

I've got the rest of the lighta to put in. I have a grille, that is less broke than the original, but I'm thinking I may do something custom. Maybe some expanded metal or something along those lines. Also have the original bumper, but for my intended purposes with the truck, I'm thinking something heavy duty.

I'd like to get some more height out of the front, and I'm gonna need some weight carrying capacity if I do a heavy duty bumper. What would be my best bet? I was thinking finding some v8 coil springs. I've looked and can't find any air shocks, so I'm not sure how else to proceed there, any thoughts?
The v8 springs are likely a good starting point. Im sure they make lift springs for the front, even being 2wd, if you want to spend the money. Maybe some cheap coil spring spacers, for a jeep/other?

This thing seems to be a deer magnet. I would likely put a cattle guard/catcher on the front of it.
 
The v8 springs are likely a good starting point. Im sure they make lift springs for the front, even being 2wd, if you want to spend the money. Maybe some cheap coil spring spacers, for a jeep/other?

This thing seems to be a deer magnet. I would likely put a cattle guard/catcher on the front of it.
I need to get all the lights back in and see what I can build, but I'm thinking about a ranch hand inspired bumper/guard. Now because I'm cheap, it'll likely all be made out of box tube, even the guard, as I have some of that already laying around. I know it won't be purdy, but I'm a "function over form" kinda guy.
 
I ended up bolting the factory bumper back on, mostly because I'm driving it back and forth to work and figured the factory was better.than nothing. Once it's off daily duty, a better bumper will be made. Still runs like a champ, need to get my new daily (2000 Ranger 4x2) picked up so I can fix it (right front wreck) and then Donnie will get some upgrading for work usage.
 
If anyone knows of anyone who has a 1990 or earlier dodge dakota, I'm looking for a rear axle assembly to convert this thing to 5 lug.

Or if anyone has a explorer 8.8, drum preferred, with 3.73 or 4.10, I may just put one of those in. Might be a better option since I'm flatbedding it anyway, width isn't a major concern.
 
If anyone knows of anyone who has a 1990 or earlier dodge dakota, I'm looking for a rear axle assembly to convert this thing to 5 lug.

Or if anyone has a explorer 8.8, drum preferred, with 3.73 or 4.10, I may just put one of those in. Might be a better option since I'm flatbedding it anyway, width isn't a major concern.
I have a crown vic 8.8 laying around. 20 bucks and its yours.
 
If anyone knows of anyone who has a 1990 or earlier dodge dakota, I'm looking for a rear axle assembly to convert this thing to 5 lug.

Or if anyone has a explorer 8.8, drum preferred, with 3.73 or 4.10, I may just put one of those in. Might be a better option since I'm flatbedding it anyway, width isn't a major concern.
i have a 373 8.8
 
Hind sight is 20/20....

I just scrapped my avatar explorer a few weeks ago, that had a 3.73 drum brake rear with a limited slip. If I knew that swapping the front out to 5x4.5 was as simple as a set of rotors, I'd have kept it around a little longer.

Also since I've had the truck, I've scrapped/sold 2 other complete explorer 8.8s, one with 4.10's.

Friggensonofamuthafrickenpieceofcrap
 
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