ZOMBIE RAMCHARGER (it LIVES!!!)!!! pt.1

[The War Wagon]

Well... ALMOST...

It is slowly, but surely, coming BACK to life. After sitting in a shed for the better part of 7 years, I've finally gotten the help and resources needed to at least try and get it to pass state inspection!

Here's what I inherited back in the fall of '06 - and it had mostly been sitting for a year & a half at THAT point, after being a daily driver for most of its life.

A nice, but tired, 1992 Dodge Ramcharger LE150 - 318 V-8, MPFI (AMAZING, since Dodge went to the TBI last of all the Big 3 - I still expected to see a TBI on this one!), 727 Torqueflite, NP241 Transfer case, 9 1/4 rear end - indeterminate front axle at this point (I'll post the vin code and data plates on here for Dodge experts to chime in on), and 135,000 miles - not a few of which were Pittsburgh-to-west-Texas road trips, where the original owner was from.





I inherited this beast in the fall of '06, with the INTENTION of making it a trail rig, as the factory 11mpg city/13mpg highway was a bit much for a daily driver... so last year, I promptly bought a Jeep Commander for a daily driver, that gets 10.5 mpg city...



THAT said, my local mechanic offered to work on it as a side project at his house, as he knew my children were Autistic, and he wanted to help. I bought the parts, and he did the labor for free. That worked well... for a while... until he took a job in the Marcellus shale fields a few years ago. So my truck just sat in his shed for a few more years.

I'd already bought a complete 4 1/2 Rough Country lift kit for it from TopGunzzz Customs down in TN, as well as five (5) Courser M/T 36" tires for it, and five (5) 15x10 Pacer custom wheels (wanted the matching full-size spare, obviously), and those were still sitting in the garage of my local Goodyear dealer.

I'd also bought from Kennesaw Mountain Products in GA (now Tactical Armor Group) a custom rear bumper, with an INTEGRAL swing-out tire gate, built to spec to haul a 36x15x10 spare around on (also has a Jerry can holder, hi-lift jackstorage, cb antenna mount, license plate frame, and D shackles. That was a cool $750, and it was still shrink-wrapped to the pallet it was shipped on - sitting in an empty classroom of my church for the past 5 years!

Nonetheless, I didn't see a lotta future for the old gal, and was thinking of either scrapping or selling it as recently as this May, but a new member at my church offered to help, after we got to talling about cars one day. He owns a custom shop in Carnegie, and does all manner of metal fabrication there. I told him I had all the parts - just need the lift kit installed primarily, and I'd take care of the rest, but he decided he wanted to do more - including bodywork, sanding, primering, painting, and even building a custom front bumper and new exhaust system for it!

In early August, he took his rollback over to my former mechanic's house, and picked up all the pieces. Here's a small photo retrospective of his work to date!

Passenger side UP!





Interior needs work now (some of the "handiwork" by moi - with a stereo HALF(ass)-installed... )




Of course, a LOT of its own parts and pieces are being stored inside itself at this point, too.

Lift is done!





Some closeups of this custom front bumper (spot welds and temporarily clamped to evaluate fitment)




Made of box steel, it drops low enough to pass state inspection - the center part will be cut out, and a shelf installed, suitable for mounting a winch recessed into the bumper!

Bumper is now finished, save for setting up the recessed winch mount

---

Here's some pics from last week - it's now bondo'd (meh... it's a trail rig ) - and almost ready to be painted!






You get a good look at the custom rear bumper this way!

It's getting down to the nitty-gritty now - it gets painted this week (to sand, primer, and paint this monster would be $4k+ at any reputable shop. I'm getting it for free, but STILL don't know what color it's going to be! I know "silver" will be a large part of it, but beyond that... Beggars of course, don't get to be choosers!), and then it's off to Monro Muffler for new brake and fuel lines (the originals rotted away), and whatever other work we need to get it to pass inspection at THIS point.

Assuming Obama doesn't confiscate ALL our tax refunds this year, my INTENTION is to do a ring & pinion swap (4.10's - currently 3.50 geared) and add a Transpak/Shift kit to the 727 this spring. I might splurge for the winch at that time, too. Long range plans include tearing down the engine (which still runs strong, holds compression, etc.), adding machined 360 heads (turning the 318 into a 340, essentially), new pistons, torque-ier crank, etc. I've got some Warn lock-out hubs ready for it too. ANY extra mpg's in THIS beast will be appreciated, and I figure the lock-out hubs will make GETTING to the outdoors a little less costly!

I'd like to do re-do the interior completely (droopy headliner has GOT to go - welcome to the late 80's/early '90's and the droopy headliner flashback! ) - doing the seats in some sort of faux leather, that cleans up easily. I'd LOVE to tear out ALL the carpet and just rhinoline the entire floor - make it so you could run a hose and WASH the truck out... but that may not be ENTIRELY feasible, given how many wires run along the floor in even a '92 truck. I think I WILL rhinoline the cargo area though, as this will still be our Boy Scout War Wagon - suitable for throwing backpacks, gear, chuckboxes, and the like into. Getting that factory spare OUT of the cargo area REALLY opens 'er up back there!

It'll be a zombiecrusher for certain - a good BoV, if it comes to that. But she's DEFINITELY a zombie herself, having come close to the scrapyard THREE times now (it got hit in the passenger side when the original owner had it, but he refused to have it totaled, and got it repaired instead - when he passed away, his wife was about to scrap it, when she offered it to me instead. I ALMOST scapped it this spring, but found some much-needed help in the nick of time). It might FINALLY see the out-of-doors yet!

Here's those vin code/data plates/sheet, if anyone is an expert in reading these things - kinda give me an idea of what all I have here.






That sheet under the hood is REALLY faded, but I figure the same info is coded on the data plate.

Any & all feedback is welcome and appreciated. And if you're handy with a wrench, engines & drivetrains, and live in Sector 4 - gimme a shout!!!

[VictorSmalls]

Bumpers are sick.

Nice work!

[YukonDon]

That is (and going to be) a SICK ride! Nice!

[Stonewall]

I have a 1990 Dodge W250 pickup with a 360, I was getting 10mpg city and 15mpg highway. I bought mine wrecked and fixed it, it was my daily driver from 2005-2010. It has been sitting since 2010 just because of gas prices and the odometer stopped working. One day it will be on the road again

[The War Wagon]

Went by today to talk to Jimmy about keeping it at his place a few more weeks. My other mechanic is down with a bad knee that he blew out pushing a Honda across the lot (I asked him, "If you can't push a Honda, how're you gonna push my RAMCHARGER?!?! )

Sure enough, it's BEEN painted!!!

In fact, he added the red factory pin stripe BACK to it, which set it off better than I thought it would. And it's two-tone again, although not QUITE like the factory had it. Here we go!





The top color, is a flat metalflake dark grey (the bright sunshine today played havoc with my auto-exposure - I only have one pic that really does it justice) - the bottom, a flat black. For flat colors (easy to touch up again after a good BRUSH run...), they really pop a LOT more than I expected them too (I was expecting more like the flat military colors of HUMVEES and Ma Dueces, than this!). Here's some more!









I'm wearing my red BSA windbreaker, hence the reddish reflection on the fender here.


Check out this front bumper now!






Looking down here between the bodywork and the bumper, you can see the shelf for the winch to mount to. The fairleads come out the front, and you're good to go! 8)


That's Jimmy, on the far left, FYI.




A decent shot of the rear hatch and bumper here - they popped the red plastic off the bottom of the "Dodge" plate, as it had collected a fair amount of crud over the years, and we don't need any MORE rust promotion on this hotrod! Wayne, Jimmy's right hand man, suggested red reflector tape... and that ain't a half-bad idea!




Been looking for SOMETHING to demonstrate scale, as to the height on this monster. I saw this 5 gallon plastic gas can nearby, and it's DIRECTLY UNDER the corner of the bumper here. It's about 2' high, for reference.




Jimmy's doin' it up right! Here's the inside of the doors - sanded and ready to likewise be painted!





This was probably the best picture of the bunch, to really see the paint and how well it works together.




I have dreamed - for 6 years - of this truck LOOKING this good... and now it actually does! They still have some frame/lift work to do - needs the second set of rear shocks installed as well. Once the brake & gas lines are done, then we can knock off some of the scale and start undercoating it. But another B-I-G hurdle is now cleared - the bodywork and paint is just about DONE!!!

[Stonewall]

Is the flat black actual paint or is it an epoxy sealer? I have used ppg dp-90 black epoxy before and after a few years it really faded badly

[The War Wagon]

Is the flat black actual paint or is it an epoxy sealer? I have used ppg dp-90 black epoxy before and after a few years it really faded badly

It's paint!

[The War Wagon]

This turned out nice.

Got some work to go - I honestly thought the bodywork/paint would be the LAST thing done. Turns out, it got done first!

[The War Wagon]

Well, we JUST got done wrestling it into a new resting spot until after the new year. It's over here by the house, as Jimmy's done as much as he can on his end for the time being. It needs fuel lines and brake lines immediately - that come the first of January. Other things we've "discovered" of late;

- Liftgate pistons: they're now shot.
- New exhaust: debating getting headers while I'm at. Some cheap ass Thrush glasspacks and turn 'em out the side behind the doors!
- Flip seat anchor weld. Yeah... it's half broken (but the piston there WORKS!!!).

Once the brake/fuel lines are done, we can get it undercoated as well. I'm off to AAA tomorrow, to get the registration renewed (it expired 2/08! :o ). I've kept it insured the W-H-O-L-E time (in case it exploded and burned down my mechanic's house!) - NOW where's that &%^*%%&$%# insurance card?!?!


Well, enough of my headaches - here's some pics from earlier today, outside the shop!


It got rolled outside last night. The second set of rear shocks has been installed, a few more holes under the unibody puttied, and some other painting done. It has no fuel lines, and no brake lines - so it can't start OR stop right now... :o but it makes a HELLUVA paperweight!!!

That said, it's REALLY quite photogenic at this point, so here's some more to look at!





















Well, PART of the insides of the doors got painted.

This'll inhibit rust and seal the edges most exposed to the elements!



The interior is greatly cleaned up now.





It's a work in progress still - in fact, Jimmy's going on vacation, and can't leave it in the shop, so it's going to sit at my place for a couple of weeks, until my man at Monro is healed up, and can install the brake and fuel lines, and then get started on everything else, to get it to pass inspection & start rolling again.


I got some pics of my son tonite (I woke him up, just to go out and look at it! ) in the driver's seat, and in front of it, although I can't download them here at the house at the moment. I'll post those tomorrow - he loved being lifted up INTO it!

[The War Wagon]

... when it comes home again, it should be under it's OWN power!

Rollback came up to get it tonight. It rained much of today - most of the snow now has washed away.




Tossed the glasspacks on the passenger side!




I took #1 son with me, to follow it to the shop.










Following it there!





Thankfully, the shop is only 1 mile from home! My buddy is the Asst. Mgr. there, and is going to do much of the work himself.






Awww yeahhhhhhhhhh... it's the BIG ONE alright!




We got it there a little after 7pm - the Mgr. was still in, so we pushed it over there after we got it off the truck. #3 son has his Pinewood Derby tomorrow @ 11:30am - I'm gonna swing by around 10:30am and shoot the breeze with my buddy about how to proceed.

I suspect it'll be there for a couple of months even; brake & fuel lines hafta be done first, then the exhaust system needs to be rebuilt. Once that's done, we've gotta drain everything, tune it up, add new brakes and wheel studs, flush and fill the radiator, change the water pump, all the hoses and serpentine belt. At that point, it MIGHT pass inspection. After the tax refund arrives, it's new alternator, starter, ignition, fuel pump, & other miscellany replacement time (replace everything on the engine that ISN'T internal!). New ring & pinion sets, B&M Transpack, and winch go on as well. Then it goes back over to Jimmy's for undercoating, and maybe a few other undercarriage details.

With any LUCK... everything BUT the engine teardown/rebuild will be done by July... and I can catch the engine next spring... HOPEFULLY...