I reclaimed my Grandfather's 1985 W350 Crew Cab Short Box. Poor old girl has been sitting 14 years out in the Oregon desert. The sad part is I could have had this truck 9 years ago, when I was in high school. My '77 Power Wagon blew a tranny, and grandpa said I could drop my 360 into the crew and have it. Instead i fixed my '77 Why I never took him up on his offer?

The plan is to re-power it with the running gear and drivetrain from my 91.5. I am also seriously considering putting on a long bed too. We had to drag is for 6 hours to get home, and only one burned up bearing on the borrowed trailer. The bearing blew when we were empty, thanks golly. We had great help from the Baxter's, they found the right parts and let us use their tools and bench. When we pulled it a part we found an inner bearing seated in backwards! The trailer was our high school shop teacher's and he had the kids replace and repack the bearings.

I will start a thread in the conversions forum once I get going on the project later this week. I would appreciate it if you all drop by and give advice and suggestions; I am going to need it.

 

awesome

 

Ha. Nice picture! That baby will be awesome with your other trucks engine/tranny/wheels/tires!

 

Nice looking truck and great background scenery! You should not have to deal with a lot of rust.There are a bunch of us crew cab folks on here I am sure you will find lots of tips and help. Good Luck!! p.s. Leave the short bed on you won't regret it,not many left!!

 

Very nice! I'm wondering if you were going to incorporate the 'engine' shown in the photo though. I don't think you're going to find how to convert human in to your drive chain in the sticky!

 

That looks identical to my 84. Mine even "had" those exact fog lights on the bumper. Good luck on the project! I will keep an eye on your thread as my conversion is still a little ways off.

Mac

 

Congrats on getting the Crew!! And it's great that it has a family history too.

I'll be following along from home as well.

 

LOL I was thinking the same thing! Ive heard of horsepower but I dont think humanpower is going to have the same torque as the cummins lol. That looks like an awesome truck. Will be looking for the conversion!!
Nice first gen as well. Real clean looking!

 

Easiest thing to do if you want longbed is just find a longbed frame and convert it over to 4x there easy to do .

 

Nice.

That blue truck gonna be your donor? Looks too nice man, if you pull the guts out of it and axles and wheels and stuff. PLEASE sell off the body parts, some of use 1st genners need them!

 

Nice truck. What do you figure it will take to get the fresh dent out of the roof??

 

I dunno, but I think the brother-in-law on the roof will be the one to pull it! My truck is a real Mona (pretty from a-far); don't let it fool you. I think the only body panel without dents, peeling paint, or rust is the passenger side fender. I do plan to try and sell the body, but if no-one wants to do the body work then to the scrapper.

 

x2 on the short bed,good looking truck

 

what part of the nw you working on this ol girl

 

I am in Independence OR. Just south of you farmer. In fact my brother-in-law and a couple of buddies live near you.