sjgieson

Ok, so here is my situation. I owned a 1st gen Club Cab for about 5 years now, and about 4 years ago I purchased a 97 Ford Crew Cab to replace it since I had first kid on the way. I didn't know when I purchased the Ford's but the powerstroke was on its way to PowerStroke heaven. So shortly after buying the Ford I decided to do a swap on it and purchased a common rail engine to put in there, well that never happened for may reasons one of them being I over complicated the common-rail install (long story).

My first gen has been just perfect the last few years, always start in the cold, never misses a beat but the body has starting rusting bad. I probably only have one winter left in the cab before the floor is all gone on the passenger side. The bed maybe has one or two years left before it can't hold weight either.

I have owned a couple of common rails in my life, and one of them close to 600hp. I really think a well tuned/smartly modded VE is all ever need (350ish HP, ideally).

So question to this group...keep hunting for a new dodge club cab (haven't found one in 2 years of searching) and keep my VE in my dodge OR sell that CR engine and just put my VE/trans into the ford and scrap the dodge body. Doing the VE swap would be much quicker than CR for sure, and get that Ford Chassis back on the road.

The trucks in question...most the of rust is on the driver side so you can't see it in this pic...but it is bad. Ford is rust free from AZ...

MoPowa

Seems the simplest and cheapest route is to work with what you got. Transplant that ve and give the ford something to live for.

NJTman

Well.... The 97 Ford is my favorite of the newer body styles. Drove a 79 for 15 years before it got sold. Miss it a lot. The 97 and the 5.9 are the best of all worlds, imo.

I do, however, weep when I hear about another 1st gen going to heaven.


I'm conflicted....

sjgieson

Thanks, that is how I feel as well...the "character" in the first gen just can't be replicated even in square bodied ford...

If someone could point to a rust free club cab...I would swap the cab over in a heartbeat....

Angry Johnny

I don't know where you live, you don't have a location listed, but I see them pop up on ebay and the local Craigs list all the time. If you got the ferd out of Arizona I'm sure there are 1st Gen dodges out there too.

patdaly

I vote for the Ford swap, just don't scrap the Dodge body, WAY too many good small parts on it to let get crushed. Trust me, it is a bear finding just stupid stuff like interior plastic, etc........... If you can't disassemble it at your house, then find someone who can do it for you.

maybe368

I didn't do a search but here is a whole craig's search site. Try dodge club cab for parts...Mark

http://www.searchcraigslist.org/

sjgieson

I have been using https://www.searchtempest.com for a nation wide craig's list search for a while, I try to check it once a month. Only club cabs I found in good shape have a good chassis behind them, plenty of single cabs and even a few crew cabs over the years. Seems like club cabs are rare in gas form...

I have had an ebay search running for a couple of years that emails me as soon as somone posts anything with dx50 or wx50...I am sure they come and go but one can only dedicate so much time per month to searching. I probably spend at least an hour a month on my search...but I have been told I am bad searcher.

maybe368

There is kind of an art to searching.I have deliberately miss-spelled words and found some pretty good stuff that way. I try to think of different words to search for the same thing. I generally don't give up easy. I currently have a Garrett T-03 turbo in the shop and they are having a real time trying to find parts for it. They are asking 400 bucks and more for used ones on eBay and are quickly becoming unobtanium. I could not find anything but a seal kit for it. I might have to dump the MB..Mark