So I finally got "Babs" back on the road this week. After a little over 3 years of mostly trying to find parts, and a lot of work. Got some small things to do now that it's going again. What a relief!

On a side note... I know it has the typical cowl cracking. Is that commonly followed with a rather loud popping noise from the dash area while driving?

Also, Do not buy the windshield or rear window gaskets from LMC

 

Great job!
That loud noise from behind the dash is most likely the cowl cracks shifting past each other.
I see cowl cracks on almost every 72-93 Dodge truck or RC I work on.
I even had them on my cream puff '89 2wd low milage Ramcharger I converted over to 12V power. I also have the cowl cracks to weld up on my black '85 crew cab AND my '78 2wd RC build before the fenders go back on.

 

ok.. that's what I was thinking... It was there before the thing was wrecked. After a couple years, buying a house, getting married, I had forgotten about that popping. And how annoying it really was.

 

Beautiful dually! That bumper is mean looking, who makes it?

 

I have no idea who made it.. The second owner got it off an old forrest service truck that was rolled in like 95.

 

Looks really nice. Just one question, if LMC windshield gaskets aren't any good, who or where did you get good ones ftom?

 

The windshield seal came from precision products. www.prp.com I'm not sure if they made a rear one. After going through the hassle with lmc and seeing my rear window seal was still quite soft I just reused it. I also ordered all the new seals for the side windows and door gaskets through lmc, and they all came as precision seals, so I wonder if it's just a case of whatever they have in stock at the time???

Oh and according to lmc their rear window seal is made only for their glass. Which they only sell the single glass, so they don't even offer a seal for the sliding windows. Which makes that part of the catalog VERY deceiving since it shows a sliding window in the picture.

 

Ok, thanks for the info.

 

truck looks great Dan, thanks tor the weather strip info.

https://www.prp.com/product/?SearchT...=W250&type=All

 

Me rikey tha by pain job. Rookie bery nice.

 

I liked the door seals from lmc. I also got tail lights from them. both of which I like. The tail lights are chinese knock-offs i'm hoping they last, but they do seem to have a pretty decent quality. Time will tell! i'm hoping to get a rear bumper from them at some point. We'll see how that goes....

Also, I almost never haul anything. My truck has some weird, and huge, air bags in the rear. Has anyone ever put half ton springs back there and just used air bags for when it's loaded???

 

Truck looks great ....Congrats on getting it back on the road. If you dig through my build thread you can see what I did to combat the cowl cracks.....I used that heavy flexible metal banding with holes in it every inch or so, easy to conform to the contours and then lots of areas to spot weld....I think it worked out really well.

Post # 486....

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...305923/page33/

 

I read threw most of that post a few years ago, I try to lurk and not post too much gibberish. I honestly forgot all about mine being cracked and that horrible popping noise, and now that it's painted and all together i'm bashing myself for not fixing it before I sent it for paint! Can you pull the fenders to access that without having to remove the core support??

 

Your bumper looks like a Warn Enforcer facebar with custom ends and top plates. Original bumpers came with black plastic end caps and black steel diamond plate top plates. They were only available for a few years in the 90's. Your pic gives me a few ideas on how to make new end caps to replace the cracked ones on mine. And the fenders can be removed separately from the core support.