Rebuilding '90 Dodge

[RMcGuffey]

Hey guys, I need some opinions. I've got a stock 1990 Dodge that is in need of some help. My first question is, How much money is too much money to put into a truck of this age? I'm not talking about engine mods and such. I had a minor fender bender last summer ( at least it was for my truck, not for her car though). I ended up bending up the right corner of the truck pretty good, and I think it may have bent the frame a little. The only bad thing is that really the rest of the truck is starting to rust so basically the whole truck needs body work and paint. This on top of both the front and back windows leaking, both power window motors needing replaced, one power lock motor needs replacing, replace the carpet which was ruined by the leaking windows, etc. Plus , I think the clutch or transmission may be on the way out. As you can see, this isn't going to be cheap. Neither is a new one. The one interesting thing is that my wife keeps bugging to fix it. She loves this truck. So basically I need some motivation to fix it. So I'd like some opinions from people who may have already gone through this. Thanks.

 

[PToombs]

I think you better fix it! It's not too often that a wife tells you to spend money on a truck! The other thing is people are scrapping these trucks every day to build a crew cab ( :{ the nerve of them!) so we have to preserve all we can!

 

[lklauder]

depends on the rust

I acquired a 1990 about 2. 5 years ago and spent about $2,500 getting body work done on it, including having the doors and tail gate stripped so I could take them to a local hot dip galvanizing tank. (Dropping the door frames into molten zink at 800 degrees caused some buckling of the panels but not enough to interfere with the fit or function. ) That has taken care of all my rust problems for the time being. The original owner had it Ziebarted which has helped protect some other areas. It has about 380,000 miles on the clock, runs very nicely (5-speed 2wd D250), and should be good for another 10 years. Only engine repairs have been a new water pump and a couple of voltage regulators.



Lou Klauder

 

[TWilkening]

It all depends on how long you're wanting to keep the truck. I'm kind of in the same situation right now. I have my 93 gasser that is in pretty good shape. While I plan on getting a diesel for the real heavy loads I pull,there are situations it would be good to have a gasser around. My truck is for sale, but I will keep it and not feel bad about it if it doesn't. The body is in pretty good shape. Of course it has some dings and the floor of the bed in caved in some in the rear. The clearcoat's peeling on the hoods and the rear fenderwells are just starting to get rust through them. I have considered fixing these things but I don't know what I'm ging to do for sure. While of course I want it to look nice, it will still be used as a farm pickup.

So I'd say it all depends what you'll do with it and how long you want to keep it.

 

[RMcGuffey]

My parents have a cattle farm, so it will be used on the farm, but it is my daily driver. I don't think I could replace it with anything like it. It's a W250 5-speed. I run B2 soydiesel in it and it gets almost 22 MPG, so I can't complain about that. I guess it's probably going to the shop.

 

[wjpatton]

Sounds like a darned reliable, economical truck! If you don't need to haul anything too heavy or go really fast, you won't find anything else on the market to compete with it. The maintenance bucks over 20 years will most likely be less than a brand new half ton and it's MX requirements over the same time span....

 

[RWherley]

I would keep it, just think new trucks cost more to fix when they brake cause of all the electric crap on them, for example we have an 04 3500 the dropped its injectors at 220,000mi a set of 6 injectors for that truck cost $1600.00 where a set of injectors for my 93 cost $550. for that kind of savings you can do a lot of body work.

 

[dodgesst]

Fella's this is 8 years old

 

[RSchwarzli]

Fella's this is 8 years old

Was just about to say that. And at that point in time it was worth a lot more than now. :-laf