I rescued this ‘87 square body from a friend’s junk pile. It was a four-door, long bed, dually, four-wheel drive when I started. I tore it all the way apart. I cut the frame cross members out and made it six inches wider so that it would sit on Ford axles.
Then I shortened it 12 inches so I could put a short bed on. Since I had to cut and move all the cab mounts anyway, that gave me the chance to lift them up three inches. One of my friends did a bunch of body work on it then painted it Silver Moon.
I bought the truck without an engine. I bought a ‘96 Dodge and the real fun began. There is lots of room under the hood so fitting it wasn't really a problem. The engine is still stock though I want to change governor springs and put a tuned aneroid on. I built a bumper for the front, traction bars, and a 40-gallon fuel tank.
We had to build all the mounts for the shock absorbers and sway bars. Then we coated the whole frame with POR 15. It rolls on 17-inch Mickey Thompson Classic Threes with Toyo Wild Country tires. All the lighting is LED and only some of it is actually DOT-approved. Inside it has power leather bucket seats and all-new carpet.
We built our own dash and installed Isspro Gauges. Also it has a big truck style
shifter that oncoming traffic can see. The old truck Cummins combo tends to be rather loud ... but $1,500 worth of Dynamat totally changed that. That stuff works. I worked on this truck as a weekend project for almost three years now.