After the truck show I went to see Scott who runs the Sweptline website and forum. He is the man if you ever need parts for your 1961-71 Dodge truck. He also lives like he teaches, the D200 crew with D100 axles in the foreground is what he tools around in!
http://www.sweptline.org/http://www.sweptlineparts.com/
These trucks are so cool, I was drooling as there were a lot of hard to find parts here;
I had a plan for the evening and Scott was not the man to say no. There had been rumours for a long time that the short wheelbase (and wilder) version of the Max Wedge D100 The Dragmaster company built and San Diego Radio personality Dick Boynton raced in the early 60:s, would be somewhere in Texas. Recently a guy had been posting about such a truck on the Sweptline Forum but there were no pics. I had been nuts about these trucks for 30 years and gathered a bunch of info on them as well as having been gathering parts for a replica of the first, longbed, version. So, it is investigation time! We really didn't know what to expect although we gathered that the truck would be somewhat dismantled. Here's a few historical pics of the SWB one from back in the day;
Read more about these and Dragmasters here, scroll down;
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=247089&page=85and here, although the 1967 book gives you the impression that there was only one truck which is wrong;
http://www.sweptline.com/hist/spectrucks.htmlhttp://www.sweptline.com/hist/rtest3.html
Gotta love the "Cowboy-rake" which was so typical for the early 60:s!
This is the longbed version but a very cool Chrysler video;
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IUfNoR7LkIWe were really wound up when we got to right place, would this really be it?? And yes, it was!! How often do you stumble on a real deal B/FX truck?? It is really sad that the truck has been dismantled by apparently someone who didn't have a clue what they were doing (it wasn't the owner) but even so, this was the real deal, no doubt about it! It was all in pieces and the frame had been blasted, luckily the body was not. Doing a bit of washing we found the old lettering still intact (doesn't show too good in this pic)!
The bed with it's special air scoop just beside the cab was further evidence. It looks like the truck simply had the lettering painted over, that was all. You can still see the stripes on the cab roof! I was also wondering about the fact that one member on Moparts remembered this truck being red? Maybe it was when it was last raced, at least the lower part along with the stripes. Both of these trucks changed the lettering and such several times!
The frame was blasted but it clearly showed all the modifications still including the tow tabs...the towbar and the specially made fiberglass hood were gone though...they were stored in an airplane and forgotten in it when it was sold?!! How's that for an unlikely story!?
I have my suspicions that these trucks were actually owned by Chrysler and the high class fiberglass work would support that. How about that slightly broken grille, it is fiberglass too!! Why even bother? And those inner fenders are not broken, they are of fiberglass and made like that for fenderwell headers! The front fenders, radiator support and bumper complete the beautifully made package.
Being my weird self I had to make this shot. After 30 years of looking I am holding the very same door handle Dick Boynton used when going racing in this beast!
Quite an evening! Although there were some unfortunate steps in taking this truck apart there is no doubt that the current owner did the Chrysler community a great favor by hanging on to it for a very long time! We can only hope that a true Chrysler lover will take the time and money to do this truck right at some point. We already made some arrangements with Scott to that direction but it seems uncertain if the current owner will let it go for a reasonable price. Maybe he gets it restored, I don't know? I only hope that there will be high caliber Chrysler experts around when it happens.
I thank Scott for a great time and head towards Houston again, time for one hour of sleep at the motel as it got a bit late again and I had to leave the rig pretty much in the middle of the parking lot, lol. I had bought a 1967 D200 crew Sweptline longbed from Scott a long time ago and had to haul it to the shipper. I actually wanted to get a 1962-64 W200 Power Wagon Sweptline Crew longbed but it being a factory streched special order vehicle I had pretty much given up hope. But as it turns out, there is one out there...don't fail me now Jim!!
BTW, if somebody has an extra set of those huge optional west coast truck mirrors let me know!! From Houston I'm heading to one of Jims stashes in Indiana. Gotta give the man a hand, his friends disappear when the hard work starts
