So I recently picked up a short bed 76' Dodge D150 truck that I was going to swap parts on and resell but found that nobody wants a slant six, 3 speed manual 'smog truck' truck in California so I may end up parting it out. I was wondering if any mopar trucks from the 1930's-1960's would fit on this frame. Drivetrain runs fine, has disc brakes, 8 1/4 rearend, frame mounted gas tank, not a speck of rust and even as 4.5 five lug bolt pattern. I have a few friends with early trucks so I could just give it to them to use instead of sending it to the crusher. If it would fit what mods would be needed?

i'm thinking it may have a too wide of a track width to fit the early trucks ?
just thinking out loud........

Hold on a while. you seem like you're in a hurry to pass it along. Why? How much you trying to get? Someone up north in the road salt belt, is sure to want a rust free truck

Standard cab, short bed or step side bed trucks from about 64 (or maybe 62, I can't remember which year the body style changed) to the 71 model year fit very well. We did 70 sheet metal onto a 78 short bed frame in a weekend. You need to level the "hump" off the top of the frame above the axle (we just cut it level and welded in a 2" wide piece of 1/8" flat bar stock), then the 70 bed bolted to the 78 frame and you need to change the cab mounts on the frame to match up with the older truck cab cab mounts (We cut the cab mounts off the original 70 frame and welded them to the 78 frame after a bit of trimming)..


The 58-63 standard cab, short bed (or step side bed) will also fit, but the width of the 73-93 tire track will put a pretty tight limit on wheel choice, the outer edge of the tires gets pretty close to the fender lips. Those 58-63 bodies are more narrow then the later 60s bodies, but the large wheel opening on the fenders allows more fudge room for tire clearance.

the 54 - 57 trucks have the same body width as the 58 -63, but the front fenders have smaller wheel openings in the fenders and the wider track of the 73-93 tires doesn't fit very well at all.

Trucks older then 54 have a short nose from the firewall to front grill panel, and the wide tire track make the older cabs more of a challenge. You add fender, hood, or firewall modification into the picture. The 39-47 sheet metal (and older) can work without fenders, but the wider tire track is very apparent, and is hard to deal with on the front end.

First,outside of CA that truck can be swapped with any engine.The short wide trucks are desirable especially clean like that in eastern states.If you aren't keeping it,I'd list it for sale as it sits rather than dismantle.Also that looks like a 9-1/4" axle,(12 bolt cover that llooks octagon shaped.The axle tubes also have the step down in diameter toward the outer ends)
RT

I was thinking this would have been a great first vehicle for my son, but no AC and no power steering. That'd make a man out of him, lol.

And no 3 speed......

My first vehicle had all the above, and I was happy to have it..even in southern California. I took my drivers test in it. The look on the tester face was priceless when he opened the door. I scored a 95. And those where they days when you had to parallel park as part of the test.

They don't test you for that anymore? When did this go in effect? When i took my test i drove like i was going to parallel park and the guy said you pass so i didn't even have to show him. Guess he was just looking for the correct positioning of the car.

They test for parallel parking around here, In fact I have an appointment, lol, with my son in a half hour to continue his training on it.

I gave thought to having him learn it on my 51 Plymouth, no power anything, three on the tree, no AC, nothing.

He did pretty good last weekend when he tried it for the first time.

In California, the driving test criteria does not "explicitly include" parallel parking, but does test drivers for their ability to drive in reverse in a straight line for three vehicle lengths while within three feet of the curb. Most DMVs don't test on it. To many people failed.

thanks guys, ended up trading the truck to a friend.

That truck would pull at least $8500 around here. Crush it???

No parallel parking test or three-point turn in Maryland since 2015 IIRC.