Last spring I went on a road trip to meet a guy with some old Mopar iron. Old Mopars thread with pics.
I finally scraped up enough money to buy the '46 from him and picked it up today.
The plan is to put the body on a Dakota chassis and have a stylin' daily driver on the cheap.
Reality is I'll probably get it into 100 pieces in my shop and it will be boating season... then I'll lose interest.
This will not be a rat rod! Ugh! I cannot stress that enough.
We need a new name for the "complete older body (primered or patina'd) on newer chassis". Maybe Rusto-mod?

Rusto-mod....i like it.

I have a 70 short box frame just sitting here waiting for something like that to show up near me. Problem is, when they show up, I don't have any money, and when I do have a few cents to deal with, I can't find anything. Someday it might come together. Rusto-mod? what ever happened to "project"? Gene

those trucks are the coolest..good luck with it!

I have a 41 dodge/dakota project also...just need to get on with the build. Mile will get painted...the previous owner started sanding and priming)

Not all "rats" have spider webs, skull, maltese crosses on them.

Here is my rusty /ratty chevrolet on a s-10 frame. It is a fairly well built truck at rides nice and hauls the mail. It gets plenty of positive responses at car shows and cruise nights.

Along with the '46 I got another front clip. This one has the chrome trim strips on the slots of the lower grille section. Not sure if I'll use them but...I also bought a '42 1/2 ton shortbox basket case last night. It has the holes for the trim strips but no strips. Including the 2-ton dumptruck on a co-worker's "back 40" that I can take parts from I should have enough to build one nice truck and one nice-enough. Unfortunately I've decided to sell my '36 to help move these two projects along. A buddy has been wanting it for a while and I can tack on some shop wiring as part trade from him.

Can somebody show me the frame-to-body mounts on anything similar to this swap? Are you guys re-using the stock ones or making all new ones.
Thanks,
Cheeto

I did about the same thing as flipper when i put the 57 body on the 88 dak frame. The only real difference is that i cut the body mounts off the 57 frame and just rewelded them onto the dak frame where they needed to be.

I should have been more specific. Rattler's version is what I meant. I wasn't sure if the frame widths were the same allowing you to re-use the mounts from the "old" frame on the Dak/S10 frame. I'd still like to see some pics.
Thanks.

Looks like a good project

Whats wrong with rat rods?





Most show car guys hate them because we actually drive them,enjoy them and dont have stupid amounts of $$ in them.

Once you get past the front wheels, a Dakota frame is very straight until the rear axle kickup. The older frame mounts can probably be adapted to a Dakota frame, like stated earlier. Position your cab and front clip on the Dakota frame where you want it, build or modify some brackets to hold the body in the desired position. Its usually easier to adapt the frame part of the mount to fit whatever cab your using. On different projects though the years, I've used rectangle or square tubing, old mounting brackets, heavy angle iron, and custom made parts from 1/8" flat stock. Gene

On top of all the other parts and pieces I mentioned above, I also got a cab/fenders/grille/hood/bumper/running boards from yet another 1.5 ton. I need to stop collecting parts and start building something! A buddy that's into old Jeeps once told me though,"You have to buy stuff when it's available and figure out what to do with it later".