I picked up this 47 Dodge truck cab, hood, nose pieces, and box side a few years ago at a swap meet. The plan was to set it on a modern chassis, do a little sheet metal work, and cruise it. Maybe even open wheel! Quick, cheap, and fun.

The build was put off last year because my wife & I went on our 1st vacation in 20 years.

Towards the end of last year, I collected a couple of Dakotas to be chassis donators. One was a standard cab, long box, the other was an extended cab, short box. Both turned out to be 2wd, V6, 5 speeds. My wife will drive this truck occasionally, so the 5 speed won't work, and I don't want a V6 with an auto in a hot rod, (the V6, 5 speed is just OK) so the search is on for either a 5.2 or a 5.9 Magnum, a Hemi is out of my price range, unless I stumble across a real deal.

The original plan was to do a 2wd, V8, auto, EFI. Most of the affordable drive train donors I'm finding are 4x4. I'm not opposed to the 47 being a 4x4, but then neither chassis I have will work, and finding a v8 auto 4x4 donor at an affordable price looks to be better odds of a full size Ram rather then a Dakota. The Ram is much much bigger then this 47 is, even a Dakota is quite a bit larger. A Durango appears to be another option I've just started looking into. I know 1st gen Dakotas, the rest, not so well.

This is suppose to be a quick and fairly cheap project once I get to start on it, but its growing more complex before I can even begin. I know and understand the OBD1, and I believe I can adapt the OBD2, but when you get past 96 in the full size Rams, the wiring gets pretty complex, pretty quickly and an aftermarket wiring harness would delay the project at least a year.

Then there is the cab size. A 47 cab is pretty small. I did a quick measure against the standard cab of the 91 chassis donor. The 47 is about 8" more narrow at the center of the doors (the front of the doors are 2" per side even more narrow), and the 47 cab is 8" shorter then the Dakota at the center of the cab. The width isn't much of an issue, most the time only 2 of us will be in the truck, the length may be a different story. There are no seats, floors, or steering column, and the doors are screwed shut, so I can't give it a test fit. I suspect the seat back will be pretty upright and against the back of the cab. That's how they were on my 50 and my 54 trucks, and they were bigger then this one is.

I'm a welder by trade, and I do a lot of rust repair, so this morning I thought maybe I could extend the cab. The cab is currently braced (because there are no floors) and I could add a couple more braces and cut across the roof and just behind the doors, and lop off the back of the cab. I could extend the inside braces, and add a section of new sheet metal between the doors and the back of the cab, and make a 47 Dodge extended cab truck. After looking it over pretty good, there really isn't much support holding the back of the cab onto the front (or any other part of the cab, for that matter). Simply extending the cab really doesn't look like a big deal, I'm getting pretty good at forming metal.

This has created another dilemma. If I extend the cab, how much do I add, and do I need to put a quarter window in? I could just add 4" and make the seating a lot more comfortable. If I added 8" or 10" I could have some inside storage behind the cab for those day trips when you need someplace to put a coat or something. If I added 18"-20", I could put a jump seat back there, and maybe someone could ride along, but then, would I want to add at least 1 rear 1/2 door? If I'm adding a door, why not make it long enough to add a full door and make it a crew cab? NO, That won't happen, no crew cab for me. I could do the 8"-10" on the standard cab, long box frame, I believe, more then that would need to go on the extended cab, short box frame.

Here is the deal, both the Dakota donors are sitting in my side yard, both can currently move under their own power, if they are not stuck in a snow bank. If we gets as warm as they are predicting this week, I will be able to move either one onto my driveway. The stripping process will have to be done outside on the driveway, we can get pretty nasty weather in Feb & March around here, but maybe I can get a start on one. I really would like to set the cab on the Dakota frame and get a look at it before I hack up the cab, but I'm leaning towards at least a 6"-8" extension.

The cab is already on the driveway, on a rolling cart. I can roll that in and out of the garage as need be, unless we get snow, then its stuck where ever it is, and it needs to be out of the garage unless I'm working on it, I have 1 work bay. These last 2 months of just enough winter to ruin everything is driving me crazy, I'm ready for spring, I can work outside in 40 degrees (yea, I'm a wimp) if its not raining! The snow we got in Nov is pretty much gone and if it drys up enough, I can move stuff around the yard again. Here is a picture of the cab, the other parts are squirreled away.

What do you guys think? extend the cab? How much? Gene