back in those days you could get anything you wanted from mopar, so long as you had the money. i don't recall seeing light blue being offered in 78, but I don't have a 78 truck broushure in front of me either. a truck could have been painted any mopar color for an additional 150 dollars in 78, so long as it was a mopar color.

Looks like a nice truck, would love to see current pics, and light blue doesn't ring a bell.

The light blue was a standard color for that year. Someone asked about whether or not it was a radio delete vehicle, no it came with the AM/FM 8-Track.

Let me tell you a little story about this truck. Roll back the clock to late May, early June 1978. A friend of mine decided he wanted to test drive a Little Red Express so we went down to the local Dodge Dealer. They had a LRT on the lot but the danged thing would not fire. I don't think it had any gas in it.

We were about to leave when the salesman said "Wait, we've got another truck you might be interested in". He then pointed to a light blue short bed with the standard, 15x5.5", white, steel wheels and skinny H78-15 Goodyear Poly Cushion Tires. We scoffed at the notion, it looked like a slant six fleet special. Then he said the magic words, "It has a 440 in it".

Well, that's different. Heck yeah we wanted to see that. The truck had been ordered by the dealer and was equipped with bucket seats and the 15" Tuff wheel. My friend test drove the truck with myself and the salesman.

My friend wasn't really going to buy it, remember he just wanted to drive a LRT. I made note of the truck kept tabs on it.

Back in that time frame, aftermarket stripes were somewhat in. The dealer had the truck, as well as others on the lot striped by a guy who came to the lot. The dealer also installed 15x8.5 ET Turbine mags and a set of 2 1/2 dual exhausts. Sort of a dealer custom job. I noted the truck on the lot in this form before it was sold. I once saw the truck on the street sometime later.

Years passed and I often thought about that truck. I thought it would have been a good one to buy (before the dealer striped it) because of the obvious merits. Last year for the 440, last year for the emissions exemptions for light trucks with a 6100lb gross vehicle weight rating.

In July 1994, I spotted a classified ad in the local paper that read as follows:

DODGE '78 150, 440 eng.,PS,PB, 1 owner, 21K orig. mi., $----, PH------.

Yep, same truck. The truck had been off the road since 1986. I bought it, removed the stripes, all 10 miles of them, and ditched the ET's. There is a little more to the story which involved the seller trying to buy it back but I have wasted enough of your time already. I have owned it for the past 10 years and it has been stored inside for 9 1/2 of those years.

On a side note, the build sheet and sticker both specify the Tuff wheel; however the original owner says it wasn't on the truck when he bought it. My hunch is the dealer took it off and put it on another truck on the lot.

What do you think of those stripes?

Neat story there D14BD8S.

Oh my gosh, what an ugly bunch of stripes, what were they thinking

Yeah, It looked like a hangover!

Now you know why I took them off.

the only reason why i asked if it was a radio delete or not was because of the aftermarket radio antenna. that is a nice old truck, that is typical of what dealers did in the 70's disco era to vehicles to attract more attention to them. once again, sweet truck!!! if you ever want to sell, let me know, it would have a home with other 440 trucks...lol...but that is wishful dreaming..

That is a really nice truck,got to agree with the stripes...YUK! Welcome to the board and let us in on any new updates.Ric

that is a cool story,and a nice truck,,,,,,,the stripes are so 70's,,,,,,,I'm tryin to figure out if those et rims came on se adventurers,I kinda like the look

I will go check them out. i have 76 and 78 for sure with a/c. I am not certain if the 77 has them still on it. if it does, I will PM you so I can get address information to send tracings out to you.

Hey Dyno and other 440 owners.

In the stupid question department what kind of Peformance do you get out of a Mid to Late 70's
SWB with a factory 440?

They appear to be quite the rage and I am curious to known if they had that tire smoking performance of a early 70's muscle car out of the box?

Please advise!
BIGGERRED

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well,,,my 440 is supposedly 87,000 original miles,,untouched,,,,,,and likes to melt the tires off,,,,of course,there's not that much wieght in the back end

it all depends, the other guys don't have the pesky smog stuff to deal with, but the late 70's trucks were under rated horse power wise. These trucks can be made to run like the late 60's earily 70's cars with not too much effort. But keep in mind, these 440's in the trucks were TORQUE MONSTERS, hence the smokin tire action, but hold on to your butt when you have some sticky tires, because they will launch hard and were good for hi 14 second passes with sticky tires through the 1/4 mile with all of the emissions junk that good ol' California put on them, and besides that, some of the 440 trucks look like ordinary trucks that people wouldn't look twice at(of corse not the one's on the fourm though....lol).

JW bout motor mounts are these available for the 440 at liek autozone ......yeah i no it probally sounds like a stupid?

how about us lowly 400 truck guys? are we the red headed step child? lol

well yeah ,just kidding everyone is welcome,big block is big block,as I always said ,there is no truck like a swb bb.

as I say again and correct my self , any BB truck, 150 series is welcome always,440se

besides,dynotune and machoman want to get you in the restristry......

machoman has a registry for the truck, and all trucks from 72-80 are welcome to join.