55 dodge truck using 91 dakota front frame

I've bought a 91 dakota and plan on keeping the back half of the frame on the 55 and mating it to the front half of the dakota. I've removed the bed and have the cab almost ready to pull. Am disassembling the front end. Never took into consideration what a job it would be just to get the bolts out.

If anyone could give me an idea how to get pics off my phone and on this site, i'll start throwin them on here.

First thought was to use the 318 out of the dakota. Now I've run up on a 2007 charger r/t. Wrecked. Hemi with 5 speed auto. $1400. No key so can't hear it run. 200k + miles. Pass side destroyed. Decent interior.

Hopeful to get some pics up, Kevin

Have you seen this, Dakota to '56 car overlap.

55 car and 55 truck frames are very different. Pull the front sheet metal and cab off the 55 and park the two frames side by side, I believe you will have a much better picture of what needs to be done and where the best place to do it.

Can't help you with the phone either, I only talk on my flip phone, nothing else included. I don't even know how to take pictures with it, then then figuring out how to get the pictures back off the phone would be a whole new disaster. Gene

Assuming a Windows machine and an android phone here.

Plug a cable into your phone and the other end into your computer, log onto you phone.

Usually s popup will open and ask you if you want to download your photos or browse the files.

Look for DCIM, that's where the camera phone pictures are hiding.

If that doesn't work tell us where you got to.

Buddy on FBBO has a 52 PU with a Dakota front stub

I plugged in phone to laptop. Nothing.

I got to dcim

On my desk top computer with win 10, I need to go the the pictures section and download the pictures from the attachment on the right side that lists where I want to get the pictures from. After that it brings up all the pictures on the thing I want to get the picture off of, and I can choose individual pictures, or choose all pictures. I usually choose to download all the pictures. Once you have created a file, after that the "download all" will only download the newest pictures. My computer saves them by date.

I hope you get it sorted out, I would like to watch your progress. Gene

I'm tryin. Not much luck but gettin ready to call in the big gun! Got a 3 year old great nephew who i'm sure can figure it out.

Have the 55 down to the frame. (Bought a gantry crane and man it makes it easier.)Pulled dakota in garage and will start stripping it soon. Looking at plasma cutters thinkin I need one for workin on the frames and firewalls??? I hate buyin chinese, but I just cant afford to spend 1500 on one, especially knowing how little i'll use it. Any suggestions? Do I need a plasma cutter for this job?

Built a 8x16 shed(not big enough. I never was interested in school, but I did think I was decent at math...) to store tiller, mower and 4 wheeler and odds and ends. Gives more room in shop. Got the hvac ducts in crawl insulated. Water line to garage expansion in ground.

Been busy.

And can you believe Russ ( dabee ) drove up from Tennessee December 8th, in his 55, and stayed for a couple of hours. Offered all kinds of advice, let me take a boatload of pics of his ride and got to look at a bunch of photos of cars he has built! What a helluva dude! I couldn't believe it. I made a bad mistake and didn't ask for a ride! What an idiot.....

He said he tries to do one project a year. Unbelievable.....

No, they are nice, until you need parts for the imported ones. Mine now sits in the corner broken and I can do most everything with a angle grinder with ZIP cutting wheels, These are the very thin metal cutting discs.

as for cutting discs, i use the dewalt brand only, .055thick with a 7/8" center hole.
they last a long time, a lot longer than any others i have used [and i have tried ALMOST all that are out there over the years], and when they can no longer be used in my 4 1/2" grinders, i made an adapter to fit my air grinders that allow the discs to be completely used up.

one caution though. i do NOT recommend the dewalt discs with the PLASTIC 5/8x11 female thread that directly threads onto your grinder. they have a tendency to spin within the mounting points with just the SLIGHTEST amount of pinch, whereas the basic dewalt discs just chew on through.

just my experience. your mileage will vary.

Thank you! Looks like I will do without the plasma cutter.

T dont think I've mentioned this, but was able to get a 2007 5.7 and auto trans, gas pedal and engine harness off a dodge truck. 106k miles. Gonna get a hotwire harness when Im ready to get the truck runnin.

I bought a plasma cutter years ago, but I ran a welding shop, so I used mine a lot. The 1st one I bought probably 15-18 years ago was a $900 Century brand and it lasted 10 years before the cutting head plastic got broken. The replacement head and whip (the only way to get a head) was over 1/2 the price I paid for the whole unit. Instead of spending the money on a new head & whip I put the money towards a new $1600 unit. The deal with plasma cutters is that whatever they are rated at means they will cut about 1/2 of that thickness pretty quickly, but as you get nearer the rated thickness, they get real slow. One rated at 1/4" cuts 1/8" very well, if its a single thickness with no air gap, but pretty much sucks cutting 1/4" or even sheet metal if there is double thickness with a gap between the two pieces of metal. I worked in my welding shop for 3-4 years before I bought a plasma cutter.

A Dakota frame is about 1/8" thick, unless you happen to be cutting where there is reinforcing and it could be double, or more thick. If your cutting straight lines, a sawzall with an 18 tooth/ inch blade will do a nice job, probably faster then a cutoff wheel. If you don't try to force the sawzall blade, you can get a nice straight cut with them as well. Measure twice, cut once. I usually cut with a little extra material, the clean up the edges with a grinder when I can. Clean edges both inside and outside on both pieces makes for a much better weld.

Good move on the 2007 Hemi with the joining parts and going with a Hot Wire harness. I think you will be happy with it. Gene

Gene, since buying the hemi I'm seeing problems with wiped cam lobes. Supposedly caused by lack of oil getting to cam area while engine runs at rpm's less than, say, 1700. I did notice when this engine was started it ticked for maybe 4 seconds before going away. Any thoughts?


Also, when you cut the frames, did you cut straight down thru frame, or cut down, over and then down again? Stepped it? Stepping it would make for a tough task to match it up......

Kevin

Kevin every frame I have cut to shorten I have stepped. If I’m doing a front clip they usually aren’t stepped because the old frame and the Dakota clip doesn’t match up perfectly. You can see what I’m talking about in the pictures I sent you.
Russ

I am not worthy .... but any chance that the unwashed lowly peasant scum could also see the pictures ?

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Trust me. I,too, am not worthy!

Ray here is the link to my build. You will find all of the pictures there.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...n-a-2005-dakota-chassis.html#Post1313950

I've been a welder for 25 years, I do not step cut a frame I shorten, however, I do weld both the inside and the outside of the frame rail at the joint, and I add a fish plate on the inside of the frame. A fish plate is a diamond shaped piece of metal the same thickness as the frame rail. The Diamond shaped piece is positioned centered over the weld joint, with two points being up and down and the other two points at the center of the frame height. The diamond is fully welded, with the welds all running at about a 45 degree angle. If I have cut a channel shaped frame rail, I will also enclose the back side of the channel, often using the piece I removed, centered at the cut line. This process reduced the chance of creating stress cracks a step cut can create from the corners of the angles.

Step cutting the frame isn't real difficult, it just requires close measurements. You make a vertical cut from the top to about 1/2 the height of the frame, then a horizontal cut of 3" - 4" long, then make the vertical cut from the bottom up to join the horizontal cut. Then you do an identical cut at the distance of the material you are removing. What you need to be careful about is to be sure when you make your intersecting cuts that you don't cut past your lines and create a place for stress cracks to start. Clean up the edges, clamp the material together, and weld the step cut on both sides. Gene

Ok, I've been able to get the pics off my phone and onto the puter. Now from puter to moparts......

The four pics have a framing square laying next to black marks. That is the general area where I'm leaning towards cutting the frame.

Both frames, 55 and 91, are 6 inches tall. There is a 5 1/2 inch difference between the height of frame on 91 where the front cab mount should go after swap and the height of front cab mount on 55. The width of both frames are close, one frame might be able to slide inside the other. What I mean by height diff is measuring from floor up to bottom of frames.

If I'm looking at this right, the back cab mounts on 55 frame are going to stay......

All measurements are tentative. Just trying to get an idea of whats going on. Plan to measure more.

It looks like if I splice the frames straight up even, the front end is going to be low.

Pics of the 5.7 and trans meant for 55, truck before teardown, stages of undress.

Pics of Russ's ride. Bunch more but site says file too big. Would only let me post these. Helluva nice ride and Russ is a great dude. Never had met him before, but he offered to drive 2 1/2 hours up so I could have a look. Pics are in b and w cause I didn't realize I had accidently changed the phone.....