new member (intro) with a new toy

[1971D300]

Been reading the Sweptline forum off and on for a while now but didn't subscribe till now due to a truck I just bought. I have been a Mopar fan for almost 30 years. My first Dodge was a 400 Magnum powered 1972 Charger that I bought from my dad after he blew up the engine when I was in high school. Had to part with that car when I joined the military over 20 years ago. Later on I acquired a 1971 340/4 speed powered Challenger when I was stationed in California. Had to sell it when the Air Force gave me orders for an overseas assignment. Have also owned several other Mopars over the years, everything from turbo 2.2 Daytonas to 440 powered Ramchargers and CT800 dumptrucks.

Anyhow, on to my new toy and the reason I just joined the forum. It's a 1971 D300. Overall it's pretty solid with the worst rust being in the front of the hood and the lip across the front of the cab just above the windshield. The original 383 is long gone and the current engine is a 318. The wheelbase is 131 inches. Don't know where the bed came from. I think the truck was originally a flatbed dually (the rims stick way out from the brake drums on the Dana 70 rear axle which is why I think it was a dually in the past). The bed that is on it now has about a 4 inch gap between it and the cab. At the moment there is a headache rack that's bolted to the frame filling up most of the gap. The bed does not rest directly on the frame. There is about a 4 inch tall I beam in between the two to raise the bed up so it lines up better with the higher cab on D300's. Current tires are 35 inchers but I don't know if the suspension (leaf springs front and rear) is stock or has been lifted. She's not running at the moment. The person I bought the truck from claimed he parked the vehicle a while ago due to the engine not wanting to idle properly and thinks it's a plugged up carb issue but never got around to fixing it. I plan on pulling the carb off and rebuilding it along with pulling the tank and flushing it out. While I'm at it I will be replacing all the rubber fuel lines.

As far as future plans I am looking in to a few different things.

1.) Engine - at the moment I'm not sure which way I want to go on this. Since the 383 she came with is AWOL I'm toying with 2 different options. Option 1 would be to put a 440 crank in a 400 block and doing the engine up to look like it's original 383. The second option would be to go with a newer 360 Magnum with EFI. I have a background in electronics so FI does not scare me.

2.) The gap between the bed and the cab - don't know whether I want to keep it as a regular pickup and move both the rear axle and bed forward so the body flows from the cab to the bed like it should or leave the rear axle alone and put a flatbed on the back along with a proper set of dual tires.

3.) Transmission - upgrade or leave alone. If I go with the 400/440 setup I will need a new bellhousing to begin with. I found a company selling a big block bellhousing that will work with both the current NP435 and an NV4500. Don't know if it will work with a larger clutch/flywheel for a truck though. If I go with the 360 Magnum option I could at least keep the current bellhousing (would just need to notch the bellhousing in order to fit the crank sensor). The current clutch linkage is mechanical so I might go all the way and modify the firewall to fit in a hydraulic clutch. Then I could upgrade to a 360/NV4500 setup with a hydraulic clutch at the same time.

The list will grow as time goes on and will be asking a lot of questions in the technical sections over the coming weeks. And since I know many on here just have to have pictures here's a few. Enjoy.

[CSS-Registry]

welcome aboard!

neat machine you have there.

Ben

[71mopardude]

Welcome aboard !!! from a fellow newbie . BTW the ride looks great nice and clean looking

[wally426ci]

That truck is Bitchin.

You also have the option of putting a Utiline Bed on it

W300.jpg

[1971D300]

Thanks guys.

You also have the option of putting a Utiline Bed on it

W300.jpg

How does the length of the Utiline bed compare to what I have now? Is it the same distance from the front of the bed to the wheel opening or is it longer? If it's longer and would bolt on while getting rid of the large gap I have between the cab and bed that would be great. Wouldn't mind the Utiline bed either since I'm prior Air Force and have been toying with the idea of painting it Strata Blue with Air Force markings.

And thanks for posting that picture. That's one sweet looking truck. I think I need a new keyboard due to drooling too much over that pic.

[wally426ci]

We'll have to check with the bed experts. There are 2 lengths of beds, I would be yours came with one as pictured. a 9' i think.

[Russ]

Nice truck, welcome aboard. I might be mistaken but I don't think 300's ever came factory with a wide bed. It appears that someone replaced the nine foot factory bed with an eight foot Sweptline bed. I like it and if it were mine I'd do what ever I had to do to make it fit up closer and keep the wide bed. The other options would be to find a factory nine foot bed or go the flat bed route like you mentioned.

[mopardwh]

I agree with Russ, you're truck came as a cab and chassis/flat bed/ or possibly the 9' ute. I prefer the wide bed also, so I would probably keep the bed and close the gap. Cool truck, to the forum!

[jeffz]

I'd get outta the way if I saw that in my 6-o-clock!

[backwoods]

What a mean looking truck, I love it. Welcome to the site.....

[AZ69dartGT]

Sweet truck! Looks like the perfect candidate for a cummins. Take a look at 4bt.com they're pretty common in bread vans and are picked up for cheap and will do just as much as the 6bt.

[MountainMoparRobin]

mileage and torque wise can't beat the desel

[surfnuke9]

" I found a company selling a big block bellhousing that will work with both the current NP435 and an NV4500. "

What company would that be?

I agree with those who recommended keeping the wide bed. Looks great on your truck.

[wally426ci]

"

I agree with those who recommended keeping the wide bed. Looks great on your truck.

Agreed, you may be able to get creative and weld some sheet metal to close the gap from the side view.....

Alot easier than changing the wheel base.

[soopernaut]

Agreed, you may be able to get creative and weld some sheet metal to close the gap from the side view.....

Alot easier than changing the wheel base.

Keep in mind a 300 series truck has a flat frame and you can just move the axle forward and cut off the back of the frame.

There was a 9 foot Utiline bed available on the 300 series trucks but your truck might not have come with one. Look on the VIN plate for the wheelbase of your truck. If it says 133 and hasn't been altered a 9 foot bed should fit. The next step would be locating a 9 foot bed.

[mopardwh]

Agreed, you may be able to get creative and weld some sheet metal to close the gap from the side view.....

Alot easier than changing the wheel base.

Keep in mind a 300 series truck has a flat frame and you can just move the axle forward and cut off the back of the frame.

Yeah but you'll have to cut down the driveshaft and cut off the end of the frame and redrill the bumper mounting holes also. Probably still easier than fabricating the bed to be longer though.

[712edf]

Utiline beds came in three lenghts, the longest (9ft) being for the 133"WB W300. Sweptline beds came in two lenghts, the longest being for the 128"WB D100,D200,W200 & is equal to the middle sized Utliline bed (8ft). This explains the 5" gap behind your cab. But that's been addressed already, as has the straight frame. Other than ootching the bed forward an inch or so if possible, I'd leave it alone.

Bucky

[1971D300]

AZ69dartGT: If I went the diesel route would most likley go for a Cummins from an early 90's Dodge truck. That or a DD 6V53 just to be different (hey, it's a 318 ain't it?).

MountainMoparRobin: You're right, you can't. But since I don't plan on driving the truck 20,000 miles a year it would take a long time before the diesel would pay for itself. So for the mean time I will keep with a gas engine.

surfnuke9: Lakewood. One of the web pages I found for them showed two different models for big block bellhousings. In the specs for one of them it stated it worked with several different transmissions, two of them being the NP435 and the NV4500.

Agreed, you may be able to get creative and weld some sheet metal to close the gap from the side view.....

Alot easier than changing the wheel base.

Keep in mind a 300 series truck has a flat frame and you can just move the axle forward and cut off the back of the frame.

There was a 9 foot Utiline bed available on the 300 series trucks but your truck might not have come with one. Look on the VIN plate for the wheelbase of your truck. If it says 133 and hasn't been altered a 9 foot bed should fit. The next step would be locating a 9 foot bed.

The last couple days I've been thinking about the bed issue. The current bed is in pretty good shape and since I know if I ever came across a 9 foot bed Utiline bed in decent shape it would go for more then I could afford. So the current option right now is to work with what I have, but do I cut the frame down and move the rear suspension forward or do I go through all the trouble of stretching the bed itself to fit up against the back of the cab better? Since I had already looked at the rear of the frame around the rear suspension I knew the frame was at it's stock length due to the location of where the frame rail size decreased in height just before the rear axle. Since the one ton trucks are not as common as the half and three quarter ton versions part of me didn't want to butcher a good one ton frame just for an 8 foot bed. So it looked like I would have to bite the bullet and stretch the bed to fit the frame instead.

Well, something came up today when I was working on it that has changed all that. The last time I worked on the truck I measured the wheelbase at something like 132 inches but at the time it didn't dawn on me to see if that matched with the data on the data plate till today. I finally had the time to drive out to my parent's house this afternoon (which is about 30 miles away from the base) to work on the truck. I live in military housing and can not have a non running vehicle in the driveway so I had to park it some place else while I rebuild the carb and flush the tank out.

Anyhow, what I noticed was the data plate said the truck had a 159 inch wheelbase and should not be 132. At this point I had to kick myself in the backside as I never even took a look at the frame rail to see if I could make out any of the numbers stamped in to it. Most of the time the numbers are too badly covered up with paint you can't see them so I never bothered. When I did look I felt like I needed to go shoot myself. The numbers were clear as day as someone had already sanded down the area. What I saw on the frame was D31BE?S1002XX. There's a hole drilled in the frame where the 6th digit should be and judging by the last 6 digits it should be a 0 (i.e. the chassis is a 1970 model). The problem is the VIN on the data plate is D31BJ1S33XXXX. Guess that explains why the wheelbase of the truck doesn't match with the info on the data plate. My new toy is more of a pile of misc. parts then I thought. Not only does the truck have a 318 in it instead of the original 383 it also has a different frame. So much for wanting to keep the truck as close to stock as possible. So now my plans are to move the bed and rear axle forward.

Thanks for the feedback and comments everyone.

[1971D300]

Utiline beds came in three lenghts, the longest (9ft) being for the 133"WB W300. Sweptline beds came in two lenghts, the longest being for the 128"WB D100,D200,W200 & is equal to the middle sized Utliline bed (8ft). This explains the 5" gap behind your cab. But that's been addressed already, as has the straight frame. Other than ootching the bed forward an inch or so if possible, I'd leave it alone.

Bucky

Thanks for the info.

My problem is to me the gap that is between the bed and the cab ruins the lines of the truck. If it had an 8 foot Utiline bed I wouldn't mind it but it just looks too out of place due to the Sweptline bed. If someone knows of an 8 or 9 foot Utiline bed in good shape that's relatively cheap and close to Florida please let me know. Otherwise I will just go ahead and move the rear axle and bed forward to get rid of the gap.

[Yellow71]

With a WB of 159"...

didn't this truck come as a chassis truck to be outfitted with a flatbed or a box, or maybe a dump or some other type of equipment...

Certainly not a Ute...as according to the 1971 sales brochure...a D300 Ute was 133" WB only.

It has a swepty bed of a 128" WB and still has a gap between the cab and bed...

but if this was a 159' WB chassis...then the chassis almost has to have been shortened...

BUT...

Did they shorten it correctly to meet 133" WB specs...

Maybe a 133" Ute bed will not fit right either?

Other than the gap...I really like the looks of this truck.

What is easier...

modifying the chassis...or modifying the bed? I don't know???