1965/67 W200 Powerwagon firetruck

[Atmobil]

One early Saturday morning in Januray I came across advert on finn.no (norwegian site for advertising things for sale, similar to craigslist) for a 1967 Dodge W200 powerwagon firetruck. It was only 2,5 hours drive away from my home. I rang up the seller but was too late, someone else had already said they where going to buy it. I kicked myself for calling to late

But I have not forgotten about it, I noted down the registration number and have regulary checked on to see when it was sold. But it never got sold, and today I happened to be in that area on a work trip. I decided it was time to visit the seller. He was not home but the W200 was still there.
I called him and talked to him by phone and now it looks like I am going to buy this truck.
I took some photos with my mobile, not the best of shots as the weather was nasty and I was freezing and shaking all over.














These pictures the seller sent me by email earlier, in January







Iamgine that, 3 years ago I travelled around the globe to by a Dodge truck and now I might by this that is just 2,5 hours away from me.
Not 100% what to do with it yet but I think it is really cool that it is a 4x4 W200 and a Power Wagon. Now I need to study what that actually means
It is a 318 poly, just like my D100 and four speed manual (I'm guessing NP435?)

Strangely enough the truck is registered as a Fargo and modelyear 1967 but the VIN is: 2281514137 and that says it is a 1965 truck (I can also tell that by things like the doorhandles) and the badges all read Dodge.

Note also that it is registered for 5 people. I can take the family on trips in this


So what makes a truck a Fargo and not a Dodge? I thought Fargo was for the Canadian market but was it also for other export markets?
How can you tell that it is a Fargo or a Dodge?

[soopernaut]

That thing is pretty neat.

All the badges say "Dodge", so unless they've been changed, I'd say it is a Dodge. Fargo was used in other areas of the world besides Canada. Look at the data plate to be sure.

W200 means it is a 4 wheel drive 3/4 ton truck. Power Wagon was a name used on Dodge/Fargo 4 wheel drive trucks.

[Conrad]

Very cool truck and amazingly good condition. I guess as work trucks they were pretty well taken care of until they stopped being used.

Best of luck - looking forward to the extraction!

[Atmobil]

Thanks guys, it will take a few weeks untill the weather clears up enough that I can go ahead and get it home. I'm not driving that thing on ancient crossplys in the conditions we got right now.
Firetruck are usully in very good condition and this one was probably also very nice untill the firedepartment sold it in 2001. It has since been on a farm and has probably been sitting much of the time outside in a coastal climate.

Take a look at this W300 Power wagon that was sold last year:
https://www.finn.no/car/used/ad.html?finnkode=91962166

It was sold for 41 000 kroner (about 5000$ US)

[PowerMan]

That is a unique truck!! Would be cool to bring one back to the states.

[Kaegi]

doesnt look that bad for rust. I bet it runs great!

[Atmobil]

That is a unique truck!! Would be cool to bring one back to the states.

Now that is an idea, afterall I took my D100 from the states so maybe I should export one back to keep the balance right

doesnt look that bad for rust. I bet it runs great!

It does have quite a bit of rust on it, the rockers and the bottom of the doors are rusty and the hood is a complete loss as the upper skin is only barely holding on to the structure underneath.

But it is mine now and this saturday I went there with one of my buddies to try to get it back.
It would not start, we changed the plugs and plugwires and then got it running but it ran very rough and the valves where ticking so we decided we wanted to try and adjust the lash.
Did that (outside in rain/snow and wind and temperatures just above freezing) and it was running more smoothly but not for long. It would not idle and started spluttering and back firing after a few minutes. We continued trough the day and in to the evening. Replaced the carb and distributor aswell but we never got it to run well and the rain went into more and more snow and it was laying on the ground so at around 7 in the evening we decided that it was enough. On the way back the snow was now about 4-5 inches deep on the road that had been clear earlier in the day. On crossplys that is most likley the ones it had when it was new that would have been a scary drive.
So for now, it stays where it is. But I want to get it home soon and I'm hoping for better weather the fourthcoming weekend.

So, a few not so good pictures taken during the work.

[Kaegi]

too bad about the rust. but anything is fixable with some tools. I am getting pretty good at doing floors in these trucks. done 4 now I think. the way you describe the running sounds like it sat for years. I would pour marvel mystery oil or automatic transmission fluid into the cylinders and let it sit a couple weeks. also pour a quart or two into the crank case when you change the oil and run that as you get it running right with dwell and timing. maybe run for 1000 miles with the tranny fluid or mmO in the case. it really brings them back to smoke free life.

[PwrWgnDrvr]

old gas?

[Wildergarten]

Now THAT is intrepid mechanical work.

[Atmobil]

Third time is the charm, I went togheter with a colleague of mine on april 7th. We worked on it for a number of hours but did not get it to run. We had to return home but I took quite a number of pictures of it that day:































As you can see, the conversion work that was done to this is quite good. They have used a complete cab and from what I can find they have just removed the rear-window section and kept the original roof and lower part of the rear cab wall. It is also not as rusty as one would first suspect. The hood bad and the firewall is rusty where the hoodhinges are attached. The rockers are gone but the cab mounts look to be ok.

April 15th and we had another go. Left home at about 8 in the morning and got where the truck was at about 11. Started working on it, replaced the coil and the resistor but still no start. A friend of my colleague lives in the area and cam to help us. We decided it was best to tow it to his place since he had a garage full of tools and parts:



Many hours of work and many attempts at starting it followed. We tried replacing the carb, the plugs, the plugleads, the coil (again), the ignition points, the condenser, the carb and we tried to bypass the fuelpump and the gas tank with an electric fuelpump (hooked up directly to the battery) with fuel hoses going from a gascan on the "frontbumper" and nothing worked. We tried to tow it and see if it would start while under towing ut no-go.
The vary last thing we tried was to replace the distributor it self, we installed the one that came in my D100 that was broken and had been fixed by welding the plate that holds the points in place and making the wacuum pump unusable (so I had removed it and made a coverplate for the hole from a Mercedes doorskin). This one worked just fine in the D100 and now in the W200 the engine fired up right away .
We let it run for a bit and then stopped it and tried to fire it again and it fired right up. We went inside for some dinner and then tried to fire it up again after about 30-40 minutes. It fired right up yet again so now we decided it was time to drive it home (this was about 8.30 in the evening). We shut the hood for the last time and the hood hinge on the passenger side decided it was time to give up (it had rusted loose from the inside of the hood) and shot up like a canon. We got a strap and strapped the hood down, drove to the nearest gasstation and filled up the tank (the lady behind the counter commented that she thought it was a charming looking truck). We drove trough the night. It was getting cold and it got very dark but it ran just fine.
We got on the ferry at about 10.30 and I was home at just before midnight.

Here it is on the ferry.

So, I have had it home for a couple of days now. Driven it a bit more and it looks like it all works just fine. It has some leaks here and there and it will need work but from the documentation inside it it looks like the 15 000km (just under 10 000miles) is correct.
But at the moment I can not get it in to my garage, it is to tall. I will have to remvoe the ladderrack and lights in the roof to be able to drive it inside.
Here is some chassispics:













And here it is parked outside my garage last night.

[Wildergarten]

I wish there was a reasonable way to take up a parts collection and ship it, particularly bits of sheet metal. Somebody has to have a decent hood for you.

Awesome job and great photographs. Thank you.

[Atmobil]

Thanks, yes it does need some bigger sheetmetalparts. The hood would be the biggest part needed.

I am actually thinking that I may need to buy another truck from the US as I want a 4x4 pickup and I could have wanted to convert the firetruck into a sort of panelvan and getting it lower and as a 2wd would be great.
If I'm going for that route then I would need a D200 as a donor.

Whatever happens, I'm going to remove the ladder rack on the roof and the 500 litre watertank in the back. I'm not keeping the hose-reel either as the hose is so perrished that it turns in to small bits of when handled (well, the reel itself could maybe come in handy for other things later). The pump at the front is maybe working but all the levers are rusted solid and it will probably need some sort of overhauling. I'm guessing that it also adds quite a bit of weight up there at the front. I don't need it, so I think I want to remove it. It can make a great van or maybe a sort of camper.
On Monday, when we where working on it, the guy that towed us to his house sent a picture of it to a friend and he came up with the answer "does he want another one?"
Tunrs out he has a W300 similar to the one I posted further up here
But, I don't have the money for any of that right now. Not that much more space either.

[Hobcobble]

The front axle is the large knuckle HD Dana 44 If you could
somehow get a donor truck with a decent cab and box shipped over... you'd
have quite a decent rig. I commend you for getting it fired up, down
the road, on the ferry and to your house. I would have done something like
that ..... about 40 years ago when I was a bit more adventurous.... Good job.

John

[oldodger]

Great adventure story!

[Atmobil]

Thanks guys.
No updates on any of my trucks since the last one on this as the nice weather we had turned in to winter again and we also had a death in the family and that disrupted my plans on working on the trucks last weekend.
Anyone know if 8-lug rims from a Chevy van will fit on to this?
I can get my hands on a set of 16" chevy van wheels with smaller dimater tires on and I'm thinking that if they fit I could maybe get the firetruck in the garage without taking off the ladder-rack.

[soopernaut]

Anyone know if 8-lug rims from a Chevy van will fit on to this?
I can get my hands on a set of 16" chevy van wheels with smaller dimater tires on and I'm thinking that if they fit I could maybe get the firetruck in the garage without taking off the ladder-rack.

I don't know if the van you have access to is the same as a USA van or even the year. Any 60s-80s 3/4 ton vehicle probably has the same wheel lug pattern but the center hole may be a different size.

[Hobcobble]

I do know that Chevy wheels have a smaller hub hole than Dodge wheels.
I'm not positive every one over the years is this way though.

John

[PwrWgnDrvr]

U can make the center hole bigger with a torch!

[Atmobil]

Thanks for the info guys. I have no idea what year van the wheels are from, only thing I know is that they came off a chevy van (most likley a Starcraft conversion van as they where very popular here some 20-25 years ago) as the van is gone to the rusty heaven like most of them have a long time ago.
We will see what I end up doing, maybe some other 8-lug wheels will turn up somewhere aswell.