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This will be a slow burn for a little bit, I’m clearing out space for it now. Pictures that made me put my deposit down even though it was non-running and 600 miles away.    These are semi rare, dodge was in the “let’s do whatever is wild” phase and they contracted American Sunroof Company to take a certain amount of dakotas from the assembly line, chop the roofs off and send them back. Lots of ASC cars were sold under different names but these came back and were sold through dodge dealers. This one is a 3.9 V6 which is the old 318/5.2 that served dodge forever with two cylinders cut off. They are good little engines and actually work in trucks pretty well. This is an automatic 2 wheel drive sport model which is what the majority of the 2800 built were. It is completely rust free which is what most of the draw for me was, it does show 232,000 miles on the odometer and plenty of North Carolina sun fade so it’s going to need a lot of work thrown at it. My brother and I picked a weekend last fall and drove out and brought it back in a straight through straight back cannonball style drive. |
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Last Edit: Jul 30, 2021 2:15:21 GMT by chandlergti: Wrong pics
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Nice.
The roof job I can skip, but unusual and semi rare is my cuppa tea.
Looking forward to what you get done with this one.
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LAndy
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,061
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Jul 30, 2021 12:25:22 GMT
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This is cool, never seen or heard about these before!
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Previous retros: 92 AX GTi 92 Scirocco Scala 94 80 sport 87 Golf Cab GTi Current retro: 1965 Clark Cortez YouTube Website Instagram |
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Jul 30, 2021 15:34:11 GMT
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Curious. Seen plenty of this age Dakotas still buzzing about. Never seen a ragtop.
Quaint!
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Jul 30, 2021 15:45:00 GMT
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Jul 31, 2021 17:10:04 GMT
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Pulled it up by the house, had to make space in the barn for the coupe and some other weirdness.     Pulled the sidesteps and bug shield for a guy who wants them for HiS convertible(he has 2). When it’s slammed the sidesteps will not work. About a year ago Belltech had a sale on their suspension kits so knowing that I would do another early Dakota I bought an entire 4/4 kit sticking it on the shelf. So I have pulled those boxes down and am digging through them now to make sure it’s all there. |
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Jul 31, 2021 18:14:53 GMT
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Looks a bit better without the steps  Have a guy coming I think to buy the coupe which would be awesome since I have my eye on an e82  |
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Engine is locked up tight, it did sit under a carport since 2003 so that’s not surprising. I dripped some MMO in each cylinder and will rock it tomorrow.
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Of course my hope is that the force be with you, amd that it does come unstuck easily enough.
If not, you know you can handle it.
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brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,339 
Club RR Member Number: 72
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1989 Dodge Dakota Vertbrachunky
@brachunky
Club Retro Rides Member 72
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This has epic all over over it! Funny seeing this post as it was just last night I watched the Bitchin Rides episode on the C10 with a fold away hard top roof. Two truck convertables in 12 hours  |
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The original magazine write ups all said that no American roadster truck had been built since the ‘30’s. It didn’t sell well in the 80’s either. Chevy tried it with the SSR in the 00’s and those didn’t sell well either. I don’t think the market is very big for a convertible pickup. Interesting that Bob Lutz was the top guy for the Dakota Vert AND the SSR. I’m working on the road this week so won’t be home til Friday and will tuck back into it then.  |
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Aug 14, 2021 23:17:59 GMT
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No recent progress because I found the right E82   It’s home and has been gone through so maybe I’ll GET to the Dakota. |
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Sept 6, 2021 18:37:41 GMT
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After oiling the cylinders and trying to turn it over on the crank for a couple weeks (I’m not home every day) I kinda decided it’s getting a V8 when Friday I gave it a pill and it resisted then turned over. Awesome. I pulled the fuse for the fuel and tried to crank it on the key but no joy. The starter is not cooperating, I gave it a couple love taps but still no dice. We do have power at the starter though so I’ve got that going for me. Spent the weekend on the road collecting another pile of junk  and ran power from the house to the barn today  so I’ve not had time to get back to it. Holiday today in the US and back on the road tomorrow. |
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Missed this for awhile; I got covid and was down for a month pneumonia and all that good stuff. Then catching back up at work and being redistributed from Northern Ohio and Michigan to New York, New Jersey , Pennsylvania and NW Ohio. Went from my furthest shop being four hours to my closest shop being three hours and the furthest being 13 if I drive. I’m maybe back to where I can mess with it. Turned it around in the garage so I can work on it with the door closed (28 degrees this morning) and found the starter cable was broken. That explains it not turning over on the key right?  |
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Dec 20, 2021 22:00:08 GMT
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Took the bed off a few weeks ago, the floor is sooo clean. Frame has some scale but can’t find any weak spots.    Built this little cart to roll the bed out of the way so pushed it out into the barn.  And found where the possum I chased out of the garage was trying to spend the winter, clever thing.  Some more has been done but it’ll be a bit till I post it. |
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Apr 25, 2022 15:17:05 GMT
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I got stuck on a number of other projects so the Dakota has been shoved aside over and over; e36 that hadn’t seen the sun in ten years  Went through it and it’s now a daily for my brother. Found another e36 vert with hardtop and pulled it home. It had sat for years as well and is a bit crusty underneath.  It had a fuel leak which I fixed, haven’t put plates on it so it’s sitting in the warehouse for now. Bought another Lotus for parts   Don’t look at the nose on the other side! It caught fire in 1988 and the guy shoved it in his garage and forgot about it. Not sure it was worth the $500.  Picked up a Honda Insight, only screwed with it enough to figure out the clutch safety switch is failed.  Also, swapped out my truck for a new one - this was ordered last MAY!  And a lady on her phone totaled my e82 at a stop light. Dang it, finding a minty one was such a pain!  Poor Dakota is sitting here waiting waiting waiting  |
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Apr 25, 2022 15:49:51 GMT
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How is that totaled please?
It looks a small(ISH) hit.
Have you a photo of the truck topless.....
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Apr 25, 2022 15:53:22 GMT
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Lotus wheels are super cool. I love them, and after rmad had his Cressida on them years ago, I always wanted a reason to own and run a set. |
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Apr 25, 2022 16:32:17 GMT
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How is that totaled please? It looks a small(ISH) hit. Have you a photo of the truck topless..... No, I agree. You can see the fender is wrinkled above the wheel and the floor of the trunk is pretty bad. My friend in The insurance business over here said that they are totaling close $ amount since there is still a huge backlog of rebuilds sitting at body shops. I won on this by $3k or so so I’m washing my hands even though that would be an amazing track car. Didn’t mention my 16 y.o. Daughter was driving at the time; I was teaching her to drive a manual. Quite the driving lesson. And a pic of smut just for you   |
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