|
‘Project 6 pack’ 1980 Dodge D-50
Jonn Farr
Project 6 Pack
I am known to most as Jahfar and I have been in the minitruckin scene for over 15 years. Over time things changed and friends come and go and years ago I stumbled upon the this old Dodge in Northern Indiana getting a new motor. I hadn’t thought about the truck for many years and didn’t think much of it then more time passed. I was 2 weeks away from leaving for El Salvador for my yearly Habitat for Humanity build trip and that silly truck popped into my mind. I made some calls and tracked down the current owner and was told it wasn’t for sale. A couple of days passed and he called back and said he would sell it but it had to happen that day. I borrowed a trailer and headed that way, when I got there the truck looked just as I remembered on the outside. We loaded it up and I headed for home, I got about a half mile and started to slow down to check the straps when I noticed the headlights of the truck getting further away from me. I tried to ease into the brakes and locked the trailer up and had to ride it out. I heard a thud then a dragging noise and saw the truck in my left side view mirror off the trailer dart across the road and back across the road in my rearview it ended up back on the right side of the road in somebody’s front yard! Well it wasn’t terminal but it wasn’t good. The front bumper, tailgate, lower bedsides and front lower bedsides were all mangled. Since it didn’t run I had to call the dude to come help me put it back on the trailer, I made it the rest of the way back to Indy without incident.
Once I got it home and in the garage I started looking at the motor conversion, boy was it a mess. I decided to cut everything from the doors forward off and start again. Anything that this shop touched I cut out and we remade in my garage. The motor was a 1996 LT1 with a 4L60 (I think) transmission. I did a little research and figured out you could remove the optispark and a distributor a new intake a carburetor and bolt a turbo 350 to it and you were good to go. Next we tackled the rear I cut off all the old juice and ordered up 2 4 link kits from the Gauge store. We dialed it all in and worked out some kinks in my garage and the frame was mostly done. Next I enlisted my boys Derrick Leaf and Dave Elza to help ramp up the build so we could make it to SEMA. We fabbed everything together in the garage new firewall, floors, body mounts, redid the body drop to get for it to lay body, fixed all the mangled sheet metal, shaved the doors and got all the mechanicals sorted out. Once that was done we rolled it around my neighborhood for about a week to make sure everything was working good and not binding up. We then stripped the truck down to the bare frame and spent the next weeks blending the frame smooth before it went off to get powder coated at Indy Powder coating. While the frame was away both of the rear ends were sent off to be rebuilt and stuffed with 3’11” gears. When they returned we painted them and the motor black in the garage. After it was back together it went off to Main Street Body werks for round 1 of the body work. They roughed in all the body work and primed and blocked it 2 or 3 times. Off it went to John Arnold in Louisville to get the start of the Kicker stereo. We drove to Louisville a lot for 3 weeks to help with stereo and I picked it up after that It went straight to Main street body werks in Speedway IN where Bob McClure and Derrick Leaf burned the midnight oil with Dave, myself and others helping out at well. The hood was welded shut; we relocated everything we need to get to within easy reach of the hole from the air cleaner before we did so simmer down. The speaker box, front bumper and center console were finished and all the other body work was finished. All the SEMA goodies started showing up about this time albeit later than promised and some never came but o well. We rolled it into the booth and the boys put some work in, while this was going on I took the powdercoated Bud Light kegs to Trent’s in Ohio for the Gator treatment. Everything was coming together and it looked like we were going to make it on time to leave for Vegas. The base color went down and the flames and Tikis went next all was well.. A couple of days of sanding and buffing and final assemble of stereo and we were done. We drove it into the trailer and hit the road for Vegas and got there without incident all went well at SEMA and Project 6 pack is finished for now
1980 Dodge D50 “Project 6 Pack”
Wheels: Lorenzo WL21 Super Lips 20 X 8.5 with painted spokes wrapped in Hankook Ventus V4ES 225 30 20 tires. Spokes painted by Derrick Leaf
Front Suspension: Mustang II cross member notched for ties rods, steering rack and oil pan clearance and cupped for bag clearance of RE7’s. Polished right hand drive rack and pinion from a rear steer 4X4. Painted shocks, tubular Mustang II upper and lower A arms with drop spindles. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza, Bobby Leek & Jahfar
Rear Suspension: Custom length 8 link setup with 4 sleeve bags and painted shocks. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza, Bobby Leek & Jahfar
Air Management: 4 Air Zenith 200PSI OBII compressors mounted in bed with 8 SMC 3/8 valves plumbed into a 5 gallon tank located under bed. 2 digital Air Zenith gauges are dash mounted to keep an eye on bag pressures. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza, & Jahfar
Frame Mods: New frame from doors forward with 2X4 Z’d front section and 1 inch stock floor to get the cab to lay body. Double rear notches all holes plugged and ground smooth powder coated crinkle black. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza & Jahfar
Brakes: Front brakes are powder coated GM metric with 11” rotors all 4 rear drums are functional with -3 stainless lines run throughout. Corvette master cylinder under dash. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza & Jahfar
Shaved: EVERYTHING!!! Firewall, door handles, doors, top of doors, dash, interior door panels, cowl, hood, fenders, lower bed side seams, tailgate, taillights, front marker lights, fuel door. Performed by: Derrick Leaf
Body Drop: Stock floor and traditional. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza & Jahfar
Body Mods: Tandem axle, permanent convertible, right hand drive, chopped windshield, frenched caddy air cleaner, flush mount 31” led brake light, license plate lifter, Grants Kustoms Cali combo tailgate skin, heavily modified Grants Kustoms Toyota Nissan hybrid front bumper with Dodge fender lips, shark fin lower bed side supports, cut down and painted C-10 billet grille, snake eye headlights, S-10 fuel door in dashboard for master cylinder access, extra large round gas and brake pedals for big footed drivers, ¼ plate running the length of the pinch mold to drag. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza & Jahfar
Paint: BASF Foose Huntington Blue Pearl base with BASF Foose Hemisfear green flames with Tiki detail and BASF Foose Chip Silver flames, 6 coats of BASF Glamour clear. Performed by: Bob McClure, Derrick Leaf & Lit’l Bill
Interior: fiberglass center console with Loakar shifter, Air Zenith gauges, air ride controls and head unit. All metal dashboard with Dakota Digital gauge cluster and Kicker tweeters. Polished Flaming River steering column and banjo steering wheel. Bud Light beer keg seats with alligator padding and micro leather amp trim panels and shifter boot. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza, John Arnold, Trent’s Trick Upholstery & Jahfar
Stereo: Pioneer P5100DVD head unit, 2 Kicker 850.4 amps mounted in doors, 3 Kicker RS 65.2 component sets in cab, 1 Kicker 2500.1 and 2 Kicker 850.4 amps flush mounted in bed. 6 Kicker 10” solo classic subs and 2 Kicker RS 65.2 component sets in fiberglass bed enclosure. 2 other Kicker RS 65.2 component sets are located in truck. System is powered by 4 Kinetik HC1400 power cells. Performed by: Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza, John Arnold & Jahfar.
Engine/Performance: 1996 Chevy LT1, carbureted with an edelbrock 750 carb and MSD distributor. Motor and rebuilt turbo 350 trans are painted black with all hoses and accessories blacked out as well. 10 MM Viteck plug wires run thru polished and powder coated Oldsmobile valve covers with a 1950’s caddy air cleaner on top. Ceramic coated Hooker headers exhaust thru dual Thrush mufflers. Dual rebuilt rear ends with 3’11” gears for getting after the haters. Performed by: Booby Leek, Derrick Leaf, Dave Elza & Jahfar
Bicycle: 1999 Dyno Roadster same bike that was in the Ramster when it was shot for the cover of Minitruckin April 2000! Full matching paint, new fenders with tubular exterior mounting struts, 26 X 2.25 McFly Billet Rims with 3 G super Slicks, Powder coated springer front end, handlebars, seat post and seat bottom, Alligator covered seat, skull sprocket and flip flop friendly pedals. Performed by Derrick Leaf, Lit’l Bill Trent’s trick upholstery & Jahfar.
Special Thanks from Owner: To my Dad Mike Farr and the rest of my family for kind of understanding this illness! Donnie and the crew at the Gauge store, Discount Audio in Louisville, Gary at main street body werks, Railin Dually, Trent, Grasshopper, Lunchbox, Mike, Sandwich, MPH, Matt Mason, Todd Wilt, Bob, Bud Light and all the women who kept dinner in the microwave waiting for us to get done with this. Air Zenith, Kicker, BASF, Hankook tires, Wheel Pros, Dakota Digital, Kinetik, Viteck, Eye Kandy Designs and anyone else I forgot. Thanks
|
|
