Hey all!
I'm the (more or less) happy owner of a 1983 D-150 Ram Custom PU.
It's got the 225 I6 and a four speed.
It's a pretty nice truck and I intend to rebuild/restore/upgrade it and use it for a daily driver / farm truck.

Here's a few of the details.

odometer has certainly rolled over at well over 145K.
Speed-0 cable is inop.
Doesn't like to start cold or warm up. Cools off very quickly necessitating a re-warm up at each and every stop. Even 10min in the grocery store means warming the truck up again.
Getting spotty oil / water mix at the tail pipe (main plant rebuild?)
Once running it sounds good and still has good power.
Clutch pedal is real "deep" and needs to be adjusted.
Not sure of the gearing in the rear end. Hope it's POSI-TRAC but not sure.
Previous owner put significant money into the suspension and brakes, replaced the carburetor and some weather strips / door seals, radiator etc but some major tear-down / rebuild steps loom large.
All gages, lights signals and other accessories work fine.
Body has rust and some holes. Some Bond-0 but nothing that a competent b-shop could not finish off with a good primer / paint job.
One worrying issue is significant wastage on rear leaf-spring suspension points. Brackets are rivetted to the frame and the one on the Pass-side FWD is almost totally wasted.
I'll be putting on some "Clifford" parts and other mods but before going down that road I've got to get the thing running to a point where its useable.
I'll post some photos soon!
Thanks!

Erik

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Erik the Dodge

Welcome on the board! Sounds like, except for rust issues, you've got a nice basis for a fix-up/build-up project. You've obviously heard the name "Clifford" come up, but be very careful before you decide to spend any money with Clifford. They have a long and ugly reputation for being a bunch of clowns; see for example here, here, here, here, and here. Much of what they sell is inaccurately described, and a lot of it is not even slightly cost-effective. The good news is that you don't need to go to Clifford to get hot rod parts for slant-6s; there are lots of other, better options. See for example Dutra Duals and header options discussed in this thread and this one, Erson custom cams, HEI ignition upgrade, Mike Jeffreys windage trays, Hurricane intakes, other exotic intakes. Hi-perf engine buildup here, high-perf parts and build info here.

But before you buy hop-up parts of any brand, it's a good idea to plan out exactly what you want the vehicle to do differently and figure out what you can spend (money, effort, and time) to achieve it. Then share your plans on here and you'll get good quality guidance towards the optimal parts and upgrades and away from those that would not likely give a happy result.

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