I'm on vacation this week and decieded to visit my local pick-a-part and they have a cars for sale section. I found a 1981 D150 custom short bed /6 3speed with overdrive manual trans and I belive a 9 3/4 rearend and front disc brakes. The body is in great shape decent paint some small dings and 1 small dent in the bed. the interior is in great shape. It says bad trans but the guy I was talking to had no clue. It has 320,000 on it. I did get to start it and can already say it needs a starter but it ran ok. It looked like it had just gotten a complete tune up also. I could not drive it. So my question is what would it be worth?

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster

the pull a part that I frequent has been very sparse on D-150's for the past year or so. I spoke with the pull a part owner and he said they still come across the auction but he said he can't aford almost any old trucks anymore as pull a part / scrap vehicles, auction prices are too high... he said folks are buying them to drive or as fix up and fun trucks.

Maybe offer him 300.00 (if you want it that bad) and see where it goes.
Will never be worth a lot of money,, from my experience the 80's D-150's:
ride good, can get decent truck milage, are easy to work on, most parts still available, cheap on insurance and reliable.

let us know how it goes

Go for it.

As the driver of an 84 D-150, I can say that they are great trucks and sometimes you can get a fixer upper for cheap. I found mine under a blanket of kudzu at a friends and traded him a busted up S-10 with a good 2.8 and 5 speed, so 300-400 sounds about rite to me - if u can get it for something like that take it and run!

Play up the trans being bad. Play up the old truck not worth anything/bad fuel economy/no resale value line. Offer him $300 and see what happens. Wave three $100 bills in front of him.

Thanks for the replys. Problem is I live in Calif. and it's in a Pick a Part used cars for sale section. They want $1599 for it. I just got my tax refund so I think I'll go make a low ball offer and see what happens. Like I said the body and interior are in really good shape and maybe with a small amount of work it could be a good daily driver.

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster

$1600 for an 81 D150? It should be a highly optioned perfect condition truck for that price.

I hear you Reed. Thats the problem with living in CA. everybody wants more for less. You should check out the Craigs lists ads in SOCAL for Darts and Dusters the prices would make your head spin off.

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster

You folks that live in areas where there is not a rust issue are spoiled.

I looked for a decent 80-87 truck for over a year and then found one that ran decent but looked like crap! Price? $1650. A couple months later we found the one I have now and it was real decent but far from perfect. It was $2000.

We just don't have really nice rust free trucks in our area for $500. They don't exist.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

great,, let us know how it turns out,,,
the fact that the truck ended up in the for sale section and not the pull a part lot jives with what my local pull a part guy was saying,,,,,

the 300.00 offer was hoping the seller has a soft spot for old mopars and wants to see it saved,, that is probably not far from the scrap metal value.
at 1599,, sounds like he wants to try to turn some money,,

if you do get up into the grand numbers remember,, its a slant , its a short bed , its a stick ,,, nice combo for a fun truck.
Like you said the body is solid, I know parts are available, good luck.

Well it looks like I'm not going to be the one putting this truck back on the road. In CA. when a vehicle is sold to a junk yard and resold whole it goes under a salvage title and to get it re-registered you need to get a brake and light inspection (fee), a vehicle inspection buy the DMV or CHP (fee), a smog certification (fee after truck is fixed to be smogged) and because it's a truck there could be other fees charged. As it stands now because of unknown trans repairs and will it pass smog with little or no money spent on the engine I will have to pass on this truck. It's a shame that repairs and fees could cost more than what I might have been able to pay for the truck because I think it would have been a good truck to have. Thanks for all your input. Now back to craigs list for 1975 (no smog) or under /6 PU.

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster