Catch up on the latest progress of the Dodge restoration project, including challenges, milestones, and reflections
It seems like quite a while since my last update on the Dodge restoration progress, partly because my focus shifted to the 1970 D Series Ford and also due to work going on in the background that might not seem photo-worthy but are essential to the project.
My last report on the restoration was in DOW 374 at the beginning of May, which means that I would’ve carried out that work in April.
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May 2022: The restoration begins
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In the following month, my attention turned to the 1970 D Series Ford, which had been sitting in limbo not quite over the finish line, still waiting to get its COF. Once that was sorted, I had to get DOW photographer David Lott to capture some photos and film a short video of yours truly prattling on about the reason for the extra-long delay in getting the D Series job done and dusted.
With that project finally wrapped up, I’ve busied myself with the completion of several non-COF-related items, which has now allowed me to crack back into the RG13, albeit a little late for this article.
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August 2022: Cab dismantled and some colour starting to appear
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I’m aware of my pact with the readers that I’d have the Dodge restoration finished by August/September this year, and when I retire, somebody else can have a crack at stepping into the shoes I’ve filled for the past 10 or so years and share their restoration stories.
Although it doesn’t look like we’ve made a lot of progress over the last month, we’ve made strides in getting lights operational and sorting out under-the-hood details, such as engine-stop cables and throttle linkages.
Finding sets of components that look like they’ll work, cleaning them up, and making them fit often takes an inordinate amount of time yet produces a finished product that’s barely worth photographing.
Reflections and realisations
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January 2023: A trip to Woodville to collect a cab
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With that in mind, perhaps it’s time to look back over the work that’s been carried out so far, so I can get my head around the modus operandi for placing this job in the ‘completed’ basket in a few months’ time.
Unfortunately, though, every time I go through these retrospective looks at my restorations, it only serves to remind me of the larger volume of work that used to be achieved when this truck restoring lark was still a fresh experience — confirmation I guess that it’s the right thing to do in calling time on my tenure in the field.
Although I purchased the truck late in 2020, it wasn’t until mid-2022 that I started work on the restoration, the first part of which was to pay a visit to another RG Series truck that was in original condition.
Simon Combes, the previous owner of my RG13 has a tidy RG15 that he was happy for me to photograph, just to see how all the original specification components should fit together.
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August 2023: Getting the truck moving again
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This truck, unfortunately, has been so severely modified throughout its previous life that it’s made it difficult to decipher its true provenance. That being said, it’s looking more and more likely that the Dodge was cobbled together in 1982 from a bunch of parts that some dealer had had sitting around for a year or two.
The reason I say that is because the cab is clearly of a pre-1980 vintage vehicle. I can tell that from the rear vision mirror mountings and the heater ventilation grille, which is swaged all the way across on earlier models, whereas the last of the marque had a flat centre panel to accommodate the Chrysler Corporation badge.
There are other tell-tale signs that are too varied to take up space in this article and would probably bore readers anyway. However, if there’s anyone out there who wants to know why I’ve made this assumption, I can be contacted through the Ed so we can share our sadness together.
Restoration timeline
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January 2024: Bespoke Auto Glass closes in the cab
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Anyway, as we’re coming to the end of this saga, I thought I’d share some snippets of the restoration timeline to date, so here we go:
Oct 2020: Truck purchased
May 2022 (DOW 350): Restoration started
August 2022 (DOW 353): Dismantle cab and visit reference truck (Simon Coombes’ 1982 RG15)
October 2022 (DOW 355): Discovered that the front axle will need to come out to lower the suspension and fit shock absorbers that had been removed by one of the previous owners
January 2023 (DOW 358): A trip to Woodville in my trusty Mitsubishi transporter to collect a cab with some much-needed genuine 1982 parts from my old mate Noel Galloway
April 2023 (DOW 361): Inclement weather scuttles any chance of getting a coat of paint on the cab
Aug 2023 (DOW 365): Getting the truck moving again after sitting in one place for a year-and-a-half
Jan 2024 (DOW 370): Original-style rubber mats fitted and a visit from Bespoke Auto Glass to finally close the cab in
May 2024 (DOW 374): Two years on the job, and I needed to call on two of my mates (I use the term loosely), Ian Hambly and The Colonel aka Evan Taylor, to lend a helping hand-fitting the sun visor
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May 2024: Ian Hambly (left) and ‘The Colonel’ help fit the sun visor
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While it does look like we’re on the final leg of this journey, I’m confident that it’s going to take the full three months allocated to get this job over the finish line by September.
The fact of the matter is that while I’ll probably have the aesthetic portion of the work completed, I’d hazard a guess that there’ll be a hiatus of a few months (just as there was with the D Series Ford story) before I’ll be contacting the Ed to see if he can get David Lott out to video the truck complete with a COF on the windscreen.
Photography: Lyndsay Whittle