Restoration: Dodge — Part 18

By: Lyndsay Whittle, Photography by: Lyndsay Whittle

Date: 21.11.2023

The latest updates from the Dodge restoration

Just the wind-up windows to go and all the glass is in

Reading last month’s issue where it was hoped I’d come back from the sun in Cairns just that little bit smarter, I can now tell you it didn’t work. Moreover, I didn’t come back with a tan either.

Without going into it too deeply, the weather was pretty much the same there as it was in New Zealand by all accounts. I would’ve been better off spending the trip money on hiring somebody with more brainpower than I can produce to get on with this restoration.

Now that we’ve got the complaining about the weather out of the way, we can get on with some of the positive stuff.

Jeremy Tagg hard at work

Spring has arrived, and we seem to finally be gaining a bit of momentum on the restoration front, even though I’ve had to put a hold on placing the wind-up window sections in the doors because Jeremy — the glass guy — has taken off on a month-long trip to Europe with some of his family members.

Quarterlights are now opening and closing

I did, however, con him into coming across to deal with the rubber portions of the quarterlights before he left for his trip. Thanks, Jeremy.

Initially, it looked like we were in for a bit of trouble with the rubbers, as the ones on the restoration truck didn’t look all that flash in the beginning. It all turned out okay in the end though, thanks to the donor cab that my old mate Noel Galloway sourced for me.

With two sets of parts, I got two reasonably good units out of the four parts; they aren’t perfect but are better than the nothing I’d have had without Noel’s help.

Helping hands

Test-fitting the newer model dash facia

Speaking of help, I must introduce two new names to my list of helpers, Kevin (Kev) Healey and David Gander. Kev has been working behind the scenes for a number of months now as a parts finder.

Kevin Healey (Kev) displaying the new dash panel he donated to the project

Currently a milk tanker driver for Fonterra, Kev, in a past life, worked for William Gill and Sons in Huntly around the time the old Dodge would’ve been brand-new.

Fairly recently, management at the current company decided to have a clean-out of a lot of Commer/Dodge parts, and Kev just happens to know the guys who bought them, hence he’s always on the lookout for me.

A couple of months back, he came across a brand-new old stock dash panel, which he was able to pass on to yours truly. Much appreciated Kev.

The original panel out of my truck had been butchered at some time to fit some extra gauges, so the new panel is going to look great housing the gauges I’ve had repaired, ready for the final fit-up.

Some added help came from a little further afield from David Gander in Timaru. David has recently restored a 1976 RG13 Commer, for which he’d purchased a complete donor truck, and having read my restoration article in Deals on Wheels, thought that perhaps he could help by providing some parts.

At the time he phoned, I was looking for a wiring loom, as the one out of my truck had been modified almost to within an inch of its life. David kindly packaged his spare loom, complete with dashboard and gauges and sent it up to Auckland on South Island Couriers.

As an aside, I can thoroughly recommend John Giles from South Island Couriers, as his service and pricing are excellent for deliveries both up from and down to most parts of the South Island.

We’ve managed to cobble an almost complete loom from parts of the original unit, along with the tail-end section sourced from what’s become known as the ‘Noel Galloway spare parts inventory’ aka NGSPI.

It must be said that the job would be going nowhere if it wasn’t for the likes of Noel, David, Kev, along with many others who just seem to pop up out of nowhere to offer their assistance.

Remedial work

Rust spots have appeared over the course of the winter months

I do seem to be having a good run at the moment (don’t worry, it won’t last) with fitting some bits and pieces, stuff such as mudguards and a bumper that I’d finished off ages ago and have been sitting around waiting for the right time to get them back on the truck.

I dare say that the readers are almost as happy as I am with the progress because it seems like I’ve been making excuses for not getting on with it for what seems like forever.

Unfortunately, before we can think about fitting things like mudguards, remedial work has to be carried out on parts of the cab that simply haven’t stood up to the rigours of sitting around over month upon month of inclement weather.

It’s quite strange how vehicles (especially North Island vehicles) that are in use on a regular basis can happily sit outside without suffering too many ill effects but one that doesn’t get used regularly will deteriorate rather quickly.

I guess it’s the old ‘use it or lose it’ coming into play. To that end, I find I’m having to redo earlier work, such as repainting parts of the inside of the cab where people have been clambering in and out for months on end.

To be fair, the floor of the cab doesn’t need to look too flash, as eventually it’ll be covered with insulation and floor mats, however, to do the right thing to the guys at the testing station (whenever that time might come) for them to get a good look at the bare bones cab, I’ve simply provided a protective coating in the meantime.

Speaking of repainting parts, it looks like I’ll have to do a respray of the exterior cab, which is something I’m dreading, as it’ll be much harder to do this time round because I’m sure as hell not going to remove the glass.

Cracking on

Exterior door latching is still proving to be problematic

In the meantime, I must find a way to get the exterior door handles working. The inside ones went together fairly easily given the fact that I’ve lost all the photos I took of the doors before they came apart, hence I don’t have anything to reference against, plus I don’t have a workshop manual for RG Series trucks.

If only the manufacturers had designed the set-up for the door locks as well as the folks at Ford did with their D Series, then this part of the job would be done and dusted. Hopefully next month.

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