Another project using SRT-10 bones - '85 D150

Howdy friends of the allmighty, overpowered and fast truck.


Well, this is my first post on this board and i figure i use it to intruduce myself and my project.
Which does not have as much in common with SRT-10 Rams, but you'll learn about it in a second.


My name is Alex, i am located in Germany. I have a knack for Dodge trucks.
My last truck was a '76 W200, now i own a '85 W250 and a matching '85 D150.

The W250 is in the process of receiving a restoration to stock spec, the D150 on the other hand is in the process of becoming a race truck.


I am not too fond of any Dodge truck design past the 80s, which is why i didn't settle for a 04-06 SRT-10.

If i can't have anything i like from a manufacturer, i am building it myself.
This is kind of my motto.


So when i got bitten by the "race-truck"-bug, i went and bought that '85 D150.



And a 2015 6.4 Hemi and TR6060 six speed transmission out of a wrecked 2015 Challenger SRT (including all the wiring, ECUs and such).



This was the easy part...



From that point, extensive hunt for suitable parts for brakes, suspension and steering began.
To spare you the gruel details:


I have now settled for a Chevy C10 trailing arm rear suspension, with 6" drop springs.

The rear axle is the first link between this project and a SRT-10.
It's the rearend out of a 2005 RC, 4.56:1 with the limited slip differential.

For the projects requirements i need (or want) huge brakes, what better than 14" discs on the rear end?


Finding matching stuff for the front axle and suspension looked incomparably more complicated.
Until i decided to see what that SRT-10 has for a front suspension and brakes. Second link.

Now i have a set of '05/'06 four piston calipers in my parts collection:




I also bought a spindle and regular 1500s lower control arms for mockup purposes, just to learn that there is a QC and a RC spindle and they apparently are different from eachother.
This is pretty much the third link.
I will have to ask a few more questions about that lateron.

I also plan to use the brake booster and master cylinder from a '05 or '06 to power the brakes.

I am now at the point where i am almost sure the 1500s/SRT-10 control arms can be adopted to my trucks frame and give a good front track width.
The suspension geometry will be double checked with a piece of software i aquired for this task.


To sum everything up and make it legal for track days, a complete racing roll cage with front and rear outriggers is in the plan aswell.
The exterior will receive subtle modifications with an air dam and a bumper made from carbon fiber and also a hood with large vents, made from carbon fiber.


Why?
Because i want that thing to run 170 (i know that 6.4 will have to make a little more power than the stock 485hp to reach that goal, but eventually we'll get there).

I also want it to handle good and while it might now be a vehicle able to compete, it'll be a ton of fun to build and drive.



Right now i am knee deep in electrical tape and peeling all of it off of the Challengers wiring harness... did i say "fun to build"?


Alex

Welcome to the VTCoA! Looks like you will have your hands full with this project for quite some time.

Welcome!

Looks like a really fun build! Good luck and feel free to ask questions.

Wow. Very cool. Please keep us posted!

That's going to be awesome keep your progress posted up

Wow that's a nice short box. Good luck :rock:

Very clean canvas to start on. Welcome to the RBC

Alex,

welcome to the Club !

I live in Germany as well, if you
need local support, just let me know.

Best regards

Arne

Thank you guys for the warm welcome!


A milestone has been reached.


I started tearing into the wiring harnesses last week and got most of the unwanted stuff removed.
My milestone was, to thin out the harnesses and still have a running engine. As far as i can read, getting it to crank over is important:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1DR8TgL-io


The dash works as well. It complains about all the stuff that is not present anymore... i hope i can remove all of these from the configuration of the BCM.




Test scenario:




Quite a bunch of wiring removed, more to go. The dash harness is untouched, the engine compartment harness aswell.
No need to modify the engine harness other than relocating it a bit and maybe i will have to make new power cables because these might not fit as good.





@Arne:
Did you send me that message on Ebay?

Ground pounder....

Isn't it amazing how many wires make up a wiring harness? A lot of tedious time and effort in there. Wiring just destroys time.

Alex, yes the message on eBay came from me

Today i got too goddamn greedy. My GF always wants me to be quicker at making decisions but when i am quick, i fuck things up.


First things first.



Mounting the throttle pedal was so easy it must have been one ingredient for the greedyness...

Bolts to the lower left of the two original holes of the original throttle pedal, drilled a new one, bolted up, almost done.
The pedal is located conveniently but it was too light for my liking.

Even easier fix with parts that are even meant to do exactly that:



Old throttle return spring.

For a bit of adjustment i drilled a few more holes:



And to top it off - you see i got really bored - i added some heat shrink tubing on the spring ends to stop noise:





Yeah.
And then i decided i would continue beeing great and merge the two dash clusters.

Now i don't have a pristine D150 cluster any more and the cluster of the Challenger is destroyed as well.
(The housing, no the electronics.)

I won't show pics of that massacre. Let's just draw the blanket of silence over the topic and let me fill out a check for an IQ3 dash...


And now my effing pasta is oversalted. AAAAARGH!

Today was a good day. No effing around with the dash, just purely productive work.

First i picked up my passenger side SRT-10 spindle.
It came with the wheel bearing and i was able to confirm the measurements i took from a picture using a picture editing program.
Now all i have to do is align the spring properly... another "problem".


I continued with the wiring because i was "in the flow".

I hed the (to me) great idea to outline the cab on the shop floor with duct tape. So much easier to get a grasp of where everything goes.
Look for yourself, i got it pretty much layed out and ready for making all the ground connections and shortening/lengthening of wires.



The inside fuse box goes to the back of the cab.



Outside fusebox on the passenger fender, next to the ECU (not shown in pic).



The BCM will be mounted on a bracket riveted to the heater box. I started to like riveting stuff. So much less trouble in fastening stuff to other stuff, lol.
As you can see, i layed out pretty much everything i had, including the pedals (clutch and throttle) and the antenna-box (the "controller" for the key-fob-antennas).
This one will be installed (double sided tape?) on the heater box.



The next step is to throw the original wiring harness on top of that and graft them together...
I would really need the wiring diagrams for that though and Techauthority did not ship my order yet.

I really wanted to separate the high current power cables from the signal cables, just in case one fries...

Ha, best idea ever to do the above. Because look what was super easy to do yesterday:







I made a bracket for the BCM and riveted that bracket directly to the heater box. Mean but it works for now:







Then came the "pita but not hard"-part.
The engine room harness has to pass through a 2" hole in the cab.
It's 2" because i am re-using one of the OEM bushings and it was a pain because i had to make a metal sleeve so i could pass all the wiring through that bushing, which is essentially a bit too small for what i was asking it to do...

Remember to split the sleeve so you can remove it later:



Then use a bit of silicone spray...



... and needle nose pliers to do this:





Aaaand after doing it twice, because i had the bushing on the harness the wrong way and realized it after finishing the last connection, ta daaaa:



Now i can shoot that 2" hole in the cab and continue...

Nice progress! Keep up the good work.

How is this coming along?

yeah hows it going??

any updates?

Very cool build by the way