Poptop Dodge Ramcharger Project

[694spdRT]

Hey guys, I have not been around much as this project has kept me rather busy over the last few months. I drove a '79 Ramcharger all through high school and had plans to restore it for my 20 year class reunion. After much debate I realized mine was simply too far gone and would take so much time and money to bring back that a replacement Ramcharger was in order.

Last December I found this in North Dakota and after a 18 hour round trip excursion it was home. It is a '78 SE California truck with a 360, automatic, 3.55's with limited slip, skid plates, rear tire carrier, and rollbar. A nice guy and member here had bought it along with some other Mopars and I got it from him shortly after.



I will post a condensed version of the transformation of this '78 into to what my original '79 Ramcharger was. I used as much good stuff off the '79 as I could including the hood, valance, cowl panel, grille, and wheels.

Here is the removal of the trim and adding the '79 parts to the front. These pics were in early June.





Removed the aftermarket Chevy mirrors in favor of the original style 3 point mirrors.

[694spdRT]

After a whole lot of sanding and bodywork I finally got it in primer.

[694spdRT]

Here it is right after the "Cashmere" paint was applied.







The original hood gave me fits as it went through a hail storm and had all kinds of dimples in it. It turned out pretty good after a 2nd skim coating and addition three coats of filler primer. 

[tan top]

looks good !! 

[694spdRT]

The wheels and top are Sable Sunfire Metallic.

[694spdRT]

Getting there! These pics were from early to late July. Finished it in time for my class reunion. 





Decals were made by a local sign shop in metallic brown using the originals off of my old '79 as reference.





The Ram's head was in pretty bad shape so I had to take digital pictures and then correct all the bad areas by hand and then scan it into the sign shops graphics program. Turned out pretty good for what we started out with.

[694spdRT]

This is how it looks now with the top back on. It is getting cold and 40 degree cruises with the top off are not so fun. 













And finally, the inspiration for it all from about 1985.

[moparstuart]

awesome

[Charger_Dart]

Very nice, i always liked those Ramchargers

[TruckDriver]

THAT is SWEET!!! 

[694spdRT]

Thanks guys! It was a lot of work crammed into a short timeframe.

[tan top]

nice job !! looks good totally different 

[b5blue]

Well Done! 

[FlatbackFanatic]

Very cool looking!! Good job!!

[vancamp]

Nice looking Ramcharger

[Charger-Bodie]

Very cool.

[BrianShaughnessy]

Nice job 

[66chargerkid]

Dude that thing looks awesome. Any future plans? That rusty exhaust needs to go 

[694spdRT]

Thanks for the kind words!

Dude that thing looks awesome. Any future plans? That rusty exhaust needs to go  

The plan is to remove the drivetrain in there now. I got a rear main that started leaking and is getting worse. Probably going with a rebuilt 440 truck engine, JVX adaptor, and A518 overdrive transmission that I have in the parts stash. From the looks of it the exhaust might be original with California catalytic and everything.  

[Silver R/T]

Turned out pretty good

[Bob T]

Good job, and in a short time frame, enjoy driving to the reunion.
I had the only 68 Charger at my High School Reunion out on the football fields used as the carpark. I just wanted to swing some big 0's for old times sake 

[Kern Dog]

The Ram on the side reminds me of the trend that Mexican guys used to do.... painting a bull on the doors of their trucks. I didn't understand them either.

[1970Moparmann]

Looks great.  Always liked Ramchargers

Did you have to do any interior work or mechanics?

[694spdRT]

Looks great.  Always liked Ramchargers

Did you have to do any interior work or mechanics?

Nice thing with this rig was that it had a really nice interior, new carpet, weaterstripping, etc.

The mechanicals were pretty good but it does have a rear main or something leaking oil pretty good. I had planned to put a big block in it anyway so not a big deal.

[Budnicks]

  nice, I have a soft spot for Ramchargers, I had a couple of them in the early 80's...