The Wanderer build

I had bought a 36 Dodge "The Wanderer" about a year ago but because I was out of state I couldn't work on it till now. The whole idea behind the build is to build something just a little bit different from others and over kill as much as possible.

When I first got it

After it made it too my shop


how it sat with the old frame


The old frame that was scrapped


Made a company logo and it fit just fine where the windshield belongs.....temp till I can find a new windshield


How it sat with the old frame


Picked out the wheels I will be using with it. 24's rear and 22's front

I didn't have the new motor or trans yet but even without them I knew it was going to be tight


How the old dash looked


Yeah the new wheels are quite large


I had to let it sit for almost a year while I was living back east


My cross member I decided to run with. Wanted something to hide the airbags

Hi Kawika, I sure do like what you've got so far. What did you not like about the old frame, other than no back end? You mentioned a new motor, a big block Dodge again, Right?
Keep on tinkering.

MercuryMac said:

Hi Kawika, I sure do like what you've got so far. What did you not like about the old frame, other than no back end? You mentioned a new motor, a big block Dodge again, Right?
Keep on tinkering.

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The old frame fell apart. some of the welds broke, the link arms where too short blah blah

I mostly bought it for the clear title and body. As for the motor, I will post more resent pics here shortly to show you whats going in it

picked this up last week. Now I have the heart and soul of The Wanderer. 96 Cummins w/auto

Cool! Diesel power is awesome, subscribed!

having an impact makes things a little easier to pull parts




Made a complete mess in my shop


It took 6 hours to get the motor out by myself

Wow, those are some shiny wheels

I like the truck, the concept, and the motor choice, love the cummins!

I'm not keen on the wheels, but to each their own, I think they may look better with a black chrome look... but the style itself is tough to grasp your vision with this type of build.

Yeah, the wheel thing not my taste but the rest....

I'm definately into this build.....[cl[cl

Dirtyrat said:

I like the truck, the concept, and the motor choice, love the cummins!

I'm not keen on the wheels, but to each their own, I think they may look better with a black chrome look... but the style itself is tough to grasp your vision with this type of build.

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thanks


the wheels are going to be flat black when its all done but what i really want to do is change the wheels out for semi truck wheels

Picked up a set of twin sticks off of a 1950's crane to use as a shifter and a cutting brake.


How the firewall looked before setting the motor and trans in it


set the motor on the gig table to see how much I needed to cut out of the firewall


when I finally got the motor sitting in I was able to see that my floors have to be moved up. barely any foot room

Needed to Z up the frame but I wanted to do it a little bit different




Added some 3/16" fish plates I made on my CNC plasma table

Much like the others I am not a fan of the bright shiney wheels, but maybe painted. Like you said black would be cool, maybe not flat but how about a satin?? Fish plates look great! Love the cummins power! Needs TWIN turbos though!!! Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Neverdone said:

Much like the others I am not a fan of the bright shiney wheels, but maybe painted. Like you said black would be cool, maybe not flat but how about a satin?? Fish plates look great! Love the cummins power! Needs TWIN turbos though!!! Can't wait to see how this turns out!

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You're right, black satin is better than flat. I really don't want to leave them chrome. However, I have an idea of going dually later on so these tires and rims are only temporary.

I would like to run twins also but like everything else, it comes down to how much I want to invest in this truck.

I can't wait to see how it turns out also. I just got the dash in the mail that I won off of ebay. It will need a lot of cutting, sectioning and grafting to make it work in this truck. Don't think I've ever seen it done on this early of a truck but it should look killer when its finished.

after the fish plates finished with the cab back in place


wanted to keep about 4" between the head of the motor and the cab of the truck so it would minimize the tunnel height inside the cab

The fish plate looks really happy!

Dirtyrat said:

The fish plate looks really happy!

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Great, I would have never noticed that till you brought it up. Maybe I should paint the holes to look like eyes?!?!

Edit: And this is what your friends do when they see it

I have no prob with the chrome wheels. Look good to me. I've seen guys put the gas pedal sideways over the hump. It gives ya room and actually is comfortable on long drives. But if ya have 3 pedals, you can't down shift and hit the brake!