The '61-'71 Dodge Truck Website
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Creature Comforts
Interior tricks can be very helpful when trying to formulate a plan for improvement. Carpet, headliners, seatcovers, door panels, dash features, stereo/speaker placement, and many other possibilities can come into question, so this page will try and help with those concerns.

Carpets
Originally, most Dodge Trucks of this era came with a rubber mat floor covering which went to the front of the bench seat. Although some trucks such as the CSS and the Adventurer trucks came with carpet that more appropriately matched the bucket seats and other comforts of those vehicles, carpet wasn't common. The rubber mat is a one piece, grip textured unit with heel rests for driver and passenger.

While JCWhitney offers a repro rubber full-floor covering for A-100's (see below), Pat Walsh Restorations in Massachusetts currently offers replacement truck mats. They fit almost perfectly and come with a pile carpet-like texture to most of the mat. Note: these are not OEM style mats, and do not match exactly the original equipment floor mats in these trucks. For more information regarding this and other parts, contact Pat at (781)-246-3266. (thanks to Paul Pitcher for this information.) For more info, send a large SASE to:

Pat Walsh Restorations
Box 1509
Wakefield, MA 01880

Metro Moulded Parts, Inc also offers moulded floor mats for `61-`71 Dodge Trucks and `66-`70 A-100's (the A-100 part probably fits `64-`65 as well). The part numbers for these are as follows (double check before buying):

Several companies, such as JC Whitney and Auto Custom Carpets offer a selection of marterials in pre-cut carpets for these trucks. Most times, the carpet will only go to just under the bench seat, and I am not sure if any companies make carpet to fit the Adventurer trucks. If they do, then those carpets will also fit the Custom Sport Special trucks, simply because it is likely impossible to find a part designation for the rare CSS model. Other routes, such as having a local interior shop custom cut a carpet, can always be explored. Although the carpet will be made to fit properly and cut to your specifications, this is usually more expensive than buying a pre-fab carpet.

If you're interested in receiving a free JC Whitney Catalog, click here.

What about the A-100's?
If you're looking for an original style replacement heavy duty rubber floor mat for your A-100, check with JC Whitney. They now offer this part, so look in the catalog for a section which includes a "Custom Fit Extra Heavy Duty Front Floor Mats" subsection. For a `66-`70 van, the part number is: NOTE: This part number probably works for `64-`65 trucks and vans.
In the index, the catalog entry for FLOOR-Mats & Carpets included the section referred to above in case you would like to look it up yourself.

Weatherstripping
The most common area of concern with Sweptline Era Dodge Truck weatherstripping is usually the doors. Since they have so many parts and mouldings around the windows, they are usually the first rubber parts that problems. Thomas Keiner of Oregon did some searching for all the rubber weatherstripping on his truck, and suggests the following:
NEWS 7/20/99 - KARR Rubber Manufacturing offers VENT WING WINDOW RUBBER for Sweptline Era Dodge Trucks! Yes, you read that correctly, VENT WING WINDOW RUBBER! Special thanks to Bill Pate for this information, he paid big bucks to have these parts reproduced by Karr Manufacturing so that you don't have to. Contact information:
KARR Rubber Manufacturing
133 Lomita St.
El Segundo, CA 90245
Phone: (310) 322-1993 or 1-800-955-5277

Rubber Parts Sources
Clesters Auto Rubber Seals advertises windshield, rear window, and door seals. Their parts are all manufactured in the USA like they should be.
Clesters Auto Rubber Seals Inc.
P.O Box 1113
Salisbury, NC 28144
1-800-457-8223

Restoration Specialties & Supply is currently manufacturing door weatherstrips with a mitered corner for `61-`71 Dodge Trucks. They also have available belt weatherstrip and window channel kits for Sweptline Pickups as well as A-100 Pickup and Van weatherstrip kits for the doors. All of their products are manufactured in the U.S.A. and are made like the original pieces. For a free copy of their catalog e-mail them at restspec@surfshop.net and state that you're interested in dept. #6171. More information:
Restoration Specialties & Supply, Inc.
148 Minnow Creek Lane
Windber, PA 15963
(814)-467-9842
Fax: (814)-467-5323
Website: http://www.surfshop.net/users/restspec/

Metro Rubber Resto Parts & Weatherstripping manufactures and sells a wide variety of items, some of which will fit your Dodge Truck. More info:


http://www.metrommp.com/
Metro Rubber Resto Parts
1-800-878-2237
E-mail: sales@metrommp.com

Steele Rubber Products offers numerous reproduction rubber items. Parts for Dodge Trucks are also available.


http://166.82.96.9/homeframes.html
Steele Rubber Parts
1601 Hwy. 150 East
Denver, NC 28037-9735
1-800-544-8665

Door Panels and Headliners
Door panels on these trucks including those on the A-100's, are removable via screws and control handles. The panels before '68 were made of metal and allowed for the half-circle turn inside door handle. Later panels were made of fiberglass and have a lever type inside door handle.

One possibility, which I came across due to a previous owner, is to replace the existing door pull/armrests with those out of early sixties Chevy II's or Corvairs. These armrests can be had with or without ashtrays and include a padded portion mounted on a thick plastic housing. Surprisingly, the mounting holes are not far off of those found on the factory Dodge armrests, so no drastic modifications are necessary. Also, the angle on the Dodge doors is no problem, as the Chevy handles also include this angle. I have the armrests with the ashtrays mounted and am very happy with the fit and functionality they bring to the cab. Please see the pictures below to see how they look installed.


Top View Photo
Side View Photo

Headliners were made of a woven straw like material that was color matched to the rest of the interior. It was attached under the ceiling lip with a special glue that after a few years of sunshine deteriorates. Both of my cabs have had the glue, but were sans headliner. The glue is quite annoying in that it was still on the roof, but flaked off whenever disturbed. I don't know about any companies that make or sell replacement headliners but if anyone else does, let me know.

Ideas for a headliner might be to cut a thin piece of wood or other material somewhat larger in perimeter than the lip found on the ceiling. Then, cover this new headliner base with matching material from your seatcover, door panels or both to make a matching interior scheme. This is not resto correct, but would be great for the custom or daily driver application.

Seats
In general, there were two kinds and many styles of seat configurations available. Most trucks came with a bench seat that was covered to match the purchased trim level. These covers differed only in color and design, and were made of thick vinyl. The other type of seats are the buckets that were available first in the Custom Sport Special Trucks and then later in the Adventurer models. It is known that the CSS seats match those found in a Dart GT of the same vintage. Later, the Adventurer trucks had similiar seats, but it is unknown if they are identical to CSS/Dart GT seats.

Not surprisingly, JC Whitney offers a seat cover to fit these trucks with bench seats. Quality is unknown, as well as fit. The best route, especially if you are not concerned with resto correctness, is to have a local shop custom sew a cover for your seat. They can also repair any damaged or abused foam in the seat and make it "like new" for you. Although this would be more costly than the pre-manufactured seat cover, it will certainly have better, longer lasting results. As a bonus, one can also obtain more of the same material used on the seat to cover the side panels and headliner to color coordinate the interior.

Dashes and Stereo Ideas
Two Dashboard styles exist for the Sweptline era trucks while A-100's all came with the same design, no matter the year. In either case, the dash itself is made of tough steel with trim, controls, and handles or safety pads bolted to it. On trucks, the same dash design carried through from '61 to '68. '69-'71 Dashes are of a more angled and flat design, and are minus the characteristic dash pod that the earlier models posessed. Few changes were made to the early dashes thruogh the years with the exceptions of trim, control placement, and optional equipment. Standard AM radios were oval in shape, and their controls were for station tuning, or volume level. Speakers were center mounted in the top of the dash and were not highly advanced. Three holes mounted the radio to the center of the dash, one for the backlight bulb and two for the control knobs.

Upgrading the sound system in these trucks is easy, but it depends on the level of restoration as to how far one should go. Custom jobs consist of making holes for the speakers and radio, then wiring it all up. Speaker placement is a more difficult task, as the doors are tough to cut in the lower portions, and also have many obstructions on the inside to contend with. Another possible location for small speakers is to the back and side of the passengers, slightly above ear level on the inside of the cab. A well cut hole and small speaker is easily placed in this area, as long as the speaker is not too deep. If so, a spacer can be made from 3/4" particle board, which would then be cut and fit to the truck and speaker.


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