The '61-'71 Dodge Truck Website
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Body and Rust Info
Rust plagues these trucks in three main areas. The front cab mounting holes, the rocker panels and the lower back corners of the bed are usually the first to develop cancerous rust. These and other areas are prone to rust due to lack of proper drainage and depending on your region of the country, road salt. Most times, rust out is caused by this road salt used in winters to melt ice off roadways. Sometimes, you might also find trucks with rust in the cowl or possibly the bottoms of the doors. These cases are due to blockage of the water drain passages with debris.

Currently, there are a few possibilities if you have some rust. First, the rocker panels can be repaired if they are not too far gone. The panels available to repair these areas; however, only cover the outer surface under the door and the top step area where the three ridges are. If the under structure and other panels are "swiss cheese," then look forward to many hours of sheet metal fabrication for the missing areas. Don't be discouraged as this is not your only option.

Good Cab
Image from '65 Dodge Truck Service Manual
Consider a entire cab change. Why? Well, if you can find one for a good price with little or no rust you are ahead of the game. Replacing the old cab with a better one is much easier than attempting to repair gobs of rusted out panels. Second, when you have the replacement off you have an excellent opportunity to fix any existing surface rust you have on it. The replacement can then be properly rustproofed before you swap the two. The hardest part is finding a donor truck with a rust free cab. Some pics below show what is involved.


YUCK.
Here, you can see the old cab as viewed from the lower passenger side. The rust had completely eaten away at the rocker panel area. These areas consist of a contoured outer panel, with an inner panel under the floor that serves as a support for the step area. In the case of my '67, neither panel was salvagable by any means other than an entire cab change or extensive metal fabrication.

Here is the truck I found with an acceptable cab. After I got the cab off the donor vehicle, I repaired all of that rust with good paint products and some rust conversion chemicals (more on that later). As you can tell, it tried to hide from me. But with some careful searching, I stumbled upon the beast then took it home to start on my new project. In this case, some luck and persistence really paid off.

Just keep in mind that cab changes aren't very easy. In my case, it took me a good seven to ten hours on each truck to completely prep the two for the changeover. That was without any help. It also took at least three to four days to rust proof all of the critical areas and paint them. So plan on some hard work and extra time. Nontheless, this kind of project is very possible (hey, I did it). The hardest part is moving the bare cabs from one chassis to another. Unless you have a crane or other device to move big stuff around, you'll need people. I bribed some pals with food and beverages to help me out. It took about ten minutes at a time with six guys to move each cab from place to place.
P/N: 1783832-3
If the rockers described above aren't adequate, there is a NOS part number that can help you track down a set of OEM rocker replacements. This number is P/N 1783832-3. Still, this NOS replacement panel only covers the outer (visible when door is open) portions of the rocker area, but it repairs far more than cheapo repair panels. The NOS set will repair the entire area surrounding the step and goes up to meet the floorpan before the steel stops. Thanks a bunch to Frank Mitchell at Mitchell Motor Parts Inc. for the valuable information on this part. See his "Parts for Sale" Website at: http://www.mmpar.com/

Repro Body Parts
MDR Glass & Machine currently offers front fenders & rear utiline (A.K.A stepside) fenders for `61-`71 Sweptline body Dodge Trucks. They also offer billet aluminum machining services and can custom fabricate parts according to your needs. More information:
MDR GLASS & MACHINE
P. O. Box 75
Mad River, CA 95552
Phone: (707) 574-6481
E-mail: mdrglass@saber.net
http://www.mdrglass.com/

AAR Fiberglass of Cocoa, Florida, is currently in the process of manufacturing `69-`71 Sweptline Pickup hoods in fiberglass (with the possibility of a cowl induction version in the near future). They are also willing to build other parts in fiberglass with enough demand. More information:

AAR Fiberglass
4800 Pine St.
Cocoa, FL 32926
Phone: (407) 638-0961

Looking for A-100 body parts? Check with Sherman Associates, Auto Body Specialities or Surplus Supply at the phone numbers listed below. Sources say that Sherman only sells rocker panels for the A-100's.

Sherman & Associates, Inc. (International Auto Body Supply)
61166 Van Dyke Rd.
Washington, MI 48094
Phone: (810) 677-6800
Fax: (810) 677-6801

Auto Body Specialties
BOX 455 Route 66
Middlefield, CT 06455
Orders: (888) 277-1960
Tech: (860) 346-4989
Fax: (860) 346-4987

Surplus Supply Co.
Box 15133-HT
Akron, OHIO 44314
(330) 825-3900

Body Resources
Included below are links to rather large images which may be of assistance in finding parts for your Dodge Truck body. Most of the images below are from parts books, while the `67 paintchip image is out of a paint chip book from a paint reseller. All of the images below were kindly submitted or scanned by John Bitter. NOTE: I do not own any parts books currently and thus cannot provide further information regarding part numbers, other scans, etc. Enjoy these images, they are COOL!
Image of 1961 Sweptline W-100 and W-200 body parts and the part number sections to refer to. (File size: 48.3K)
Image which shows the OEM gasoline system on a Sweptline Era pickup with part number sections listed. (File size: 55.5K)
Image of `62 thru mid-`65 Utiline showing body and trim parts and the sections to refer to for them. (From `63-`68 Dodge Truck Parts Book.) (File size: 49.6K)
Image showing exterior body and trim part sections for a truck with serial number greater than XXX-1492000 (Mid-`65 thru `67 truck). (File size: 64.5K)
1967 paint chip samples from the `63-`68 parts book representing all colors on trucks of the 1967 model year. Descriptions below each color describe the years preceding `67 for which the color was used. (File size: 41.9K)
1965 Paint chip sample image from another Dodge Truck parts book. This one shows colors typical on the trucks as early as `65. These colors are not exact matches, but should be easy to match to your truck. (File size: 28.4K)
Note that the numbers in the above images represent the section in the parts book to refer to when looking for each part shown. Click the image at left for a list of all sections in the `63-`68 parts book.(File size: 60K)
Here's a scan of all the grille part numbers from `63-`68 (in the cooling section of the parts book. (File size: 123K)

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