Shelby Dakota Clone?

-
KramerSwinger70

KramerSwinger70

70 Dart Swinger360
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
984
Reaction score
13
Location
Rohnert Park, CA
ok so my uncle has a 1988 Dakota. It was my grandfathers from 1996 until he passed last august. good ol' truck, but pretty tired. Ive told my uncle once the engine (3.9 v6) blows, give me the truck and ill hot rod it.

Anyway i just got this months Mopar Action and they have an Aritlce on the 1989 Shelby Dakotas. Shelby dumped a 318 under the hood and an a500 tranny, prettied up the interior, and added stripe decals and a Chevy-Avalanche-esque light bar

nothin set in stone but i thought itd b cool to clone my uncles dak into a shelby. a few problems would be the fact that our truck is a long bed, would require a ton of resto before modding, and good luck finding Shelby stuff for it, especially that oh-so necceaary light bar. But i figure with a lil inginuity, it could be a cool custom truck to haul parts with. perhaps swap in a 05-10 5.7L hemi (if itd fit, cuz i got no clue)

thoughts? Like i said its just a crazy thought i got in my head, but i know ima hot rod that truck somehow. this would just be a cool unique way to do it
 

Attachments

  • shelbydak1.jpg
    47.4 KB · Views: 3,495
  • shelbydak2.jpg
    111.6 KB · Views: 3,866
When I was in Warrensburg, MO, as a kid, there were no less than three of these trucks in town.
 
all it takes is money right? haha ive never seen one of these in person and they just look real cool to me. better than a standard Dak from the 80's anyway!
 
After somne thought ive decided against the cloning. These trucks are really cool but id rather own a real one and build my other Dak into a sleeper of sorts.
 
I would step away from the thought of a 5.7 hemi. A small block would fit beautifully in there, they were made that way. Although with some modification you can apparently fit a 440 in there.
 
Brought over from another thread..... MOBodyman did have one for sale.

MOBodyman said:
That was originally the plan for model year 1990. However, so many '89s were still sitting on the lots at the end of the '89 model year, they sidelined the plans to build them for 1990.

You have to keep in mind these were expensive trucks at the time. They stickered for nearly $17k. That doesn't sound like much today, but at the time I bought one of mine I could have bought a new extended cab Dakota for $11k.

The Shelby option was $3,933. There was quite a bit of engineering in these trucks. Shelby didn't simply take a V-6 truck and drop the V-8 into it. The trans crossmember was moved back. A new front crossmember was welded in for the V-8 engine mounts. A heavier radiator was used. Since there wasn't enough room for an engine driven fan, 2 electric fans were placed between the radiator and a/c condenser. This required special condenser mounts which spaced the condenser farther from the radiator support and closer to the grille, which in turn had spacers to give the condenser a bit more room. Also, the wiring for the fans was integrated with the computer and was fairly complicated. There were also Shelby specific exhaust manifolds, computer, and air cleaner. The radiator hoses had 'CS' part numbers on them. Plus they had all the Shelby specific interior and exterior parts.
Dallas
Click to expand...
 
doc, i hear ya on that. i wish i had some pics of the truck its pretty well worn in. But its a good ol' truck. My dad and Uncle think im nutz for wantin to fix it up. But then, i got kinda emotionally attached to it. My grandpa died about a year ago and it was his truck. shortly after my uncle put it in his name, i needed to borrow it for a few months as my daily driver

btw love your truck, its certainly different! and clearly your not the only one who likes it!
 
KramerSwinger70 said:
doc, i hear ya on that. i wish i had some pics of the truck its pretty well worn in. But its a good ol' truck. My dad and Uncle think im nutz for wantin to fix it up. But then, i got kinda emotionally attached to it. My grandpa died about a year ago and it was his truck. shortly after my uncle put it in his name, i needed to borrow it for a few months as my daily driver

btw love your truck, its certainly different! and clearly your not the only one who likes it!
Click to expand...
I hear you there that truck aint as nice as it looks lol

Oklacarcollecto said:
When did you have that truck? Where is it now?
Click to expand...
sold it 2 years ago .. its in town he painted the wheels black and took the scoop off it and i got to keep the hub caps lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top