Rarest of the rare - my newest truck

[pennyman1]

I have found and bought the rarest model of Ram 50 I know of - a 1981 Ram 50 Big Horn. This was Dodge's attempt to have a mini version of the full size Big Horn truck, and was only made for a few months in 1981. Here are some pics of the truck from the previous owner - I intend to restore this to as close to original as possible:

[Darklord]

Thats awesome!

[Uncle Spence]

I saw that one on Craiglist. Looks like you got a decent deal too. Hope you can get started on it soon and make the progress you want. I think it's a cool pickup! Nice work Pennyman.

[DroppedMitsu]

Congrats, looks like a cool model.

[pennyman1]

Only ever seen one in person many years ago in Pittsburgh - the owner worked construction and was on a job below my house at the time. It overheated one day on the way home and cracked the block - I could have bought it cheap at the time , but had no where to store it. This is not that truck. I got a better deal than the craigslist price - it was on eBay, and got it for a little more than 1/2 the CL price. I now have to go get the truck - its 600 miles one way from my house in Nashville, and its still winter here and there with mountains in between. I even have the sales brochure, because I liked the style so much - bought it a while ago.

[yamahlr]

Best congratulations on your new acquisition! I actually sat in one in the showroom of Swartz Motors Dodge/Saab where I later bought my Ram 50 in 87. It was a supercool truck but nowhere close to the$$$ I had just getting out of college. I too bought the brochure as number of years ago and may have a couple more pics or so. Please post some pics as you go forward. Great Find!!!

[yamahlr]

Best congratulations on your new acquisition! I actually sat in one in the showroom of Swartz Motors Dodge/Saab where I later bought my Ram 50 in 87. It was a supercool truck but nowhere close to the$$$ I had just getting out of college. I too bought the brochure as number of years ago and may have a couple more pics or so. Please post some pics as you go forward. Great Find!!!

[pennyman1]

It will take some work, as the PO ran it low on oil and may have damaged the motor, although he said it spins but won't start. My hope is that the low oil caused the tensioner to slack off the timing chain and it skipped time, causing it not to start. I have a spare head and rebuilt short block for it, and it has the original 5 spd tranny that was rebuilt by the original owner, not because it was bad, but because he wanted something to do - there is a good tranny in the truck, so the original tranny is a spare. I also will have to put the A/C back in it, and the usual brakes, muffler and tires, but it looks clean - I will have pics up once I get it. It will be fun to get it back to original, with maybe a mild lowering to help fill the wheel wells like Geronimo.

[hutch]

Nice find and congrats. Even though it needs a little work it will all be a labor of love.

[crvtec90]

Looks cool. Ive never seen one. Kinda funny how the full size are called big horn nowadays.

[pennyman1]

This was the mini version of the Full size Big Horn trucks. What goes around comes around.

[KCGarage]

That is an awesome find. i'll be watching for the updates on this for sure.

[BradMph]

Do they call it a Big Horn because it honks real loud?

[pennyman1]

it will when I put the train horns on it...

[Jeff V.]

That's pretty cool. I like oddball, rare car stuff.

If you're even halfway serious about putting loud horns on it, check out the old GM '4 note' horns. I picked up a 2 note set for my truck, and they're pretty loud without being obnoxious. The 4 note setup sounds like a scaled down train horn.

[dash]

gotta b a great feeling when ur a MMax nut, to get ur hands on such a rare gem. Good 4 u!

[pennyman1]

been looking for one for a long time - glad to find another one.