The answer is never clear. So here I am, 7 months into ownership of this final year first gen 86' Dodge Ram 50 4G63B, 5 Speed manual. Let's just say this truck entered my hands as a $400 beater. I wasn't exactly sure how long I was going to keep it, I just know I needed a little truck or wagon to haul parts around as my Audi 5000, and my Volvo 245 had both been totaled on the same day a couple weeks prior.
For the most part it scampered around for a couple months as an errand boy. The unbolted E36 drivers seat, and equally hardware rich toyota hilux passenger seat were removed and swapped for a mildly more secured Ford Ranger bench seat which remains in the truck currently until I come across a factory red cloth bench seat. It ended up having a breakdown after 4000 miles of nothing but back and fourth runs for parts runs and daily driving which gave me quite the run around, firing the parts cannon off up until I was about to pull the cylinder head off, and discovered the cam gear had been cracked the whole time. During the time off the road firing the parts cannon, I was able to source 90% of the missing components that the truck lacked on a pick n pull run, and sourced an entire uncut wiring harness off a truck being parted out on the Facebook marketplace.
Lots of things got done during this downtime as well. A full exhaust was made as the setup on the truck when I bought it was straight tweaker spec. A heaterbox, and new speaker harness had been returned to the truck as well.
As of late, the truck has hauled me around nearly 8 thousand miles since purchasing it and mostly still is used as a parts hauler. I nearly traded it off for an AW11 the other day, but remembered I'd finally snagged an early Sport Steering wheel on ebay the week prior, and realized it was to arrive soon. It's really cemented itself with me for the time being, the steering wheel being a nice touch that holds me over and is one more step away from wiping it's tarnished past away.
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