BreakStuff Racing

"Our lady of blessed acceleration don't fail me now!" ---- Elwood Blues "The Blues Brothers"

Our latest project, a short bed Dodge Dakota. We paid $150 for it. It has a clear title and a solid frame, with some rusty sheetmetal. We will use as much as we can from what we have lying around the garage, and supplement the rest with junkyard trips and Ebay purchases. Our goal is to build a safe, but not super expensive, truck to run at the track. Base weight for an 87 Dakota is 3050 LBS with the V-6. The 360 will add a bit more to that sum. The battle will not only to lose weight but to try like hell to shift the weight to the back. Relocating the battery to the bed and installing an RCI 12 gallon fuel cell behing the rear tires. Anything that is not needed will be yarded.

February 3, 2006.... I found it at a local lemon lot and it was being used as a parts truck for another Dakota. I basically paid scrap value for it.

It has manual steering, with rack and pinion. Originally a 2.2 5 speed.

In an effort to lighten it up the rear bumper (non original) will get scrapped. We will straighten out the body a bit. I pretty much want to make it rust free. Small dings and dents will stay. No looking for pretty.

Interior is pretty much gutted already, but that is okay, since there will only be lightweight seats and eventually a roll cage.

February 9....We took a day to go to a new junkyard that we've never been to before. There's always hopes of finding a Hemi Cuda sitting forgotten somewhere in the corner, but alas, it was not to be. We did, however, find several Dakotas, but most were crap. We managed to score a perfect wiper cowl (ours was missing) for $15 so all was not lost.

February 10...Today we went to another local junkyard and found one headlight bezel in very nice shape. Total: $15.

February 10 (night)....How to put a truck on a diet, by removing the inner fender wells and the inner structure of the fenders. Each fender now weighs a grand total of 10 pounds. We also tore off the wiper motor, heater core, and any other unneeded items to help shed a few pounds. This truck won't see much street time so it doesn't matter.

Still February 10th...The lower front fenders were pretty rusty. Instead of repairing it we just lopped them off with a sawzall.Besides it helped lose 4 pounds off the front end.

February 11....yanked out the little 4-banger engine and 5 speed transmission. We stuck in an engine we had just to see how it would fit. We've still got to make up some motor mounts.

February 15...went to OmniSource, which is a metal recycling yard, and sold 360 pounds of scrap metal off the truck (engine, inner fenders, radiator, etc.) Got a whopping $18.90 for all that. Guess we can deduct that off the purchase price.

February 18....fabbed up a motor mount for the driver side.

February 23...went to yet another local junkyard and found a driver side headlight bezel and the passenger side hood hinge, which our truck lacked. Total cost: $10.

February 23...installed an electric fan and an E-body radiator that we already had. I had to relocate the mounts but fit well into the indentation of the core support.

Radiator in place. You can also see the exhaust manifolds that we will be using instead of headers. I'll probably make my own headers in the near future but for now the A-body exhaust manifolds fit good enough.

February 24...passenger side motor mount made and welded into place, using 5 X 1/4" flat stock and A-body mounts. Total cost for the steel we bought for both motor mounts was $28.

March 1...started sheetmetal work on the rocker panels and cab corners. Here is how it looked before, passenger side rocker.

New metal waiting to be cut and welded into place.

After removal, pretty ugly stuff.

Being fitted.

March 2...welded into place, and new cab corner is on, too. In the previous picture it looks like I welded the replacement panels over the existing ones but thats not the case. I had to fit them in the exact spot to keep the panel alignment.

The driver side being finished up. Just gotta grind it down and primer it.

I mounted some leftover gauges in a piece of 2024 T3 aluminum and fitted it in place of the radio. The two blank panels will get the switches for the ignition, electric fan, starter, and electric fuel pumps.

Early April....Driver side wheel well, before. We fitted up the new sheet metal to the truck, and traced it out using paint. Now we know where to cut.

We removed the rotted out wheel well arch and the inner fenderwell. Sad to say but this truck was smacked here before we owned it and some hacks welded on half a bed side. Instead of spot welding it in place they just ran a bead. The blue peanut butter is really thick here now for all the distorted in the metal.

Here is the new sheet metal after being welded into place and ground down a bit. Just got to finish grinding and smoothing it out.

April....decided to swiss cheese the hood a bit for some more weight savings. Also removed is the hood latch and associated brackets and harware. We will use hood pins to hold the hood down.

Heater box and core are removed. Made up a plate to cover the holes.

April 16...A buddy was sending a 91 grand am to the crusher and donated the seats out of it to the dakota project. I had to modify the floor pan with a BFH to make them fit. Thanks T1

April 19....The inner bed sides were pretty crispy. I cut out the rust and welded patches over them. Filled the gaps in with seam sealer. Like I said, I'm not looking for pretty.

Patched, welded, and seam sealed.

April 22....A bit of filler to be sanded smooth and then primed over.

This fender is a total piece of crap. I dollied out a grand canyon sized dent just behind the headlight bezel and made a patch to replace the missing metal in the wheel well lip. I should have replaced it but would rather use the $50 for speed parts.

We sanded down to the original red paint and sprayed on the black primer.

April 23...First coat of black primer on one side. The lower rear quarters needed some work but decided to just cut them off. Another 6 pounds shaved off.

Here it is with fresh paint. We decided to stick with a semi gloss black paint that is industrial strength and extremely durable, more so than just black primer. In fact, the guy at the paint shop that mixed it for us said that this same paint was used on a display helicopter at the local VFW hall. Plus at $48 bucks a gallon, it is reasonably priced.

Here it is pushed outside with the front somewhat put back on.

RCI fuel cell installed in the back along with battery box. Gotta transfer as much weight as possible to the back. And yes, that puny little rear end will soon be replaced by a B-body 8 3/4.

We went to a swap meet in Coldwater, Michigan on May 13th and found a pair of aluminum slot rims and slicks for $50.

Three D's

Made some metal straps to hold the fuel cell down.

Painted the floor with POR-15 and installed some carpet we had lying around.

We decided to paint on a white bumblebee stripe. Here is the before pic.

during

and finished. The white bumble bee also makes it easier to spot how crooked the bottoms of the quarters are. Living proof that drinking and using a sawzall don't mix.

When we get the 8 3/4 installed it should help tuck those tires in a bit! The 8 3/4 is supposed to be a bit more narrow than the stock Dakota rear end.

We got a bumper sticker at a car show that said "MY NEXT POLICE CAR IS GONNA HAVE A HEMI." Except we modified it a bit and stuck it on the Dakota.

Interior with new floor shifter, and carpet.

(JUNE 24) Axle swap. Side by side with the 8 3/4 in front. the 7 1/4 was a bit odd to identify due its 3" axle tubes. The B-body rear was exactly 2" narrower than the stock Dak rear. I just need to fab up some shock mounts because I destroyed the ones on the 7 1/4 trying to remove the rusted in place shocks.

Rear is installed with fresh U-bolts, brakes, brake cylinders, and lines. Thanks to the much narrower 66 charger rearend my 12" slicks now only stick out to the wheel well lip.

We learned that slicks get sticky enough to peel up cement on garage floors.

We decided to make our own headers. We had some old smallblock headers lying around, and bought another set at a local swap meet for $20. Here is one of the header victims.

In progress...

Passenger side done, click on pic to enlarge.

Outside view. Those white rims looked kind of strange at first, but they've grown on us.

Driver side header completed. We also made our own exhaust, complete with mufflers. We had a local muffler shop bend the pipes for us, but did all the installation ourselves.

September 2 thru 3...decided to replace ALL the brake lines since the old ones were rusty. We also replaced the '66 Charger 8 3/4 center section with one that we already had, since the old one had highway gears and a peg leg. The one we put in has 3.23's with Sure-Grip and came out of a Dart parts car we had. Gears will be upgraded eventually but we want to use what we have for now.

Looks like the new Sure-Grip works pretty well.

September 8th....almost ready for the first shake-down pass at the drag strip!

Dakota in the pits at Milan Dragway.

First pass at the dragstrip.

We decided to get rid of the brake booster. Long story. Anyway, we bought an adapter plate off E-bay and got screwed because this particular plate that was supposed to fit a Dakota doesn't fit. So we had to make an adapter plate for the adapter plate.The new plate we made is 3/16 cold roll steel and fits through the same holes as the original booster. I went to the local parts store (a good parts store, not AutoZone) to order an adjustable push rod and the dude said to try using a Ford truck adjustable clutch push rod. I'll be damned it fit perfect sliding all the way up through the hole in the master cylinder. I know "ford parts in a dodge???" but I couldn't beat the $10 made in the USA price tag.

We decided to rebuild the 727 trans and add a MP 146K converter that was a leftover from the Duster. We figure it was the right price (free) and should do better than the stock converter that was in it. This is the only way to remove an engine and trans, by taking the whole front end off.

While the 360 was out we added a new intake, some port matching, and freshened the paint a bit.

here is an "in progress" pic after most of the work was already done. We also installed a Transgo shift kit.

We cut out an 18" by 12" section of the firewall out and made a box 3" deep. Now the distributor won't rub the firewall anymore and it will be easier to access.

Engine back in place, that was almost too easy with the front end off.

We decided to beef up the motor mounts on both sides.

driver's side

new hood scoop that we scored for cheap and decided to throw on.

Click on pic to enlarge.

Almost ready for the first pass of the 2007 race season.

We took it to the dragstrip for the first time in 2007 on May 5th. It made a single pass and we knew something was seriously wrong. It pulled hard until the 330' mark then the back end broke loose and smoke started blowing up from behind the hood, she was cackling like an old hen. I still ran a 14.27 @ 91.25 never leaving second gear and on 7 cylinders. I thought I broke #5 piston but it turned out I blew the head gasket and was blowing oil out the exhaust onto the left slick. On the trailer she went.

I slapped DOA on the window and we called it a day.

Carnage pic! Luckily this truck is so easy to work on that we had the engine out, fixed, and back in place in a weekend.

The secretary of state let us put a license plate on it, so it is now street legal! Kinda...

After sitting most of the summer, we decided to pull the old Dak out of the weeds and clean her up for Mopars at Milan Dragway day on September 1, 2007. The truck is having transmission issues and will not shift into third gear at high rpm's. It also managed to go sideways at 100 mph right at the finish line. The driver saved it from rolling and hitting the wall so he was very lucky.

After the sideways incident the driver took it easy for the next couple passes to make sure everything was okay. It was. He then entered it in the truck/SUV bracket race class.

Video Dakota vs. new Hemi Ram -- The Dakota easily beat a new Hemi Ram in a time trial. The video shows a cool burnout and launch, but the video person (me) managed to ruin the rest of the run. Oh well......

Even without shifting into third we still managed a new best of 13.3. If you are gonna lose a bracket race, at least do it by posting a new best ET.

if you would like to contact me please email dustrag73 (at) yahoo.com