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Yea, I like the back window, it’s handy. I don’t have any interest in that many stickers 😂 that said I’m sure I have some cool ones you sent me somewhere.

How ‘fit in’ are we talking 😂

Stuff like this really irritates me on imports. On my Dakota, as stock, no white forward facing side lamps. No biggie as they have a dummy lamp unit on the corner, easiest thing to have done would be add an additional bulb holder. Which they did with speaker wire, having cut the lamp holder off the corner marker. And then also just cut the rest of the original parking lamp wires. Spent an hour or so today at work when we were quiet putting it all back to stock plus the white side lamps. Why the original wiring ends up ruined is beyond me as it’s fine to have amber marker lamps as long as you have supplemented them with white position lamps. And don’t get me started on the side repeaters and add on rear indicators. 😆

No idea. I don’t drive in it (CAZ/LEZ) anyway in my ‘toys’ as the Peugeot is CAZ and LEZ compliant so I use that if I have to go in town. I should check really 😂

At least your arches suit the truck. Mine were far too dori special, on a truck that I haven’t managed to chirp the tyres one once yet.

Terrible photos inbound!

Before I removed the camping carbuncle, I emptied the small amount of stuff out of it. It had a 3 way dometic cooler, a hob and grille and gas bottle and a carpet. In the cooler there was a free beer. Result.



Lifted the box with the 2 post lift at work, unfortunately this soon became apparent I couldn’t quite get the height required to remove it past the tailgate posts. Getting the last few inches was simple enough though. Let the tyres down 😂



I then moved on to flushing the cooling system and trying to purge it of the brown rust water normally found in late 90’s Renault cooling systems. I didn’t take pictures as it was wet and messy but it took longer than the faff of removing the bed box.

The pictures get worse here. My phone camera is truly dead.

What this wonderful zoomy blur is is clips holding the radiator fan on. I presume it used clips but for some reason it was held in place with wood screws dropped in the holes and I just couldn’t look at that every time I opened the bonnet. So I fashioned some retainers.



The battery clamp is well and truly broken and was too tall to hold this well flash Optima battery so I repurposed the gas bottle strap to make sure it’s secure. I can’t stand batteries being loose.



I changed the oil and plugs and did a few bits and bobs including replacing (temporarily) the tensioner pulley that sounded like it was about to take off with a Nissan 300ZX timing belt tensioner pulley I had lying about and tensioning the belt so I can use the A/C, as well as removing the arch extensions and then called it a day. I took some pics with the wife’s phone at this point.

Getting onto the right track with it now at least.

So I presented this picture on FB and also the chat thread here, of my ‘mystery’ MOPAR key that isn’t my Jeep.



So yea, as per the title it’s for a Dodge Dakota. A black 2.5 petrol manual, oxymoronically trim-levelled ‘Sport’, ClubCab. So. Let’s get a look at the fine specimen. Err, yea.



Initial plans today are to remove the carbuncle. The PO fitted it to use for camping, which it’s great for, but not to look at so that’s coming out. Also, the wheelarch extensions are a thing of.. not-beauty. They need to go. Seeing as a lot of the truck is painted with aerosol or the clear has blown I’m not too bothered. It was cheap and it has a stirring stick, most of these I could afford being smaller capacity autos didn’t sound like a great combo for towing so this was the best mechanically of the bunch. Although I say that, the coolant all fell out when I went to put fuel in so that seems to be in true retro rides car collection fashion. I’ll post some more pics as I’m working on it today

Whaaaat? No way! I can’t image why ANYONE would take umbrage to that premium Hepatitis-palace being anywhere!

I've been playing what's my mystery key for on Facebook.



Apologies for the quality of the picture. My phone camera has eaten itself.

No idea why I haven’t commented on this this far but what a fantastic thing. Well done on the rebuild, your attention to detail has paid off and it looks brilliant. 👍🏻