This is a rather unusual pairing of two similar vintage pickups, but not just because they’re both from the 70s and painted flat black. The poor little Dodge Ram (by Mitsubishi) appears to have either been rammed, or possibly it rammed the big Chevy in front of it.
This perplexed me a bit. That big steel bumper is actually bent downwards on this side, but is that coincidental? Did this happen as a result of their interaction? The Ram doesn’t look like it got hit all that hard.Or maybe this is a cheap aftermarket bumper.
Whatever. Maybe they just have a fatal attraction for each other.
Looks like the original bumper on the Chev. My guess would be “preexisting condition”.
Cue the choruses of “Why don’t they make small pickups any more?”.
They do. VW Saviero, FCA RAM700, Chevrolet Tornado/Montana.
They just don’t sell them in the US.
And those are all FWD/AWD unibody, which I believe would help solve the issue of compact trucks not getting good enough MPG for their size.
I haven’t seen a Ram pickup of this generation in…ages. Always thought they had rather nice lines, kind of like a more squared-off Datsun 620.
And if that’s the stock bumper that *has* to be a pre-existing condition. The rear bumper on my ’79 Malibu is slightly tweaked, far less than this one, and that is the result of 2 combined hits that probably caused well over $1000 worth of damage to the other car in each case. This one is but a mere bump. Plus I’m not sure how it would cause that particular angle of deflection given the heights of the vehicles involved.
Maybe these trucks are owned by the same owner and I doubt that Ram 50 could have dented the Chevy’s bumper. Some people in Portland with multiple cars do park them so the bumpers are touching when there is limited parking.
If this was on an incline, I’d guess the same owner for both vehicles, too, and that the Chevy’s parking brake wasn’t working. As possible evidence, notice the way the front wheels are turned.
Or maybe some sort of theft deterrent to keep would-be thieves out of the little Ram’s engine compartment.
+1 to Teddy’s thought.
However, give the amount of brittle plastic in the baby Ram’s grille, I’d be very reluctant to park it using “the Braille method”
My RAM and my Dad’s Ranger…
I remember the Ram 50s looked tiny at the time, no bigger than current subcompacts. Offset some, by the long bed. It was rare to not see them with loud body graphics.
The Dodge appears to be showing excess negative camber in the front.
Most compact pickups of the time had a standard bed of 6′ long and a long bed of anywhere between 7′ and 7.5′. The first gen D-50/Plymouth Arrow Truck had only one bed length, but it was slightly longer than 6.5′. The second gen Ram 50 had the more conventional choice of bed lengths.
Owned an 81 Chev PU with a bumper similar to the one pictured, didn’t take much to fold it up…..got a used replacement with more bracing and was heavier gauge….it went the distance until I sold the truck, sure miss that 8 foot bed!
Hard to see that Ram 50’s front grille. If the Chevrolet backed into the Ram’s front or the Ram smashed into the Chevrolet, I’d say that Ram’s front grille would have been smashed in by the Chevrolet’s rear bumper. The Ram’s front bumper (which is below the height of the Chevy’s rear bumper) already looked pushed in, but not from the impact by the Chevrolet’s rear bumper.
I’d say both truck’s damage were pre-existing.
Incidently, the original rear step bumper on my dad’s 1968 GMC was bent down somehow in the same manner as the Chevy’s bumper. Don’t recall how it happened. The bumper was undamaged but the brackets where the bumper was attached to the frame were tweaked.
The same thing happened to the rear bumper of my Ranger.
I simply drove it to the receiving area of my company, found a rubber-faced loading platform that matchup up with the top of my bent bumper, lined it up carefully in my rear view mirror with the rear bumper facing about 10 feet from the platform…and then put the transmission into reverse and PUNCHED the accelerator pedal.
I call such repairs, “Channeling my inner redneck.”
Did it work?
Perhaps not perfect, but I can definitely live with it.
(I have no idea why my photo previews appear upside down, but right side up in full size view!)
This is what I assume my ghetto neighbors have done to my old Mercedes three or four times now . (go price out a new 1984 Mercedes grille !) .
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On the other hand, often when parking is tight (parties etc.) I’ll *gently* hand roll my vehicles nose to tail like this to be a good neighbor ~ parking up two spaces with one vehicle is always a dickhead move, OTOH I can park three of mine in a dedicated two vehicle curb space and not be in the red *if* they’re all touching .
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These old Dodge/Mitsubishi Mini Trucks were fairly popular and have a very strong cult now .
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They’re pretty sturdy but using a wax pellet to operate the automatic choke was a bad engineering move .
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Those who have to suffer getting these rigs through SMOG tests, hate the weird and (IMO) crappy carbies used .
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My 1971 Datsun 620 shortbed had a nice beefy step bumper I used to tow vehicles and trailers weighing more than the truck .(slowly of course)
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My 1978 Datsun 620 longbed came with a tin foil step bumper from the Dealer (maybe factory?), it was worthless ~ I was dead scared to even flat tow a VW Beetle with it .
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I left it on only because it still had the original ” Lil’ Hustler ” bumper sticker on it .
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-Nate