Old trucks from the 1960s in salvageable and easily restored condition are becoming increasingly hard to find, but are well worth the effort it takes to get them back on the street. The style that all three American auto manufacturers delivered on in the ’60s was unmistakable, but the Dodge D series really stood out from the crowd.
The year 1964 was special, as it was the first year that Dodge offered the Custom Sports Special and a high performance package that featured Chrysler’s massive 426 cubic-inch wedge-head V8 that pumped out 365-horsepower and a whopping 470 lb-ft of torque. While, the ground breaking packages changed the course for the D-series trucks from humble workhorse to a more show worthy sports truck, its hard to imagine that the engineers at Dodge would have ever thought that one of their trucks would become a pro-touring masterpiece like the 1964 D300 built by John Backus.
From first glance, it appears that the truck really does lives up to the moniker “The Rusty Goat,” but don’t let the faded white paint with spots of rust shining through fool you. This truck was not pulled from a field hours ago, it is the result of a project Backus started 2 and a half years ago. He found the truck for sale in Nashville, Tennessee, yanked the old Cadillac 500 cubic inch engine out of it, and got to work on the frame up build, with big goals in mind.
Starting with a custom frame built with a Ridetech Strongarm suspension and ShockWave air springs and shocks, John plans to tune the suspension for Autocross. It is powered by a 525 horsepower 6.0-liter LS series engine built with Holleyand Hooker parts. Power travels to the ground trough a T-56 Magnum six-speed transmission and a Moser Engineering Ford 9-inch rearend.
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of AutoCentric Media, the parent company to Timeless Muscle Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the magazine’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next round modifications for his own cars.
