first off thanks for reading this, your SOUND advice is greatly appreciated as this is my first time at bat with a mild fixer-upper! as you give advice please understand i'm a confident beginner and will need to have the "tech talk" toned down to a level i can understand - i hope all you pro's can have some sympathy for me. the main thing is there doesn't seem to be a job that's ever been too big for me and with the help of all the dude's on here and the shop manual i've got comin my way (http://www.autobooksbishko.com/Items/1969-1971%20Dodgetruck%20Shop%20Manual/689.html) i feel i'll be able to handle all the work that needs to be done myself. that's why we're all here anyways right?

a little over a week ago i trailered home "the lady in red", a 1969 D100 4x4. she was 10 minutes south of Canada, in central Washington. WHAT I KNOW SHE'S GOT: 440 - mileage unknown, carter competition carb, edlebrock intake, some kind of racing transmission (i was told). She used to be a manual - one of the fellas that had the truck before left the clutch pedal installed when he changed it over to an auto, i'd like to fix that someday. uh... what else... warn hubs, i don't think the front end is o.e.

THINGS I WAS TOLD THAT NEED TO BE FIXED: so here's how the story went comin out of bill's (previous owner) mouth. bill pulled the truck "out of the weeds" and "cleaned it up". but he wasn't interested in continuing on with the repair work for monetary reasons - so i bought it. bill said the truck needed "a new power steering pump, the right front brake line was bad, and the new header's he bought that came with the truck needed to be installed" so i'm thinkin, alright... i can handle that... i gave him 1,100 smackers and away we went.

SO I GET THE LADY IN RED HOME, BLOCK THE WHEELS, AND ROLL UP MY SLEEVES: i knew bill rattle canned the body and did what he could to get her rollin good again, but there's still more that's needing to be done (always is, right?), and this is based on my greenhorn eye. so let's keep tabs on the three things that bill mentioned, i wrote them in blue above so they are easy to go back to, and we'll move on to what i have noticed. front differential leaks bad. i'm sure what ever gear oil was in there is nearly all gone by now. heater core is gone from under the hood. the hoses are still there, just no unit under the hood. the box is there, by the floorboard on the passenger side still. i'm assuming it leaked, but i'll need one for the fall and winter. LAST, BUT FAR FROM LEAST: not knowing the extent of how long she's sat, i would really like to bleed some lines, purge some systems, and give the truck a good blood transfusion. but i need to know what systems, specifically i should do so i can look up the procedure and be sure that's all nice, clean, and fresh for my virgin voyage. the lady has sat since i dropped her from the trailer. i haven't driven her, cus i'm too scared i may make a problem worse. she was driven onto the trailer, did well there. i have fired her up once - she sound like two monster trucks havin sex - and she sounds pretty healthy. she idles good... i did notice the belt to the power steering pump started to scream and smoked a little soon after i turned her over that one time after i got her home. i guess bill had the truck for a year and a half, but before that.........? all i know is the aftermarket upgrades, including the motor, tranny, and some other things were added before bill got his hands on it.... but why did that guy just give up and leave her "in the weeds"? and how long was she sitting before bill found it and brought it home for 600 bucks....

MY GOAL: i want what we all want, a healthy firin, healthy breathin, lean, mean, strong machine. i want the lady in red to sound as good as she feels, to roll confidently, and be seen as something i have a lot of pride in owning - cus i do. i've got my first child on the way any time now, and i can't wait to share my ride with him or her. i'm also on a tight budget, another reason why i'll be doing all this work myself, so i really want to have a thought out strategie in taking care of these issues in their proper order. and anyone's advice on that will really help as well. like i say, i'm a confident beginner and i want to knock down one job at a time, doing it right so i know it'll hold. i'm including some pictures in the link below of the issues i mentioned in blue above, so you all can get a good look at what i'm seein.

RECAP: feel free, to put the letter's in order of your importance, with any other advice pertaining to each issue.
A. POWER STEERING PUMP screamed and smoked the last time i fired er up. could the pump really be shot though? should i flush the system, how do i tell if the pump needs to be replaced? it does look old....
B. BRAKE LINE(S). bill said one is shot. pretty sure they're all drums. should i just redo all the lines cus i don't know the history? some cables/lines better than others? anything else.....?
C. HEADERS. they're black and have all the flanges and silicon gaskets. i noticed one of the header pipes (driver's side) looks as if it was heated and pounded on to make the curve around the starter. the starter looks older than the hills, but she fire's right up. should i look into a smaller starter if the new header pipe doesn't make the bend around the starter, or is bending it like the old one ok?
D. FRONT DIFF. leaking pretty bad. easy fix? just a seal perhaps....? what should i look for?
E. HEATER. hmmm....... :thinking clueless on this one.....
F. BLOOD TRANSFUSION. of high importance to me, just cus i don't know how old everything is, or how long it's been sitting in the lines etc.... what systems should a guy do if he finds a rig out in a field, brings it home and
needs to bleed the sludge out/replace lines?

PICTURES!!!!!!!!! CLICK ON THIS LINK SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT I SEE, PLEASE (use the slideshow feature in the upper right):
[www.flickr.com]

I REALLY APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL INPUT AND, I REALLY APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL INPUT AND, I REALLY APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL INPUT AND, I REALLY APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL INPUT AND GOD BLESS!!!!!!!