1962 Dodge Pickup: Mopar-Powered Show Winner
Photo credit: Lindsey Fisher
Unique doesn’t even begin to describe Tim Molzen’s 1962 Dodge Pickup four-door truck. This beast of a 1962 Dodge Pickup truck from Sioux City, Iowa was never seen without a crowd of people around it when it was selected as a Goodguys 2015 LMC Truck Parts Truck of the Year (Late) finalist in Des Moines. It simply stole the show!
After being retired as an Air Force truck in Texas, Malzen acquired the 1962 Dodge Pickup then sent it to Iowa’s hot rod kingpin, Roger Burman, for its full transformation. It started with a custom made Roadster Shop frame with tubular A-arms, a 4-bar rear suspension setup, and a 9-inch Ford rear end. Rack and pinion style steering with Wilwood disc brakes all around give it new millennium performance. Custom painted Hot Rods by Boyd wheels roll on Continental tires.
Under the hood is all Mopar baby! A 360 c.i. Dodge V8 with an Edelbrock four-barrel carburetor, Edelbrock aluminum cylinder heads, and custom fabricated aluminum valve covers warm up the engine bay. MSD ignition and stock coated headers with Flowmaster exhaust work together to power the massive truck down the highway. A 727 transmission with Gear Vendors overdrive provides smooth shift points.
The old 3/4-ton 4×4 Dodge truck’s body was in rough shape upon arrival. Burman spent countless hours reworking the bed, cab, and front end. All the edges were sharpened as well as body gaps reset. Once all the work was finished it was painted in a brilliant PPG Western Brown at Burman’s Lakeside Rods & Rides.
Weber’s Custom Interiors in Alexandria, Minnesota had a lot of work to do inside the 4-door truck. Dodge Intrepid power front seats were used while the stock back seat was salvageable. The seats were trimmed in a brown leather with white stitching. The custom-made door panels were upholstered to match. The dash was smoothed and painted to match the exterior of the truck, then fitted with custom-made, one-of-a-kind Dakota Digital gauges that sit behind the Billet Specialties steering wheel.
Let’s be real here. The 1960’s Dodge trucks were ugly! A 4-door only amplifies the ugly factor! If you don’t believe us do a quick Google image search. What Burman did to transform Molzen’s 4-door pickup into a stunning award winner is basically on par with Alezandros of Antioch’s Venus de Milo. Unique, different and masterfully built, it’s truly one of a kind ride.
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