A 1946 Dodge Pickup Is What Tweety, a Beer Keg, and a Chrome Skull Have in Common

It’s in the nature of my job to always be on the lookout for the most beautiful and relevant custom rides out there. I like to think most of the time I find and bring under the spotlight just the right ones for you all to enjoy. Yet from time to time it so happens that something so delightfully opposite crosses my path that it is, paradoxically, too good to ignore.

We’re face to face with such a build right now. A 1946 Dodge pickup truck looking as bad as you’d expect from a 77-year-old vehicle, despite someone’s attempts to make it a noticeable presence on the custom market. For what it’s worth, I definitely noticed it, so here it is, in all its unsung glory.

We’ll start with the basics, of course, and that would be the 1946 Dodge. It’s a half-ton pickup truck from the early days of the mighty Power Wagon that would have probably suffered the fate most other non-Ford or Chevy trucks suffer, had someone not saved it for the purposes of this transformation.

We don’t have any info on who the people behind this abomination are, or when they put it together, but there’s one thing we’re certain of: they sure were imaginative.

Most of the original truck, especially when it comes to the frame and body that goes over it, is still there. For the purposes of this build, they have all been wrapped in a color called Gunmetal Gray Metallic that strangely enough looks both matt and shiny at the same time.

The front of the truck is dominated by the large fenders that climb over the wheels from each side of the massive grille. Yet there’s another element that catches the eye the most here: the huge chrome cross pulled over the thing’s nose, resembling from some angles some sort of a chastity belt from the dark ages. The lights mounted on top of the fenders might look old and decrepit, but they are actually halo LEDs.

From the sides, the truck presents the viewer with a classic 1940s body, with the metal of the main panels blending (not in a smooth way) with the solid oak running boards, bed floor, and half sides.

Open the doors, and you’re treated to the sight of two relatively dirty high-back bucket seats in black and what must once have been ivory broadcloth. In front of them, there’s the unpretentious dashboard that holds pretty much all the original gauges. To its right though, the dashboard hides something pretty modern: a flip-out touchscreen that doubles as an AM/FM/CD/DVD player and backup camera display. Below that there’s a row of switches, which can be used to control the wipers and lighting – and not only the front halo LEDs, but also underbody lighting which in this case comes, how else, in eye-popping purple.

There is however one element that makes all others of the interior fade into the distance: the floor mats. Both of them come with a bright yellow speck of color that forms the shape of one of the most beloved cartoon characters around: Tweety. And that’s weird item number 1.

Weird item number 2 can be found at the back. For reasons unexplained, the small rear window has a sticker on it depicting a masked dog, one I unfortunately was unable to identify as some famous character (feel free to chip in).

The Schaffer's beer keg installed in a special mount on the bed is weird item number 3. Clearly useful in some instances, the keg makes the Dodge look a bit like an overdue moonshine truck.

And the cherry on the cake, item number 4 on the list of things this truck comes with for no apparent reason: the chrome skull cover fitted over the custom hitch at the back. And it beautifully rounds off a build that probably made sense to someone, but has the rest of us scratching our heads.

Oh, and a few more bits of info we left out until now, captivated as we were by the “shiny” bits: the 1946 Dodge pickup, with its share of “nicks. chips, bubbles and cracked body filler,” rides on 15-inch wheels and is powered by a 350ci engine tied to a 3-speed automatic transmission. The engine is not something to easily discard, as it’s backed by a 4-barrel Edelbrock carburetor – sadly, we’re not told exactly how much power it develops in this application.

If all of the above nonsensical references and the not-so-great state of the truck didn’t discourage you from trying this thing in person, you should know the Dodge is selling from the lot of a Pennsylvania-based dealer called Classic Auto Mall.

The asking price? Well, we have the truck itself with 70,500 miles (113,459 km) on the clock, the two Tweeties, a dog (with glasses), a beer keg (probably empty), and a skull-covered hitch – that would be $29,000, thank you very much.