[FF54]

Guess the title says it all. I bought this truck at the time because I wanted a four wheel drive for playing since I have my work truck which I normally drive. 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 Sport. 318, 5 speed, 4x4. Stanard Cab short bed. This is the first dodge I have owned. This picture is the closest I can get to when I bought it. I built the front bumper and had taken the stock 16" aluminum rims off and put on Cragar Soft 8's 15x8 inch rims with 33x10.50 BFG All Terrain TA/KO's.

Here is another view of the bumper.

Then I built a flatbed and pipe rear bumper.

Next on the agenda was cab corners, rocker panels, and fenders. Here are some before shots.

Here are some after.

I couldnt find any pics of the rockers after.

 

[FF54]

Next up was the remaining body work. Paint. Since there is already a before here is a during.

And after.

And she isnt a beauty queen. She does go out and play.

 

[FF54]

Next up was an engine swap. Took the tired 318 out and put a 360 with some goodies in.

Installed some Corbeau Baja RS suspension seats. The red has since been painted black in most of these pictures too.

And a hint of what's to come in this thread.

 

[MadSoul87]

Dude completely different truck. Looking bad ass. What part of PA are you in?

 

[Chunkem]

Truck looks awesome....Nicely done......

 

[FF54]

On the NY State line in Warren County. Thanks for the compliments guys. I got more to add, but I got tired of being on the computer for the day when I did this.

 

[MadSoul87]

I'm just cross the way in Tioga County on the border of NY. Can't wait to see the extra pics. Definite rep points for this build man.

 

[moparornocar72]

Very unique. Keep it coming!

 

[FF54]

I would have posted pics tonight but after workin twelve hours at my day job we got called out for a brush fire and I just got back from that. Starting again on the fire tomorrow morning, dodge will be out to play.

 

[FF54]

Today we got called to assist our neighboring fire department with a structure fire. So we sent an engine, a tanker and an ambulance. They established a water supply in a very remote location using two portable pumps and were having trouble keeping up with the tankers that were filling at the water supply then hauling the water to scene to dump. So they called for our trailer pump and since I was late showing up I was still at the station. So I brought it. This was after I had drove ten miles back of rain soaked roads but when we were up at the location, the truck/pump were absolutely covered in mud.

 

[FF54]

The reason its sagging so bad in the rear is because there is over 500 ft of soaking wet mud packed fire hose in the bed, plus the trailer being hooked up.

 

[double0ram]

nice bumper man! thats some deer slaying power there. and haulin fire equip around definatly deserves some reps

:rep:

 

[FF54]

Thanks. I wanna sell that bumper so I can build another one. Its just time for some change. On a bad note we were out playin in the local mud hole and I broke the front drive shaft in the double joint up by the t case. So on monday Im calling tom woods and ordering a high angle drive line.

 

[FF54]

Well, so far so good. Truck's been running great ever since I put the new computer in. The new driveshaft took 3 weeks to get here, but its been working out great as well. We've been out wheeling almost every single weekend. The next project is going to be building a track bar for the front axle as the lowering bracket that came with the kit causes the bar to come in contact with the axle under compression. The only other thing I want to do is either go to heavier axles or just put 4.10's in the axles i got, with a selectable locker in the rear.

 

[FF54]

Bought myself a plasma cutter back right after christmas, this is the first major project I used it on. Still havent done the axle swap, should be starting the axl build ups here in a couple weeks.

 

[Asur]

Sweet front end, wow, nice work on that, looks real good, would of loved to see how you built it, but finished product is real nice. Great stuff.

 

[SnoylCC5]

that bumper looks awesome man!! Hopefully you get your axle fixed soon

 

[fastNugly @ RP]

That front end looks much better.....even more impressive is you doing all the work :smileup:

:rep:

 

[FF54]

Thanks guys, truthfully I never took any pictures of the back side of it. I got a couple pictures of it in raw steel as we built it, i still gotta add a hoop to it to protect some offroad lights that are gonna go on it, and then there is one other thing that im going to do but its a secret, not quite sure how im gonna pull it off. When i pull the bumper off for those two things I will take some pictures of the inside, but just like the rest of my truck, most people would consider it overbuilt.