[double0ram]

well this is gunna start out as a build 'story' before i get into it.

I started this awesome silver(ish) 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 in a trade. My first ram was a black 1500 Sport. While i was deployed, i loaned my black sport to a friend.... and he beat the living snot out of it. there was too much damage to list, but after a new front end and a new tranny, she just was not the same truck. There was just an overwhelming amount of repairs over the whole truck, and i was starting to tackle them one by one. Tires finally came up, and i found a guy on craigslist with some 33s. when i went to buy em, i saw a silver extended cab sitting on the side of his garage ( my soon to be tank). my thoughts were PART TRUCK! I asked a few general questions about it, and short of just over 200000 miles, she ran like a champ... so no part truck. he offered a straight trade, mine for his, because i had a new tranny, and there was a 5 inch fabtech sitting in the bed of his, new in the box. so i made the leap and so starts my project tank.

Since i joined the forum well after i started building the ram up, i dont have many pictures of what she started out as. I installed the lift shortly after getting it, got a cheap black roll bar, and a set of 16x8s wrapped in goodyear wrangler 35s. pretty sweet. oh and a black grille off ebay for dirt cheap. real tough for me. so heres where i start some pictures .

35s!!!!!!! ( the below picture was took much later from when the first one was, its just the best pic i have of the rims and tires)

 

[double0ram]

Next up was the headlights. going from a sport to this ram, i hated the headlights. yellowed and foggy, hated is an understatement. so i bought a set of headlights off ebay, a combo hid headlight package.

 

[double0ram]

at this point i was content for a while. odd thought but since that point I've never been content, too many projects. well i wanted a cb, so i bought one. 50th anniversary Cobra 29 LX, a set of top loaded 4ft fiberglass antennas, some springs, and a old pa speaker from the fire dept.

my speaker is mounted in the bottom of my front bumper underneath the radiator. the cobra i picked out because it has weather capabilities, 40 channels, and the ability to change the display color.... shallow i know but its pretty cool.

Over the span of owning the truck, ive had my antennas mounted in the bed, up front, and now on the side of the tool box. didnt really notice any difference in reception between the mounting locations. i also plan on swapping out the basic antennas for some firestiks soon.

 

[double0ram]

then all thanks to this forum and many of you, i discovered tinting tails with vht. so i did my stock tails, but in the end, i tinted em a shade too dark, and figured i should start over. i hit up ebay for some aftermarket tails to tint, and this is what i ended up with!

after tinting them, i installed and backed em with some led towers thanks to vleds.com

 

[double0ram]

i also did my third brake light but it kept cracking on me, and i personally dislike the factory one anyways, so currently its semi tinted and not hooked up. i plan on putting a led one up there in the future.

 

[double0ram]

i dont have pictures of this one cause i did it back in wisconsin with some friends, but i swapped my 5 inch fabtech lift for a 5 inch bds lift. my freind didnt like how rough his bds lift was and i loved it so we swapped suspensions over a weekend and a few beers.

 

[double0ram]

back in south dakota, my brakes through me for a good one. i really did a number to them, and i paid for my lack of attention to them. heres the thread of my repairs to them. theres some real good pictures of how bad i screwed em up.

http://ramforumz.com/showthread.php?t=89162

and heres the finished product of my labor

 

[double0ram]

I've always loved a loud exhaust system, and every truck I've owned has at one point been straight piped. This one was no different. When i got it, it had some off brand muffler, 2 inlets with 2 outlets 90'd right before the passenger rear tire. it was ok sounding, but not loud enough. I liked the idea of right before the axle, so exhaust pros hooked up a high flow cat with 3 inch straight pipe ending in a 45 angled before the passenger rear axle with a 3 and a half inch tip. nice and loud 318! in some of the up comming pictures youll be able to see the tip.

 

[double0ram]

also around that time i added a spectre cold air intake. ebay... 70 bucks. then i fabbed up a ram air setup for it, and that works really nice! heres the thread for the ram air mod

http://ramforumz.com/showthread.php?p=494194#post494194

 

[double0ram]

this one wasnt so much a mod as it was a repair. my awesome vleds tower bulbs carried a 1 year warrenty, and i was just over it when i had one short out. at 70 bucks for two, i needed another option. Autozone had some led bulbs for 16 bucks a pair, and they were brighter too! so in those went, and i liked em them more than the vleds.

 

[double0ram]

came across a smooth deal on craigslist for a fiberglass tonneau cover, dark blue for 200 bucks. so in the process of that, my cb antennas moved up front instead of the bed.

 

[double0ram]

nows a good time to explain the lack of a rear bumper....

one day after a long 12 hour mids shift, i backed up into a fire hydrant, and it made a nasty dent. so i took it off, and to this current moment i still haven't replaced it. i wanted to do a roll pan, but i use my hitch. i dont want a stock bumper, nor do i want to fork out for a heavy duty one.

 

[double0ram]

ebay hids finally give out, and i replaced them with a set of slim ballast hids from vleds, sticking with the same 6000k color.

also included in this picture free of charge is a homemade grille insert for the winter months. duct tape, card board from a Point Special case of beer, and zip ties.

 

[double0ram]

after seeing the led obsession by some members on here, i fell in love, and have been replacing all my bulbs truck wide with leds. Taillights were the first, then my interior with leds that matched the 6000k coloring of my hids (shown below), and a set pair of red leds, one for the ashtray, and one for the glove box (not shown... sorry). i eventually got switchbacks for the front turn signals.... thats coming up

 

[double0ram]

i just want to point out that as im doing this im currently 200 miles short of 250000 miles on the original 318. aside from standard maintaining, i have not had to do any major repairs engine wise. the only real cosmetic features of my engine is the cai, ram air, and red summit racing spark plug wires.

 

[double0ram]

another good craigslist deal landed me a set of projector headlights for my ram. i loved the look of them, but there were a few downfalls that only ended up me swapping back to my aftermarket heads. for one, i love my 6000k hids and for 2, the projector headlights wouldnt sit well in there mounting bracket, they regularly wobbled in it. to top it off, the aiming of the units was pretty shotty. like i said, i swapped back. heres what they looked like though

 

[double0ram]

I saw it on a few of the rams around the Z, so i looked into the Stubby Antenna. After looking at the website, the second gen rams were not listed. Slightly down, i figured i would shoot the company an email with some questions on if i could return it should it not fit. they were happy to answer all my questions and in a timely fashion.

as you can see, it fits and works well. i replied back to the company with the good news, and they relayed that they would update the listing to include the second gen rams.

Not to toot my own horn but..... Your Welcome!

 

[double0ram]

this one was more so for my own amusement, but i bought some materials to build this next 'mod' for 20 bucks....

 

[MadSoul87]

Truck is coming along great man. I miss my old sport 2nd Gen but it had so much wrong with it that I hadta give her up and couldn't pass up the deal I got on my 3rd Gen. What's next on your list for mods? And by the way if you want to save money do what I do.. Don't look at this site for a couple days, it works wonders for the bank account.

 

[double0ram]

Oh there's a few left to put up, just had to take care of the kids for a while. Probably get to em tomorrow as the truck goes into the shop for a few days of fabrication