Well long story short, i picked up this truck up pretty much sight unseen for what i thought was a screaming deal. Once i got it home and started inspecting it closer, i didnt pick a very good truck. But after spending over a year looking for this truck for a reasonable price, just said screw it im tired of looking, this is the one. and I started digging in on a full restoration and build. Pics!

Only picture i saw of the truck before i bought it.




Day one on the trip home.




Day 2 at home.




7" indash touch screen







Took it on a 1000 mile road trip after this and had some fun with all the friends.












At this point, i about burned the truck to the ground and then rolled it off a cliff. I took a GF out into the mountins for a nice drive and my transmission decides to fail out of no where. no warning signs or nothing. 14 miles out of town, with no cell service. It was a awesome hike home.. not.

Truck sat in the bottom of a canyon for a week trying to figure out how to get it home. All my wheelin buddys and their little yota's and jeeps didnt have enough grunt to get my pig up the hill. Finally got a buddy out there with a very well built duramax to get me out of the canyon and back onto the main service road, in the process ripping 2 brake lines, leaving me stranded even worse.




not wanting to run away down the hill with no brakes and off the cliff, it sat at the top of the hill for another 3 days. When i finally went back up to replace the brake lines, i noticed the transmission line that screws into the side of the block backed off..... screwed that back on, fixed the brakes... and it drove its self home. I also picked up a gasser parts truck while it was stuck in the woods to use for parts. One of the cleanest/straightest dodge trucks ive ever seen in this era, 4x4, 5.9, low miles, drove like a dream. Super super nice truck other than the failing paint. Picked it up for 425 bucks! Almost sold it for 3 grand 2 days after i bought it haha, but turned it down in benefit of the cummins.

 

First things first, was to ditch the hideous bucket seats for the bench seat out of the new parts truck.





after months of looking i finally found a step bumper in great shape. even picked it up for basically free. traded the chrome bumper off the parts truck for it.



Started polishing out my new grill from the parts truck.





Did new performance pads and rotors, greased all the bearings, and did a thorough inspection of the front end. and a new interstate battery.




Then it was time to start putting on the new front end, and bed.
This is my hood CLOSED....




Dented up fender.



Welded on fender...









Lifted 3" and new fender hung.



cleaned up that weld job a little bit and got the second fender lining up better.

 

Put in the borgeson shaft, one because mine was shot, 2 because i like the best of the best on my truck, and 3 it was needed with the lift anyways .



my box was not only beat to hell, but it wouldnt even hold a tail gate any more. and the tail lights were held in with glue and caulking...





what was left of the parts truck....



The cummins lookin good with its new panels and 3" lift



and the new grill




finally got everything lined up and the hood closing correctly!





also built my custom gauges.

 

Hated the super short shift lever that was originally in the truck. not enough leverage and getting into 4 lo was a HUGE pain. so i stole the long handle lever out of the parts truck, only problem was the shift pattern on the **** was wrong. Problem fixed.



Fitted a 2nd gen rear bumper i snagged for free. and a set of 34" super swampers i picked up for $50 bucks.






Took it out and got some pictures.













the GF bought me a new sticker...






Ripped off the old faded to purple ugly window tint.



But couldnt stand the fish bowl status. So fresh tint went straight on.

 

Right in here my transmission finally failed completely, so i had it professionally rebuilt, then of course took it out to play!











It was the middle of may in these pictures, and this 200 yard stretch of road that never gets sun was the only snow left, i figured it was only a couple inches deep id just drive threw it to the other side where there was no more snow. HA... was a couple feet deep and of course that really wet heavy icey snow thats been sitting around melting for ever... closest to stuck ive ever been in this truck, but she still pulled her self out after awhile.



So 900 miles after i get my truck back from the tranny shop, here we are again...



needless to say spending thousands on a transmission to last 900 miles was NOT my version of happy or money well spent.

I've fought and fought and fought with the shop and they wont stand behind it or fix it. They looked at it and determined it was my cooling system, and said tought luck your problem. my stock transmission cooler works perfectly fine, not to mention my 2nd aftermarket cooler that works even better. I tore the transmission out and apart my self and learned that my torque converter wasn't replaced, and a couple other things they cut corners on. it was 100% with out a doubt their fault and not mine. But crap happens i guess. Im in the process of rebuilding it my self right now, its just taking a really long time since life just isnt working in my favor at this moment. lot going on.

but while its been sitting broke down, ive been working on some other projects.








LED tail light retrofits.










Tail lights.

 

brake lights





3rd gen OEM cab lights




I've got my transmission rebuilt now. Just waiting on some money for a new torque converter, fliuds, and a temp gauge. and then of course the time to put it all back into the truck. probably be a another month, its summer and my camaro is been taking up all my time and money. its finally just wheels and tires away from finished.




More soon!

 

Sweet truck! I love the first gens, they look sick

 

Your starting to inspire me to do this to my first gen!

 

nice project truck! and sick camaro

 

Looks like a fun build, I'm interested to see the outcome!