Old Skool Luvr
Junior Member
Hi all!
As my thread title stated, simply new to this forum. Long time gear-head, with a few projects under my belt over the years.
I bought my 1-owner, '03 Dodge Ram Oct 28, 2017 (almost exact 14 yrs to the date of build) with 330,631 kms (205,444 miles) with her sitting at 543K kms (337K miles) as of October last year. I say, "as of October last year", as i decided then was the time to address the 21 year war, that Canadian roads had inflicted upon her.
LILL BLU is originally from Alberta, Canada - which i thought was a safe bet on acquiring a clean truck. She originally was, but 8 prior years of dealing with that damn brine they spray on the roads (i found out that Alberta started using brine in '09) before coming to Ontario, had started taking their hidden toll on the body. I decided last October to rectify that problem, with a Southern box i had purchased a couple of years ago, as it had become the "typical" Dodge box after 20 yrs, and decided instead if cleaning up the very good condition doors, to just grab Southern doors as well.
Well....we all know where that train of thought leads us....
Rocker repair started, and the realization that the windshield rust was as bad as i feared it might be, has turned into a complete tear-down, for all "new" Southern panels - save the OE hood (surprisingly, LOL!).
A slower process then i had originally hoped for, but working a 50+ hour/wk job, with the always "way too much **** on my plate for my own good" has caused a slower progression then originally planned - which is how they always go, right? LOL!
Anyways, old cab was off a couple of weeks ago, and i finally gutted of everything this past weekend. Chassis will be blasted & hit with some POR15 as soon as we have more then a single day of dry weather, then the "new" body parts will be in the both, getting hit with the factory PB7 Patriot Blue Pearl paint, and reassembly can begin!
As my thread title stated, simply new to this forum. Long time gear-head, with a few projects under my belt over the years.
I bought my 1-owner, '03 Dodge Ram Oct 28, 2017 (almost exact 14 yrs to the date of build) with 330,631 kms (205,444 miles) with her sitting at 543K kms (337K miles) as of October last year. I say, "as of October last year", as i decided then was the time to address the 21 year war, that Canadian roads had inflicted upon her.
LILL BLU is originally from Alberta, Canada - which i thought was a safe bet on acquiring a clean truck. She originally was, but 8 prior years of dealing with that damn brine they spray on the roads (i found out that Alberta started using brine in '09) before coming to Ontario, had started taking their hidden toll on the body. I decided last October to rectify that problem, with a Southern box i had purchased a couple of years ago, as it had become the "typical" Dodge box after 20 yrs, and decided instead if cleaning up the very good condition doors, to just grab Southern doors as well.
Well....we all know where that train of thought leads us....
Rocker repair started, and the realization that the windshield rust was as bad as i feared it might be, has turned into a complete tear-down, for all "new" Southern panels - save the OE hood (surprisingly, LOL!).
A slower process then i had originally hoped for, but working a 50+ hour/wk job, with the always "way too much **** on my plate for my own good" has caused a slower progression then originally planned - which is how they always go, right? LOL!
Anyways, old cab was off a couple of weeks ago, and i finally gutted of everything this past weekend. Chassis will be blasted & hit with some POR15 as soon as we have more then a single day of dry weather, then the "new" body parts will be in the both, getting hit with the factory PB7 Patriot Blue Pearl paint, and reassembly can begin!
