2001 1500 sport restoration

Hi guys. I'm making this thread to show you what I'm doing to my truck. My truck is a 2001 1500 sport with the 4x4 off-road package. The trucks been on my family for 7 years and I recently bought it off of my dad. After driving the truck for about a year I decided that it was time for me to do some work to it. I spoke with my dad who is a recently retired mechanic of 35 years and we decided we would restore the truck and make a father-son project out of it. I started on it about a month ago with tracking down all the parts I would need. The truck is an absolute rust bucket. I found 2 doors, 2 new fenders, a new rear bumper, and a tailgate.

Yesterday I ordered new rockers, a cab corner, a rear quarter panel patch and a few other miscellaneous parts. Over the past couple weeks I have started stripping the truck. I have removed both front fenders, both doors, and the tailgate.
Over the next couple days I'll be drilling the spot welds on the Rockers and removing the inner fenders from the actual fenders to get them ready to be welded onto the new fenders. Our plan is to replace all the body panels and patch what we can and then to paint the truck In our driveway. This is the first post I have made so Ill do the best I can. I'll try to post as many updates as possible as I go along on the build.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

Good luck with your restoration. These trucks are hard to find in an unmolested form!

Yesterday was a little rough. I was in an ATV accident and took a few stitches in my leg. Not really a big deal but it made work a little slow today. After school I was able to drill out all the spot welds that hold the inner fenders to the actual fenders. It was a very tedious job but after two and a half hours of drilling and cussing I finally got both the inner fenders separated


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

I've always wanted to do something like this

It's been a very busy couple of days. With my leg healing and my dad home from work we were able to crank out some serious progress. We got the bed off and the rear bumper. I cut the rust out if he rear quarter panel and drilled out the spot welds and removed the driver side rocker panel. I cut out my right side can corner and started to pull out the dent that was there. I removed the grille and starting prepping the new fenders for paint. At this point there isn't much I can do until the new parts arrive in a couple of days.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

Great project. I always liked the looks of the Gen 2 Sport trucks.

Have fun!

This is what I need to do to mine, just don't have the room or money. Looks good so far.

A small update today but a pretty big one. All my parts finally came in from LMCtruck. I gotta say I'm not too impressed with them. A lot of them were pretty beat up from improper packing and shipping but other than that they're pretty awesome.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

I have spent the last few cutting and fitting panels as well as patching smaller holes with sheet metal. It seems to be coming along good. The after market panels take a little bit to get them to fit properly but I am very impressed with them so far. Hopefully by next week I'll have everything at least tacked onto place and possibly welded. After that it's off to paint. my old man working. A retired mechanic of 35 years. There's nothing like watching someone whos truly mastered the trade.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

Respectfully I say seeing this makes me want to cry. I cannot imagine my truck in these pieces. LOL
I'm blessed with a 2000 that was pretty well taken care of. I'm keeping it as long as it will run. 115,000 miles.
Can't wait to see your finished project.

Original poster hasn't been on here since April 2016, I doubt we will get any updates on the project. Would have been nice to see the finished product.