2015 2500 Quick makeover

[Rich Hwang]

Hopefully all these pictures work.....the original place they were posted can be flaky at times.

------------------------

Moving on from the previous truck........

I bought my red '03 Ram 2500 well-used about 10 years ago. The day I bought it, my buddy who found it for me (craigslist) said the famous
"If you ever sell it, I get first shot".

About 10 years went by, '03 was getting rusty and had 260,000 miles on it (5.7 hemi), still ran just fine but I started feeling worse and worse about maintaining it.
Started looking for deals on later models and found one. After all that time, my buddy still wanted the '03 so it took no effort to sell.

Despite the rust, it was still a cool truck...I still liked it. I had welded/adapted the last known 1500 Borla Rumble Bee exhaust in the free world to fit (it's not supposed to fit a 3/4 ton).
It had a Viper hood from an undisclosed source, I upgraded it from the cast wheels to some craigslist forged 3500 wheels, and it had a few MP parts on it. (I worked at MP back then so you might say it came pretty naturally)

Well....w hen it's time to move on, it's time...............

Here are the last pix of the '03. What a great truck it was.
I'm not going to lie....I did have some trouble with it here and there, but fixed it and kept it going....truth is, the great state of Michigan has a way of eating vehicles.
Even the License plate was eaten up, in the time I owned it. You can see it delaminating in the picture.

 

[Rich Hwang]

Found this 2015 2500 on FB Marketplace.
Just like my red truck, this started out as an Industrial Work Truck.

Red 2003 truck belonged to a tooling company/delivered Molds nationwide.

This white 2015 truck belonged to a local commercial door company that went out of business, and was the Metal Fabricator's rig.
Back in their heyday there were two electric welders and a plasma cutter bolted in the bed + it also had oxy acetylene.
Unfortunately none of the electric tools came with it, but I did manage to get two full oxy acetylene tanks + about
50 feet of hose, and a cutting torch in the bargain. I just need a couple regulators, and an assortment of torches/ tips and so on to complete that rig.
The rusty ladder rack, beat up tool boxes, and so on are plain enough.

5.7 Hemi again, just like the last one.
Not the ultimate for this class of vehicle, but something I'm pretty comfortable with and know my way around a bit.
I just don't feel I have to have a diesel. Maybe someday, but not now.
This has the 6 speed, with only a few extra cost options like 4.10s, AAM Helical locker in the 11.5 rear, plow prep, HD alternator, carpeted interior (how fancy),
electronic transfer case controls (something to go wrong, oh well), and stuff like that.
It's not highly optioned and that's fine with me.
The Window sticker viewer on Mopar dot com is very handy for vehicle purchases like this.
Same site is also handy to view open recalls, and this one has several of them to take care of (soon).

 

[Rich Hwang]

I decided I wanted to upgrade from the base 17" wheels to 18.
Sold off the 17s with the 2003 to my buddy/Found the '18s on marketplace and swapped out.

The Ladder rack and toolboxes went up for sale immediately....dirt cheap....but people dragged their feet
and it took seemingly forever to sell them. Finally I got a deposit and pulled all that stuff.
I didn't take pics of the removal, but ended up using the shop hoist to pull the ladder rack, which worked out well,
although I did have to cut the rusty hardware off.

During the time spent waiting for the rack/boxes to sell, I kept busy by de-lettering it.
Funny: The purchase included a heat gun to remove the lettering....the guy started doing it but ended up just leaving it
in the truck for me to finish the job.

 

[Rich Hwang]

Lots of time spent cleaning, and I'm still not done yet.

Lots of free metal was included with the truck LOL. Pieces of everything from 1/4" plate steel, to a 15 foot long piece of 2 inch angle iron.

Left tail light was broken. When I replaced it, I found a signature inside. I really like finding stuff like that.

Like alot of white painted vehicles up north, there are alot of "following a salt truck" rust stains embedded in the paint.
The plow/salt trucks throw particles of steel as they plow, it embeds in your paint, and ends up a micro rust stain.

Meguire's ultimate compond is amazing stuff. Works especially well with a toothbrush, around emblems like these.
The amount of brown crud in between the letters, that came off, was insane. It appeared ok from a distance.

Did some other basic maintenence, oil and filter, cut the filter open, flushed the brake fluid..stuff like that.

 

[Rich Hwang]

Ordered the tires and paint + shot the marketplace wheels with Summit Urethane single stage.
These are 3500 base model (like ST) wheels that had no plastic chrome cladding.
Figured the tires were scrap and leaking like mad anyway, I paid the disposal fee already....so no need to dismount or mask.

Threw on a set of step bars from Amazon, as similar to the Genuine Mopar Accessory bars on the 2003 as I could find.

The same Yokohamas were on the red 2003 the entire time I owned it, and they worked out really well.
So I went and got another set for the '15, ran it up to the tire store.

 

[Rich Hwang]

Still a work in progress, but it's almost there.

Oddly all the U joints appeared to be original except the rear axle...It had a grease fitting.
Guess which one was trashed and causing a nasty vibration? The one with a grease fitting.

I notice the OE U joints all had green clips....Spicer has copper plated clips that turn green.
I replaced with a non-greaseable $picer in keeping with the rest of them on the truck.
Old timers might not agree with that decision and I used to be in that camp also.......worknig on late models changed my opinion over time.

 

[Rich Hwang]

typical failure, no biggie.

 

[Rich Hwang]

As it sits

 

[Rich Hwang]

All for now.

It runs and drives fantastic.
My wife, who had her doubts when I first bought it.... exclaimed "It doesn't even look like the same truck!"

I'm really happy with the progress, and it's ready to use as needed.

I do think it has a pinhole in the heater core, the coolant level is OK but I can smell it when the AC is not on 'max'. A friend looked up 4 hour labor op in dealer connect....So it would probably take me at least 6 hours being that I have never done it....so I might farm it out after all the recalls
are taken care of.

Before and after:

 

[MADDOG]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the truck updates. It looks totally different!

 

[Ohio5pt7]

Damn good change!

Sent from my KYOCERA-E6920 using Tapatalk

 

[Purplert]

Amazing what some time and a little bit of money can do. Amazing transformation!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Loudram]

Very nice job. It looks great.

 

[Ohio5pt7]

All for now.

It runs and drives fantastic.
My wife, who had her doubts when I first bought it.... exclaimed "It doesn't even look like the same truck!"

I'm really happy with the progress, and it's ready to use as needed.

I do think it has a pinhole in the heater core, the coolant level is OK but I can smell it when the AC is not on 'max'. A friend looked up 4 hour labor op in dealer connect....So it would probably take me at least 6 hours being that I have never done it....so I might farm it out after all the recalls
are taken care of.

Before and after:

Pic 1 I'm like I'll give ya 7k pic 2 be like are there any rebates off the original msrp?

Sent from my KYOCERA-E6920 using Tapatalk

 

[tron67j]

Hopefully all these pictures work.....the original place they were posted can be flaky at times.

------------------------

Moving on from the previous truck........

I bought my red '03 Ram 2500 well-used about 10 years ago. The day I bought it, my buddy who found it for me (craigslist) said the famous
"If you ever sell it, I get first shot".

About 10 years went by, '03 was getting rusty and had 260,000 miles on it (5.7 hemi), still ran just fine but I started feeling worse and worse about maintaining it.
Started looking for deals on later models and found one. After all that time, my buddy still wanted the '03 so it took no effort to sell.

Despite the rust, it was still a cool truck...I still liked it. I had welded/adapted the last known 1500 Borla Rumble Bee exhaust in the free world to fit (it's not supposed to fit a 3/4 ton).
It had a Viper hood from an undisclosed source, I upgraded it from the cast wheels to some craigslist forged 3500 wheels, and it had a few MP parts on it. (I worked at MP back then so you might say it came pretty naturally)

Well....w hen it's time to move on, it's time...............

Here are the last pix of the '03. What a great truck it was.
I'm not going to lie....I did have some trouble with it here and there, but fixed it and kept it going....truth is, the great state of Michigan has a way of eating vehicles.
Even the License plate was eaten up, in the time I owned it. You can see it delaminating in the picture.

I loved my 03 2500 I bought brand new. My parents have it now, I bought a brand new 2018 2500 last fall.

 

[392DevilDog]

I love my Tradesman. It is a great truck with everything I need.

You really cleaned that truck up.

I wish mine didn't have the chrome package. I am on the fence about making it go away.

I do like the black wheels with chrome centers.

 

[Rich Hwang]

Thanks all. I've been trying to get the interior in better shape as well....maybe pix when I have something post-worthy.