jbuss8706
Junior Member
Hello All,
I've been a lurker for some time, actually about 5 months. I purchased a salvage 2015 Ram 1500 BigHorn back in April. yes it was a risk, but I refuse to have car payments and my ability to pay cash for a 2015 with 25K miles wasn't even on the table.
Here she was on the day I bought her. Breakdown of cost below.
Sale Price: $10,200
Entire Front End clip of a 2016 Ram 1500 BigHorn and a few random parts: $2,400
Local Sourced labor for frame/body parts repair/paint: $2,700 (Yes this is dirt cheap, I spent a lot of time resourcing this).
To be honest, the most outrageous part of the repair was the astronomical price to charge the new AC Condensor with this new fangled 1234YF Refrigerant. The local Dodge dealer wanted over $500 for this (Outrageous). In my city there were only 3 places that even carried this new stuff, I found a place that did it for $340 (still...ouch).
Total Cash Invested right over $15k. KBB Value is still around 28-30K. Not here to sway anyone to do this, I can say over 5 months there were plenty of days that I questioned if it was worth it, BUT, when it all comes down to $$, it was a no brainer for me.
Here's a pic of her almost done...
Here she is the day I drove her home, 2 weeks ago.
So, I don't have a TON of plans for the truck but I hate factory Rake and the factory tires are pitiful for a truck. I had already found a great deal on a set of Falken Wildpeaks AT3's and opted for 34" instead of stock size. Thanks to the enourmous amount of resources on these threads I had plenty of photos to look at to figure out what I wanted. I also sourced out some 5100's, all ready to go the day I got it home.
Was able to find an experienced garage to do the alignment/bilstein install/mount and balance tires for $325 labor. I've seen better prices on here, but not bad. So, finally, here are some photos of how she looks now.
Bilsteins set at 2.8, rear is stock height. Again, tires are 34" (275/65/20)
I'm sure I'll be adding some other smaller mods, but I LOVE the stock look with a few adjustments (leveling/bigger tires). As a business professional in my field, this is a good balance for me (just my own opinion and preference for myself) of still being professional but fun..as this is my daily driver I don't feel weird rolling up in a business suit.
Thanks again everyone for the amazing content out there, I hope someone can reference my photos to be helpful for them as they decide what to do. I love how it turned out!
I've been a lurker for some time, actually about 5 months. I purchased a salvage 2015 Ram 1500 BigHorn back in April. yes it was a risk, but I refuse to have car payments and my ability to pay cash for a 2015 with 25K miles wasn't even on the table.
Here she was on the day I bought her. Breakdown of cost below.
Sale Price: $10,200
Entire Front End clip of a 2016 Ram 1500 BigHorn and a few random parts: $2,400
Local Sourced labor for frame/body parts repair/paint: $2,700 (Yes this is dirt cheap, I spent a lot of time resourcing this).
To be honest, the most outrageous part of the repair was the astronomical price to charge the new AC Condensor with this new fangled 1234YF Refrigerant. The local Dodge dealer wanted over $500 for this (Outrageous). In my city there were only 3 places that even carried this new stuff, I found a place that did it for $340 (still...ouch).
Total Cash Invested right over $15k. KBB Value is still around 28-30K. Not here to sway anyone to do this, I can say over 5 months there were plenty of days that I questioned if it was worth it, BUT, when it all comes down to $$, it was a no brainer for me.
Here's a pic of her almost done...
Here she is the day I drove her home, 2 weeks ago.
So, I don't have a TON of plans for the truck but I hate factory Rake and the factory tires are pitiful for a truck. I had already found a great deal on a set of Falken Wildpeaks AT3's and opted for 34" instead of stock size. Thanks to the enourmous amount of resources on these threads I had plenty of photos to look at to figure out what I wanted. I also sourced out some 5100's, all ready to go the day I got it home.
Was able to find an experienced garage to do the alignment/bilstein install/mount and balance tires for $325 labor. I've seen better prices on here, but not bad. So, finally, here are some photos of how she looks now.
Bilsteins set at 2.8, rear is stock height. Again, tires are 34" (275/65/20)
I'm sure I'll be adding some other smaller mods, but I LOVE the stock look with a few adjustments (leveling/bigger tires). As a business professional in my field, this is a good balance for me (just my own opinion and preference for myself) of still being professional but fun..as this is my daily driver I don't feel weird rolling up in a business suit.
Thanks again everyone for the amazing content out there, I hope someone can reference my photos to be helpful for them as they decide what to do. I love how it turned out!
Well done, great looking truck.
