My $500 2004 ram 5.7 4x4

[TERRY G ABNEY]

Thought I would post some pictures of my cheap truck , had dent in front , replaced hood an grill but need bumper,,has some rust needs fixed an other dings,,been straightening up interior as previous owner was hard on things but its coming together,,replaced fuel pump and tuned up with all new plugs an msd coils,was throwing misfire code constantly an would sputter out completely on long drives but after replacing ecm code went away an ran a little better but still have sputtering an loss of power up hills mostly ,of course about to replace 02 sensors an it may need cats so that's probably next and some duel tail pipes as previous owner cut muffler an tail pipe off,,, truck as had ball joints replaced before I bought it so that's good, an has 190,000 on truck but hemi was replaced with lower mileage motor and seems fine

 

[turkeybird56]

Definitely a Project vehicle for sure...

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

Definitely a Project vehicle for sure...

Yes it is a project for sure but thats a good hobby for me as I have had a few , have a 72 challenger that I went through an a 79 f100 I am in the middle of a frame off restro , have done several others an sold

 

[turkeybird56]

Nice having the capability, knowledge and adaptability to do things like that. My hobbies R feeding dogs, feeding hossies, and riding my motorcycle, kinda dull...LMAO

 

[mboymopar]

Keep the updates coming on your project.

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

Keep the updates coming on your project.

I will in between my full time job and f100 project but have been trying to get this one ready to drive and going to redo the cloth seats, there are some nice black an yellow style leather like seat covers but gotta save money for them because my cloth seats look horrible ,

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

Got it all tuned up and its running like a hemi is suppose to now,,no engine light and cats seem ok , so dont need to replace the cats now thank goodness, just needs muffler an tail pipes and couple other things, 4wd shift motor is out an vent door actuator is toast , got those on order and then its body work only and save for new seat covers

 

[ST-8]

For $500 that’s a hell of a deal

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

For $500 that’s a hell of a deal

couldnt shake his hand quick enough, couldnt even try to talk down,,

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

anyone know of a sport bumper to fit 04 ram around kentucky let me know

 

[Kevs10]

Good buy..
Bought my old 04 for 1500$ drove it for 6 years sold it for 2000$

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

Hemi running good now but found it was low on oil , of course I haven't driven it 20 miles since I bought it as it needed a lot of little things fixed,,,Found this round pcv valve was dirty an little sludge an condensation in it as well as condensation under oil cap , which from research is the pcv system causing issues of low oil and quick starts of engine not getting up to temp before shutting off can cause the condensation ,poor design to me as much as I love the hemi, may add a catch can later if needed but installed new pcv valve for now,,still waiting on shift motor to arrive to get 4wd working I hope , as the transfer case is new an so is front drive shaft thanks to previous owner

After no codes for a few days I started it up yesterday an instantly got 3 engine codes on start up although in ran fine, the codes were P0153-O2 Circuit Slow Response(Bank2 ... sensor 1) P0157 Oxygen Sensor Circuit Low Voltage (Bank 2, Sensor 2) P0306 misfire cylinder 6 , and have found that P0153 is the 02 sensor in front of cat can cause the misfire code on same side on engine which this one is , so I ordered the 02 sensor for bank 2 sensor 1 for that side as I replaced the other side bank 1 sensor 1 and it helped keep engine light off until these popped up which I cleared an so far engine light staying off again so I believe that new 02 sensor will clear the issues of these codes as wiring is good and found no shorts or broken wires but I am going to hook up my code reader an pull some live data on the 02 sensors an see if the 02 sensors behind cats are doing there job an if cats are acting right an not clogged up some before I replace muffler an tailpipes ,
I added some sea foam in oil an fuel and I am going to change oil an filter in a week after some driving, will use Valvoline synthetic oil since I dont know what previous owner used and I prefer Valvoline in all my autos,,the truck has a ton of power and really like the way it drives so far . Hope to start on some rust repair at rear wheel wells done soon and may be able to get those seat covers sometime this winter and some new carpet installed before spring along with my other project its going to be plenty of work to do through the cold spell, glad my shop is heated

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

Well after having it running good thinking cats were ok,,was replacing the bad 02 sensors and after getting codes cleared I suddenly got p0300 an p0306 , and found that my cats started completely clogging up and then the engine started dying wouldnt idle until removing one of the 02 sensors , so now in the process of installing completely new exhaust oh boy,,got new pipes with new cats and picked up magnaflow muffler an a y pipe and bought dual tail pipes, got it all mocked up and will be finishing the welding later today,,

Also had found the passenger headlight had been wired to marker light and dimmer switch had no effect wired that way,,so rewired back to stock setup and found dreaded low beam out on passenger side headlight , bought a PCM an no change when installed , didn't like the aspect of changing the fuse box as its a IPM but with some research found some people had shimmed there FMC an cured the problem with headlights,,so what the heck gave it a shot an sure enough I now have low beams on both sides again,,would never have thought that would have worked but it did .we will see if it last but it is working

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

So it snow balls on an on as I figured since have dash out replacing blend doors an heater core , I thought you know , the carpet is old smelly and not in good shape , decided to order new carpet then thinking well new carpet requires new seat covers over these horrible dirty cloth style should turn out like picture below before an after I install them , so spent more money I did not have :icon_nono:

then that led to new nerf bars to step on to enter an exit the truck and then beat up bumpers front an rear had to go so added that in ... After all that new exhaust sounds so good and complete tune up with msd coil packs has the Hemi purring with a rumble that the rest of truck had to step up,,so after running up the plastic will be paying on for the next year at least ,, but I do get to write off truck on taxes as I live on a farm so I can write off a lot of the repairs as expense , not all but at least half maybe more ,,never know if I can write enough off I will buy paint next summer and paint the truck ,,but I got to get back on previous project the 79 f100 that got put behind the *********** effect,,good thing kids are grown and I thank God I can still do the work an afford to do so what the heck ,,

 

[Karlsweg]

Looking good!

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

While waiting on blend doors to come in with dash pulled out,,I started fixing the quarter panels and cut out the rust ,, an order outer wheel housings and panel for fender well for both sides,,but thats all rust repair needed but do have some body work on passenger side to do

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

well got up this morning and while waiting on mail, I cut panel and added a lip all the way around with the flange tool an it also can add holes for quick welding,,still had to tack some on outside but very small welds ,,an with the new lip edge the welds are down in lip that it cuts way down on warping because of heat an grinding , took about 45 minutes or so and also have new outer wheel house in place and braces bolted on to hold until I weld more tomorrow as with the mail came other parts to start putting on new bumpers ,,but still waiting on one blend door before I can get dash back in which is delaying me,,it looks better than picture shows as it should feather out nice with some block sanding after adding filler ,, and still have other side to do and more body work on the cab on that side

 

[TERRY G ABNEY]

Got new carpet installed after getting dash put in with all new blend doors ,,putting seats back in and installing some seat covers, did not go with the black/yellow but changed to the black/charcoal and they look pretty good , now got to get back on those quarter panels again

 

[JoeRam14]

I can think of a lot of worse ways to spend $500. Looks like the project is coming along nicely.

 

[Rado]

I would also like to see your pictures of the F100