New guy here

[adamwilkes14]

Well, my name is Adam and I am from Zephyrhills, Fl. My cousin got a new truck this weekend and gave me his 1996 Dodge Ram 1500. My uncle bought it brand new then gave it to him...now it belongs to me. It has just a tad under 71,000 miles on it (70,877 to be exact)...it looks pretty good for it's age, it's not pristine by any means, but heck it was free. Anyway, I just picked it up on Monday and still haven't done very much to it. It is a standard cab, long bed...it has running boards on it, that will be taken off this weekend, hopefully. This is the first Dodge I have ever owned, so hopefully if need be I can find help here when I need to. I have always driven Chevrolets and Fords, but I really had fun driving this truck home on Monday. I need to get more pics of it, but here is the one I have taken so far.

 

[AF_Hemi]

nice welcome to the forum

 

[adamwilkes14]

nice welcome to the forum

Thank you!!!

 

[rocket]

hey congrats , is your truck black lol.

 

[rocket]

looks sharp read back a few i see the color now.lol.

 

[Off_Road_Teacher]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[ramhunter9]

welcome to RF nice truck

 

[0212353]

Welcome to the Fukken site!

 

[shadow11]

Welcome man!

 

[Silverbullet08]

Welcome to RF!

 

[Bigtman07]

Welcome fellow 2nd gen. Nice looking truck. With low miles to boot.

 

[KGBIGCOUNTRY]

Welcome over, you will love dodges from now on.

 

[quietpeen]

welcome

 

[cheapbeater]

Welcome. Nice truck... i agree with getting rid of the grandpa steps... does it have the 318 or 360??

 

[Bad Habit]

thats a real good free truck....welcome aboard...

 

[SafetyGuy]

Welcome Home! after your stint for the other team (fords) you will be glad to be back with the mens team. lol

J/k there are a bunch of good guys here.

 

[adamwilkes14]

Welcome. Nice truck... i agree with getting rid of the grandpa steps... does it have the 318 or 360??

I finally got a chance to find out this afternoon before work...it the 5.2...so I believe it is the 318.

I really don't know much about Dodge engines...I have driven a 91 S10 for the past 3 years, so jumping from a 2.8 into a 5.2 is a HUGE difference...

 

[adamwilkes14]

Okay, some things I need to do to her as work on her will start this weekend (hopefully this weekend, cause my son plays PAL Football and my two daughter cheerlead for PAL football this weekend.) I need to locate a new fuse panel cover, as the tab that holds it onto the dash is broke on the one I have. I need to eventually get a new dash cap as mine is cracked just to the right of the gauge cluster...ummm I need to do a new headliner as there are a couple spots that are sloppy on the stock one. Next year, since I no longer need to buy another truck this one will need to be painted...there are some spots just above the cab that need attention and the clear coat is delaminating just under the drivers side window and in a small area above the drivers side front fender.

It honeslty sounds worse than what it really is, as it is all cosmetic and other than the paint job, it's small things that need replaced.

But like I have told my Chevrolet friends that give me a hard time about selling out to Dodge...I have $0 invested in this truck as of right now...so even over a period of time if I have to invest some cash into it this truck is worth it.

 

[Copperhead]

Welcome.

 

[Bigtman07]

Good deal there adam. It sounds like you have a typical 2nd gen dodge. Cracked dash, Fading paint, Peeling clearcoat. Nuttin out of the ordinary. The tab for the fuse panel you can get from a pick and pull I'm pretty sure. The headliner you can fix yourself pretty easy. But the paint that one is gonna be the money grabber. Just to repaint mine back to the factory color my friends body shop at a discount would cost about 2k-3k. So I'm only guessing that as a baseline. You may get away with less cause of it being a RCSB.

BTW 5.2 isn't a horrible engine. Just have to keep up on the maint. and everythings should be ok. One thing you will want to keep an eye on is the plenum gasket. Those are known to fail at least once in the lifetime of the truck.