Project "Lucky" wrecked 2013 Ram 1500

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boosted buick

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2013
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First post but longtime lurker. I bought a twice totaled 13 ram and I'm fixing it up to keep (for 10 years) and thought i'd keep the progress organized here. Quick back story on the truck: When it was a brand new truck it was severely damaged in a hail storm that hit Woodhouse Dodge in Omaha. The broken glass was replaced and it was driven damaged for 3 years and 60k miles until it was wrecked in the front and totaled again. I bought it on an insurance salvage auction and got to work. :superhack: I paid 8k for the truck sight unseen, based on 10 pics and the vehicle options list I printed from the VIN. Its a sobering moment when you show up and buy the truck in the front office without seeing it, and then they bring it around the building for you using a front end loader and leave it on your trailer (despite the fact that it ran and drove.) At that point, it's yours. Good, bad, or ugly including any possible damage from the loader (though I'll give the operator credit for not only picking it up carefully but also setting it perfectly where it needed to be on the trailer.)
 

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boosted buick

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First surprise was that it needed a steering rack, which (new for '13) is electric and has no power steering pump. Second surprise was that the interior was nasty. The previous owners had a dog in the back seat and the entire interior is covered in dog hair. But the damage was less severe than i envisioned and the engine oil was clean so I called it a win. Because of the hail damage, it didn't take much of a front end collision to total the truck. No airbag deployment, no frame damage, and no radiator/ac condenser damage. In fact it only lightly scuffed the grille. If this had happened to a normal 13 ram it would have been repaired in a week or less and wouldn't have been a salvage title. It DID damage the body structure behind the fender, which only bolts on in the front but in the rear its welded to the cab. It was fixable to anybody with a frame machine but the part was cheap enough to justify welding a new one in. I'm including a couple pictures to show the severity of the hail damage, which to my pleasant surprise, only damaged one side of the truck. The driver's side doors, roof rail, bedside and tailgate are clean and need only minor PDR to be perfect (I should mention that I do paintless dent removal for a living).
 

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boosted buick

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In these shots you can see the structure "arm" after being painted/welded in and the new parts being assembled. I went with mostly new mopar parts for this, I get a discount through the dealership I work for and used bumper parts are scarce for '13-newer. I also don't like doing color changes on used parts, It's tedious to do the jambs/edges so that the paint doesn't come off and leave the original color exposed after a few years. So if I don't find a deal on PW7 white parts, it'll be NEW. And no aftermarket junk lenses and bumper covers either! I did find a used hood with minor damage that I bolted on for now, when we do the rest of the truck I'll fix the dents and we'll respray it. I also found a front door but not a rear one yet. Used doors are just as expensive as new ones but I save a lot of headache by not swapping ALL the guts and weatherstrip etc. Hell the front door even has the correct handle (which I needed) and the correct emblems on it already. If you're still reading this you might note the painted front bumper instead of chrome. I like the look of the 2 tone rams with flares so this truck is getting 2 toned PDM mineral gray like the 09-12 TRX/outdoorsman package and will eventually get 17" wheels when I find the specific style i'm looking for.
 

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boosted buick

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Well this is pretty much where I'm at with it right now. I'll post progress updates when I get the roof skin cut off. We're going with a new roof skin cause the parts cheap and it takes less time to replace than to even try to pdr that kind of damage PLUS we also have rust pitting issues from the paint missing for 3 years. I got an offer to swap to towing mirrors for free from a truck at work so I did that and also upgraded to the premium EVIC thanks to help from this forum. Scored some oversized 10 ply tires cheap so I did that and corrected the tire size in the computer so the speedometer reads correctly. Going to add DVD and remote start and other goodies before its all said and done.
 

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jaycabral27

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Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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2015
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5.7
Keep up the amazing work. That's amazing the price you got it at. Doesn't seem like you had to spend a fortune to repair it. Maybe only a couple thousand. Post more pictures!!

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
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boosted buick

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Well the front end was mostly just r&i except for that brace. I've got pics and process on that too. The thing to remember about the price is that it's a salvage title. So from here on out even if the truck is fixed 100%, it knocks the value down to about 70% of clean retail. So this $24-25k used truck would only sell for about $17k fixed. Doing things the way I'm doing it, I'll have $15-16k in it by the time it's 100% repaired plus a ton of hours in r&i and hunting/retrieving parts. To do the roof skin requires the front and back glass to be cut out, since the windshield has a chip in it it'll probably crack and need replaced when it comes out. The power rear slider is a ***** to remove and my body guy warned me it might get broke trying to remove it. Then the headliner and seats and carpet are coming out, mostly to prevent damage/fire from the welder but also to clean them properly and get rid of the damn dog hair and smell. Body guy is still on the fence about repairing the right pillar or welding a new section in. With my parts discount we are leaning towards splicing in a new part (rust pitting there too). I may or may not fix the existing bed. I can push to paint the bedside or replace it, however, this truck coming from north of i80 means the rust clock started three winters ago. Since it's a white 6'5" bed, there's a good selection of white takeoff beds out there for $12-1500 with gate and lights and bumper etc so I may go that route. Bed will have to come off anyway to two tone it.

The reason I picked this truck was that the initial buy in was cheaper than any other rebuilder and I could buy it with saved cash and fix it using money from side work. When it's done I'll own it free and clear and pay no interest to a bank. Do I care that it's salvage? Nope. My 7 year old son won't care either when I give it to him.
 

NightMares

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Any other plans for it besides two tone? Lift, wheels, tires?

Good work so far. I spent years in body shops before settling down in the off road world. Found I like fixing and building stuff that looks cool, rather than grocery getters. I never really thought of buying a newer wrecked one like that, I always figured they'd still fetch over 15k or so and never figured it'd be worth it. So either you got a steal, or I've been out of the car buying for too long.
 
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boosted buick

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Like any market, you get what you pay for. Mines a quad instead of a crew, 63k is considered high for a 13, most people shy from roof damage because it's too involved, etc. if this was a crew cab Laramie with 30k it would've brought $15k+ as it sat because it would be worth $7-8k more when fixed. I got outbid a bunch of times on 09-12 trucks in various configurations and then this thing showed up 1.5 hours from my house with a buy it now of $7200 (before fees). Wasn't exactly what I wanted but close enough to go after it. I wanted an outdoorsman with two tone and a few more interior options so I'll just have to make this big horn into what I want.

I wanted this truck:
https://m.iaai.com/VehicleDetEnc.aspx?ItemID=21686920&AuctionID=&RowID=3

Or this truck:
https://m.iaai.com/VehicleDetEnc.aspx?ItemID=21029119&AuctionID=&RowID=2

Both are easy fix quad outdoorsmans that are loaded to the gills with interior goodies like 9 speaker audio etc. (which is unusual to load up an outdoorsman) and both are southern rust free trucks (both happen to be at the same yard) but they've been sitting there for months and still haven't sold. Not sure whats the holdup on them, and figured at least the green one would really bring more than I wanted to spend and the black one has bags deployed and its $1000 transport fee etc. sometimes "close" is close enough. Point of reference for you, the day before I bought this truck I was under bidder on a 12 quad cab outdoorsman with 36k and T-boned in the dead center of the driver side. Roof bag deployed needing doors bedside rocker and possible rear axle damage etc and I stopped bidding at $9500 (before fees).

And no, sorry no plans for lift kit or pretty much anything aftermarket. I've got other toys I'd rather throw "toy money" at or better yet, my house lol. This truck was a necessary evil because I needed a better truck than a Chevy to tow my newly acquired camper with. (3.92 gears were a nice bonus on this truck). It does have oversize toyo tires on it now which I'll admit gives it a nice stance but I won't continue to buy 20"s in the future. There's a factory option code for "raised ride height" and I have no idea the option package or rhyme/reason for trucks to get the option but this truck has that option code.

Damn it seems every time I post I write a damn book.
 
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boosted buick

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PARTS!

Found a used rear door to match the front (just need to swap the handle and install the black sticker), and ordered a new roof skin, uniside, R fender, grille and misc. moldings. Now waiting on the body shop stall to open up (as well as scrape up the cash to pay the body shop). After that its just deciding what I want to do with the bed.
 

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boosted buick

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Well that solves the bed dilemma...

It was a relative bargain but I had to dig myself a financial hole to take advantage of it. So doubt there'll be any updates until after the Christmas crunch. Coincidentally, I now have an extra tailgate, taillights, chrome bumper (with park assist but no cutouts) and a receiver hitch off a 2500 for sale if anyone's in earshot of northeast Kansas. Hell for that matter I'll sell the damaged bed. CHEAP. It's fixable for someone with more time than money.
 

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boosted buick

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Update. Drove it half damaged for two years. Lady took out the good side when parked in Des Moines last winter. Decided to take it under the knife and finish the job. It’s not back together yet but it’s coming along. I keep adding stuff to do while the interior is apart. Sound deadener and stereo, remote start etc. Between the lady wiping out the drivers front and a co worker accidentally hitting the drivers rear door with a piece of scrap iron, that leaves the passenger side rocker and the drivers roof rail and rocker (uniside) as the last remaining undamaged OE panels on it. Oh and I forgot the hail storm in June that damaged the used hood I put on and hadn’t painted yet and did some light damage to the new bed I put on it.

8 more years to go. Wonder what’ll hit it next.

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buddy guy

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Nice! I've watched with interest a guy around the corner from me fixing up an older Ram. pre 2010 i'd say. the whole back end and right door was a wreck when he first put it in the driveway a few months ago. Now the bed is redone and primered. I've seen him working on it sanding away, all in the driveway. pretty cool to see people bring vehicles back to life! My only big resto was a 64 1.2 t-bird. first time i saw a tilt away steering wheel and thought the column was broken. lol. Bought it for 1200 bucks. had a blown 390 and whole wiring harness was torched like a fired and it needed the cool rear sequential tailight motors replaced. me and a buddy dragged the old motor in a red wagon, i kid you not from the driveway to the landing of my house and put boards down the stairs and slid it down to the basement to rebuild. i had no garage. it was much easier to get it down than to get it up, trust me:) got everything going, redid the wiring harness and oop..missing a courtesy light bulb. so i get what was in there, a dual pole i think it was. put it in. fire the car up and tinkering around and i see smoke curling up under the dash. and the light bulb on the courtesy door is burnt out again. ! i shut the car off..thinking what the hell. i pull the bulb. thought to look at the left door bulb. single pole. wrong bulb was put in, shorted and burnt out the wiring harness and wrong fuse used so it torched the wiring. i was 19 and in over my head. buti learned a lot. and made a lot of money off that car when i sold out. it was the first year for disc brakes from what i recall and the landau (laying down S) on the rear roof panel. it wasn't fast but that 390 with a 4 barrel was solid and the dual exhaust throaty.
 
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