Hey folks, I haven't posted in a while but i've been around tinkering with 2 out of the 3 2nd gen 24v's that I have. My latest project I've been working on is my red 2001 sport truck I thought I'd share. 
I got the truck a few months ago and immediately began tearing it apart once I got it to the house. The interior was disgusting and falling apart, typical broken dash, it rattled, there was mold growing on the carpet and it even had maggots under some old food. Here's the progress so far. 

 

Torn apart within the first 24 hours of owning it

 

The absolutely disgusting old carpet, I was afraid to even touch it without gloves..

 

How it turned out after scrubbing it and using a house carpet extractor with the hand hose, went over it twice

 

Got the carpet back in, did a slightly darker dye to get rid of the orange discoloration from the coolant dripping onto the passenger side, This was gone over twice and then I hit the passenger floor for a third time while it was in the truck so it's still slightly damp so it's a little bit darker right now. 

 

 

Put some of the interior back in after a vacuuming as much as I could, the back seat looks brand new!

 

 

Time to work on the old cracked dashboard! 

 

 

The whole dash frame got taken out, stripped, wiped down of any dirt because i'm very meticulous. If I'm going to work on something, I figure might as well do it right the first time.

 

 

The LMC dash fit perfectly with no issues at all. 

 

At this point in time I figured I was already this close to the HVAC box, I might as well pull it out and clean it! If you look at the blend door at the top right, the foam had mold growing on it, no thank you! 

 

 

More dirt, going to have to clean that!

 

 

Well, I sure was glad I decided to remove the HVAC box, Leaky heater core, dirty evaporator, bad blower motor, and a crumpling blower motor resistor. Yikes!

 

The entire HVAC box got taken apart, cleaned from top to bottom, and reassembled with all new everything! I even went ahead and pulled off all the old foam and put on a new sealer where the old foam was falling apart. 

 

Now that the firewall is cleaned up, time for the HVAC box install. 

 

 

Boom! Put in place and ready to go.

 

 

Remember the old moldy foam from earlier? All gone, and seals perfectly! 

 

 

The midnight grind, literally...

 

 

 

By the morning I had everything put back in and was ready to go. 

 

 

All that work and the dash bezel was still cracked, well, until I FINALLY found a wood grain bezel in 100% perfect condition with no scratches or broken tabs! 

 

 

Out with the old, in with the new! The steering wheel bugged me though so I ended up getting a cover for it.

 

 

As of last night, I believe she's probably the the truck with the nicest interior. Just need to find some power seats and some agate wood door panels. Maybe do a new steering wheel and definitely need to get a 12v outlet that clips into place nicely. Every piece of the interior got pulled out and cleaned, the cup holders got disassembled and cleaned, including the rear one under the console. This interior is immaculate now.

Here's a little bonus for sticking around this long. 

 

 

I also did the 4th gen steering upgrade, as well as a Dodge Off Road Track bar and a steering stabilizer. Big difference coming from the stock setup, Once I got all of it in and took it for a test drive, my power steering was leaking and my water pump went out. That's actually coolant dripping on the ground in the last picture but since then has all been fixed! 
The wife will be a happy camper driving this until I sell my 99'. 

 

Thanks for taking a look! It was a lot of work but I don't regret a single moment of it and will do it again in a heartbeat with the way it turned out. 

 

Edited October 27, 20186 yr by Cronus577

Yeah that sucks... I don't know if I like that whole oring idea on pipes, another place to leak but I guess it's easier to install maybe. 

These kinds of things drive me nuts...  having to get in there twice.....

 

anybody spent anytime restoring door panels?  Mine (and my passenger side pillar) seem to freak squeak and feel cheap.  Maybe just new fasteners, etc?.

41 minutes ago, portlandareae28 said:

These kinds of things drive me nuts...  having to get in there twice.....

 

anybody spent anytime restoring door panels?  Mine (and my passenger side pillar) seem to freak squeak and feel cheap.  Maybe just new fasteners, etc?.

 More than likely the fasteners are bad for the door panels. Maybe just one or more of the fasteners aren't in the holes. There's not really a whole lot on the door panels that can rattle, It's almost a solid piece of plastic. Would definitely try to find some OEM fasteners because the eBay fasteners that I bought broke as soon as I had to take the door panels back off to put in speakers. 

 

For the pillar, your best bet is to find a new one unless you know how to melt the plastic to keep the metal fastener on. I believe the tolerances for the plastic is pretty small and has to be flat or else the pillar won't go on flush. I'll be trying to fix mine because all the metal fasteners on the passenger side pillar all broke when I get some extra money, not sure if I'll be using a soldering iron or a heat gun

Edited December 2, 20186 yr by Cronus577

I will tear it open and see on the pillar.  I will look for one fasteners as well.  I know part of the problem on the drivers door is a broken door handle/rest cup with the 2 screws is broken.  Down to 1 screw.

On 12/1/2018 at 7:07 PM, Cronus577 said:

Well jokes on me and I feel like an idiot!

I got the dash this far, went to go grab the hoses off the other side and the hoses slid forwad. I guess the diameter of the hose that comes out of the firewall is slightly smaller on the aftermarket heater core and the clamp didn't clamp enough so it was leaking through underneath the clamp and back into the cab. Reached into the HVAC box and it's dry so it makes sense now. 

i always give my stuff a tug before i button up lol no pun intended...

Quick update, found some interior at a price I couldn't pass up so I convinced the wife to let me get out and i finished up the interior. Just need to figure out how to go from non power seats to power and heated. Should be fun!

 

Edited February 5, 20196 yr by Cronus577

12 hours ago, Cronus577 said:

Just need to figure out how to go from non power seats to power and heated. Should be fun!

 

Heated seats require the High Line CTM and it wiring loom. 

 

Power seats again require the circuit breaker (cab fuse panel) and the wiring loom.

My 96’ Ram’s interior has really fallen apart over the last year. Both door panels are now fubar as well as not having a top dash, glove box, steering column cover or the panel under the steering colum. I really wish someone offered replacement parts for the interior.

Edited October 22, 20195 yr by The_Hammer

9 hours ago, The_Hammer said:

My 96’ Ram’s interior has really fallen apart over the last year. Both door panels are now fubar as well as not having a top dash, glove box, steering column cover or the panel under the steering colum. I really wish someone offered replacement parts for the interior.

LMC truck offers the dash and steering column cover. I could most likely find the parts if you are interested in. Not sure how far back though. Just picked a door panel for the 02 and he had a big pile of them. Going to vist him pretty soon.

On 10/22/2019 at 9:44 PM, dripley said:

LMC truck offers the dash and steering column cover. I could most likely find the parts if you are interested in. Not sure how far back though. Just picked a door panel for the 02 and he had a big pile of them. Going to vist him pretty soon.

 

Thank you for the offer ?

 

I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. I’m seriously thinking about fabricating a dash out of sheetmetal or aluminum and making fiberglass door panels. I really want an interior that will last and won’t randomly fall apart again.

8 hours ago, The_Hammer said:

 

Thank you for the offer ?

 

I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. I’m seriously thinking about fabricating a dash out of sheetmetal or aluminum and making fiberglass door panels. I really want an interior that will last and won’t randomly fall apart again.

I can understand that. I am not much of a metal fabricator.

 

I put the lmc dash in mine 7 years ago and it still looks good. Hoping it out lasts me. The door panel I put in looks like mine did about 200k miles so hopefully it will do the same. Probably ought to buy a spare. Time will tell.

This is a very cool thread. Thank you to everyone as I have to do mine soon.

 

I repaired the drivers seat heater last weekend and since it is often simply a burned wire at the heating element connection, it was easy to replace 3 inches of wire and now works great. What the factory did was get the wire too close to a loop or turn in the heating element so the wire insulation cooked over time and shorted out. Even burned the foam to some degree around it. Adding 3 inches of wire gets it away from the element.

4 hours ago, JAG1 said:

This is a very cool thread. Thank you to everyone as I have to do mine soon.

 

I repaired the drivers seat heater last weekend and since it is often simply a burned wire at the heating element connection, it was easy to replace 3 inches of wire and now works great. What the factory did was get the wire too close to a loop or turn in the heating element so the wire insulation cooked over time and shorted out. Even burned the foam to some degree around it. Adding 3 inches of wire gets it away from the element.

Every saved penny in corporate world counts, them bastards are working for bonus checks. The incentive anymore is not longevity, it's cost cutting for fatter bonus checks. It's probably been this way for a long time but now they don't care about crossing the line.

6 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

Every saved penny in corporate world counts, them bastards are working for bonus checks. The incentive anymore is not longevity, it's cost cutting for fatter bonus checks. It's probably been this way for a long time but now they don't care about crossing the line.

Exactly why I buy no new truck. Hang on to it long enough and its made into a rock solid truck. Time and ownership helps you build it solid.