Here it comes the full write up on my 99 Dodge Ram restoration it has been in the process of being rebuilt over the last couple years, it's hit a few speed bumps, moving, shattered ankle and months of recovery.  

Now we are making real progress unfortunately my laptop died on me so I have lost all the photos of the truck during tear-down and most of the before pictures.  

What I have today are pictures of the chassis all scuffed up and receiving the first coats of new primer I also have a small preview of the color not ever found on a Ram but on a 2012 and newer toyota.  I plan to follow this project with photos and updates as they come along,I plan to share the interior refurbishments new dash top, new seat upholstery, carpet cleaning and headliner refinishing..

have a good day       

I am painting the brackets and changing out the bushings to poly right now. I couldn't find rubber ones anywhere, other than oem...

     My buddy's cnc shop does specialty sampling equipment, I wonder if their engineer could reverse engineer these cheap enough,  I know the metal they would have in their throw away bins, not to mention it  is all high grade stainless or other specialty metals and they deal with large rubber bushings as well.

the six figure wall of shame(all screwed up in some way shape or form)

hard to believe a couple of the parts up there cost more than my truck 

Edited December 9, 201410 yr by MoparFreak1988

Pretty impressive  'rack' ya got there!

Your  perceived  'ride'  won't   really  change too much.. but  road noise, vibration  may. .     Some  have  said  their cab is  now  a giant  sounding board...      if you have  something  already rattling  under your dash... it's gonna be  a little louder now.

oops!  wrong  guy!   direct this to CTcummins!

 

anyhoo,   if your  rubber  mounts  are  trash,   these  poly's   may actually  be  nicer..  no more  steel on steel.. or jolts  cause  the cab isn't   flopping around.

Edited December 10, 201410 yr by rancherman

Ya I had a race car that had it's motor mounted with poly mounts and that thing could rattle the fillings out of your teeth so I am a little skeptical because that was a big block v8 and we are talking about a Cummins here...  I suppose that is motor vs. cab mounts, I guess all it means is more chassis feel in the cab? IE. what rancherman said more noise vibration and harshness.

 

BTW rancherman she could flop around enough going down a logging road to give a person motion sickness...     so anything hopefully ill be better 

 

Update on the truck I am still waiting for those two panels from the painter sucks I cant do any painting and have to rely on others. 

So I had a crazy idea that I researched a bit only to find out it should work and with the extra set of fender I have it should be a good spare time project while the truck is at paint the idea is simple put theseheadlights in my fenders they are close in size and should work fairly easy now my truck should have a unique attitude now I just need to get my hands on a used set 

Edited December 11, 201410 yr by MoparFreak1988

It is alive

20141217_1635351.mp4 

 

since you still have the bed off the frame, is it possible to put another full size fuel tank on the passenger side and mount it up? Given of course that i would have a stack out the bed of the truck.  I am thinking of doing this one day to mine and figuring out the plumbing later for a AUX fuel tank.

CUMMINSDIESELPWR in regards to adding the extra tank,  I actually considered the same thing during this project but I see one large obstacle which involves the rear suspension shock mount. seen here in this picture.

personally I wouldn't want to mess around with it

 

On another note got a couple of pictures of some of the interior additions 

stainless 316 4x4 shift knob laser engraved (handle to follow but will be green and polished you shall see) 

Tilt column adjust again 316 polished stainless.

the 4x4 shift handle is in production as well as the transmission shift lever, the 4x4 shift handle will be green and polished 

Leaves for Paint January 5th   and I am ready 

 

The above post was edited to remove information that was incorrect sorry.

Thank you MnTom and CSM for correcting me

Edited December 22, 201410 yr by MoparFreak1988

Shocks have nothing to do with the tracking and position of the axle. The springs hold it in place. You can pull the shocks off and the axle will still be in the same place. They help by keeping the axle from bouncing and keeping the tires planted.

Shocks have nothing to do with the tracking and position of the axle. The springs hold it in place. You can pull the shocks off and the axle will still be in the same place. They help by keeping the axle from bouncing and keeping the tires planted.

Okay question are they on opposite sides to make them work better?  The statement I made was based off the fact the springs due hold it in place but the axle is still attached to almost 6 inch blocks then to the springs, now the shocks are attached directly to the frame and directly to the axle and being on opposite sides I would believe they would most definitely help prevent axle wrap am I wrong?

Their factory setup on opposite sides reduce wheel hop.

Ah gotcha makes sense

is that on a shortbed? a longbed like mine the shock sits further back. thoughts?

years ago,   shocks   were on the same side.    Fuel tanks  were  also   outside the frame rails,  or  even  behind the  seat.      

Nowadays,   suspension  travel  is  much  more  than  the  early days,    and  a  much longer   shock is   now  reqd...  which means  they  have to be put in    ridiculous  angles  (it'd  be   silly for  a  shock tower  up into the  bed)     

So,..   now  there's  a  fuel tank to  contend with...   less space  for   a  even  larger, longer shock.  more torque  these  days  means  more  axle wrap- frame flexing,    which means     chances  of    wheel hop  is  exponentially  higher...     so     the    staggered  shock  to the rescue.

 

as  the  axle  wraps  up...  and  suddenly  "unloads"   as in a  wheel hop...      imagine  the   axle  wrapping   10 degrees...(pinion yoke  is coming up)   then   boing!  back to  'normal'.(or even beyond 'normal')   just to  start up again..   Back in the old days,  when  shocks  were on the same  side,   and     the    unloading  part  was  un-dampened      with  todays  staggered   both  directions  of  wrap   are  dampened.  (slowed anyways)

there are at least  3  things  that are  happening  in an  axle...   Wrap-   rotation of  axle  during  acceleration or  braking...      Twist-  axle  wants  to   twist  opposite  of  the  driveshaft ie;  rr  tire  is  trying to lift and lr tire is  wanting to go down   during acceleration..   and     Load-     up and  down  motion  for   various  load,  bouncing...etc.   

is that on a shortbed? a longbed like mine the shock sits further back. thoughts?

short bed.  On a long bed it may work but I also thought long beds used a larger fuel tank is that correct or incorrect?

 

If the tank size is the same (which I doubt as the rear of my tank ends almost exactly at the imaginary level line drawn up from the front of the axle tube seen in picture above) and the shock is about or greater than 16 inches farther back then my shock mount it may work the exhaust would be the only other thing in the way that would then have to exit under passenger front door or run outside the frame rail.

 

Personally I would add a bumper that can carry the spare tire and get a ford f450 tank they had a 30+ tank that mounted behind the rear axle in between the frame rails going almost exactly where the spare is...  I don't like how close it is to the rear bumper (but that is Ford's specialty put the tank in a location to make said car blow up)   

here is what I speak of

years ago,   shocks   were on the same side.    Fuel tanks  were  also   outside the frame rails,  or  even  behind the  seat.      

Nowadays,   suspension  travel  is  much  more  than  the  early days,    and  a  much longer   shock is   now  reqd...  which means  they  have to be put in    ridiculous  angles  (it'd  be   silly for  a  shock tower  up into the  bed)     

So,..   now  there's  a  fuel tank to  contend with...   less space  for   a  even  larger, longer shock.  more torque  these  days  means  more  axle wrap- frame flexing,    which means     chances  of    wheel hop  is  exponentially  higher...     so     the    staggered  shock  to the rescue.

 

as  the  axle  wraps  up...  and  suddenly  "unloads"   as in a  wheel hop...      imagine  the   axle  wrapping   10 degrees...(pinion yoke  is coming up)   then   boing!  back to  'normal'.(or even beyond 'normal')   just to  start up again..   Back in the old days,  when  shocks  were on the same  side,   and     the    unloading  part  was  un-dampened      with  todays  staggered   both  directions  of  wrap   are  dampened.  (slowed anyways)

there are at least  3  things  that are  happening  in an  axle...   Wrap-   rotation of  axle  during  acceleration or  braking...      Twist-  axle  wants  to   twist  opposite  of  the  driveshaft ie;  rr  tire  is  trying to lift and lr tire is  wanting to go down   during acceleration..   and     Load-     up and  down  motion  for   various  load,  bouncing...etc.   

Thank you for the information all of what you explained makes perfect sense to me as my old chevy's were on the same side and that thing bucked like a s.o.b. on a gravel road trying to start on a hill with a heavy trailer

LOL... how 'old' a  chevy??     the ones with   trailing link and a coil spring??   

53 and a 64 dads old farm trucks

Happy holidays to all a little update so the 4x4 shift handle is being a little bit more involved than originally anticipated.

 

At first we just removed the old knob and installed the new knob, it was taller which wasn't okay at first but it grew on me as it gave more leverage making the shifting easier.

then we hit problems

1. the added height did not allow us to hit 4wd low
2. the handle was not in the right spot in general in my opinion to far forward (felt like I was doing some form of yoga stretch to get my truck all the way forward into 4 low)

so solution 180 the handle open up some bends and we are off....

 

Pictures

in stock form this is 2hi

then this is 4hi

then neutral is basically on the dash

 

So easy fix we thought... just flip the handle 180 it works and bolts up fine only issue is the trim piece in 4hi it was contacting here

 

so we opened up the two bends on the shop brake and got it close but at this point the first bend at the floor that moves it to the side needs to be removed and then we're golden.  I am still looking at remaking the handle in it's entirety though...

 

pictures after the change up 

2hi i might add this mod put the handle right in my hand making it easy to shift at a moments notice 

4hi

and 4 low

 

More little upgrades to come

 

 

 

Just FYI, when I took my carpet off I noticed that all of the rust was forming under soundproofing and seems that got some sort of caulking on it. I scraped all of it off and sand blasted entire floor and also piled that crap of of carpet and power washed it too, all it did is trapped moisture. You might not have that problem but I'm sure glad I cut mine in time. And getting rid of all that didn't really make it much noisier inside.