2001 Ram 2500 complete interior restoration

[Cronus577]

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, 2018 by Cronus577

[dripley]

Great job. I just put a new bezel in mine and it made feel that good too. Did the dash and the hvac box a few years back and bezel slowly disintegrated  

[01cummins4ever]

That looks great, I have been wanting to do this for a while but no time, my interior and drivers seat are shot. and who knows what’s lurking those hard to see places, 

 

@Cronus577 I envy you for doing a great job, thanks for sharing  

 

 

[Mopar1973Man]

Little trick hang the carpet over a fence or a picnic table and use a power washer with wide angle tip. It will clean that carpet to look nearly new. I've done this to my 1996 Dodge turned out awesome.

 

As for the plastic I know some don't like Armor-all but if applied right it will help plastics from getting brittle.

 

HVAC I did awhile back fresh evaporator and heater core.

[Cronus577]

10 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Little trick hang the carpet over a fence or a picnic table and use a power washer with wide angle tip. It will clean that carpet to look nearly new. I've done this to my 1996 Dodge turned out awesome.

 

As for the plastic I know some don't like Armor-all but if applied right it will help plastics from getting brittle.

 

HVAC I did awhile back fresh evaporator and heater core.

 

After I used the extractor I did exactly that and scrubbed it with soap before hand to make it smell better so for about a week it smelled like lemons faint lemons in the truck. The dye took away a lot of the good smell

[JAG1]

21 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Little trick hang the carpet over a fence or a picnic table and use a power washer with wide angle tip. It will clean that carpet to look nearly new. I've done this to my 1996 Dodge turned out awesome.

 

 

I do this with rugs from the house too and often scrub with soap and water during the process.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by JAG1

[Blueox01]

Like that woodgrain bezel, where that come from? Lmc?

[buckeym]

Looks amazing! So jealous of the condition of trucks down there. like new compared to our rust buckets up here.

[Cronus577]

6 hours ago, Blueox01 said:

Like that woodgrain bezel, where that come from? Lmc?

I actually got it off of eBay after a few months of looking but I was very specific on finding one with no scratches, cracks, or broken tabs 

1 hour ago, buckeym said:

Looks amazing! So jealous of the condition of trucks down there. like new compared to our rust buckets up here.

This is actually a northern truck, bought it in Washington about an hour north of Seattle

[Mopar1973Man]

Suggestion to your interior mod. This is something I'm going to do very soon.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by Mopar1973Man

[Bullet]

Very nice job Cronus!  I will be doing the same thing and build a custom dash while I'm at it.  Your pics and commentary are a huge help.  Good looking truck you got there...inside and out! ?

[Cronus577]

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Suggestion to your interior mod. This is something I'm going to do very soon.

 

 

Already have the LED bulbs put in, the. I had some similar to the article you posted but they were non Canbus so they flickered. So I picked up some of these  LED bulbs and put them in, the last pictures in the cab are just from the led lights, no flash and wasn't under direct light picture was taken around 10pm so was pretty dark.

 

For the power outlet I just want a stock outlet because I don't want to cut into the stock harness and I like the stock look

2 hours ago, Bullet said:

Very nice job Cronus!  I will be doing the same thing and build a custom dash while I'm at it.  Your pics and commentary are a huge help.  Good looking truck you got there...inside and out! ?

Thanks man, it's wasnt hard at all, just took a lot of time. The hardest part is getting the clips unhooked from the fuse panel. I swear im dumb and it took me 2 hours trying to figure out how to go about unhooking them. 

[Bullet]

5 minutes ago, Cronus577 said:

Thanks man, it's wasnt hard at all, just took a lot of time. The hardest part is getting the clips unhooked from the fuse panel. I swear im dumb and it took me 2 hours trying to figure out how to go about unhooking them. 

Hahaha...I've been there.  I do everything to my truck myself too and there have been many times when I have felt dumb...sometimes even worse.  But it always works out...?

[JAG1]

You did a fantastic job and is to be commended. 

[IBMobile]

That was a lot of work and your results are first rate.  It could not have been done better.  

[Blueox01]

18 hours ago, Cronus577 said:

I actually got it off of eBay after a few months of looking but I was very specific on finding one with no scratches, cracks, or broken tabs 

This is actually a northern truck, bought it in Washington about an hour north of Seattle

Like to find one for my interior, had a cracked dash core, found an agate dash core, so switched the whole interior over from Lt. gray to agate. Had ordered the dash cover from LMC in Lt. gray, but I had a set of Fiberglass  OTB fenders to pick-up in KC so went to their warehouse and swapped .Found all the interior parts after scrounging several trucks in the local U-pull-its, other than the LMC cover have about $200 in the swap. Cut the cup holders that come with auto trans off, and reinforced the mounting plate to tuck my CB in that space, not quite done but like how it's looking.

[Hawkez]

@Cronus577 what did you use for the new foam/sealer when you put your HVAC box together?  I am pulling mine this weekend.

[Cronus577]

5 hours ago, Hawkez said:

@Cronus577 what did you use for the new foam/sealer when you put your HVAC box together?  I am pulling mine this weekend.

Foam window seal. Used small and medium sizes depending on the width of each part I resealed. Seems to work just fine

[CUMMINSDIESELPWR]

couple weeks ago i pulled the seats out and cut the carpet out as it was gone.  mold and spilled oil and dankness from the cab brake light leaking (fixed)  also had a carpenter ant nest under driver seat from florida that caused surface rust.

 

i wire brushed everything and put the seats back in. I will herculine the cab floor so its easy to clean.  I may tackle removing the dash and cleaning the crap out before i replace the ac system.

 

sad they dont have a filter to keep the coils clean.....

[Cronus577]

1 hour ago, CUMMINSDIESELPWR said:

sad they dont have a filter to keep the coils clean.....

 I know, Luckily there's a fix!. I'll probably buy one after I move to Texas to keep everything in the HVAC box clean. I don't really care for how they look so I might use some free time to make a mold of the stock cover and make a whole cowl that can use a filter so it looks completely stock. 

Edited October 30, 2018 by Cronus577