some smoked out tail lights would look good if your going to change them out. looks good. are you going to put the black side trim on like the 99-01 models or the black with the chrome stripe? i seen lmc has both and precut to boot. how long did it take you to change your clutch in the lot? anyone come and offer a hand

 

I had one allen wrench in the truck!.. But I have a bunch of new tools now! A guy can never have too many tools!

I am a member of a Legislative Task Force that is invstigating the intersection of Family Violence and Child Abuse and Maltreatment. I was not thrilled that they scheduled a meeting the day after Easter, and I hate to leave town at 5 am, so I travel the evening before. Our Task Force is charged with policy recommendations for new legislation to deal with the CPS system and how it investigates cases with co-occurence of Family Violence.

The clutch failure the other day made me wish I had the Ram finished. Having a second truck ready to hit the road would have increased my comfort level significantly!

 

I have not given much tohought to changing tail lights or trim yet. I know I will not be replacing the black plastic trim that ran along the bottom of the tailgate. I think it looks better without it. But the black plastic around the original tail lights as well as the black plastic on the door handles do not look good against the shiny new paint job. the black looks more faded now, so I may change them for that if no other reason.

Clutch took about 3 1/2 hours. Used a couple of 2x4s and ratchet straps to build a sling to hold tranny and used jack to lift slightly so I could slide it back on boards. Nobody around to help. Hotel staff looked at me funny. One guy told me I could not work on truck in parking lot. I told him I already talked to front desk. I actually told clerk I was going to do it, I did not ask. I stay at that hotel far too much for them to give me any grief. It was challenging to get clutch aligned with only about 6 1/2" clearance! My only real concern is that I did not torque the bolts. Did not get torque wrence, and cab ride to parts store was about $15 each trip!

After getting clear buffed an the last fender painted and clear, I will begin thinking about trim and what I may add, change or leave off. It actually looks pretty clean being debadged.

 

i did a friends 97 ext cab long box 4x4 in black. he put the smoked headlights and tail lights in. he left the trim and badges off and it looks good. next time his by i will take a couple of pics and post them. 3 hours to do a clutch on the ground you made good time.you could try some satin finish trim paint and touch up the door handles and trim. sem makes a good trim paint.

 

Pics of your friend's truck would be great. It may help me decide.

I may try painting the door hardware, and probably the mirrors too. Not sure but think they will also not look as good against new paint. Is sem a brand name of paint? Who carries it?

 

sem is a brand name sorry about that. a local shop in town carries it. i'm sure any brand name trim paint would be equal quality. check with the guys you got your paint from they should have some in a spray can. just give your parts a quick wipe with some gun wash and a light coat of paint will make them look new.

 

Search "sem trim black". Should be able to find it near you. I know Carquest and O'Rielys (sp?) near me carry it.

 

Oh, and spray very light coats of it. 5,6,or even 7 very light coats will look alot better and dry quicker than heavier coats.

 

Thanks guys, I will look into the Sem paint. We do have an O'riely's here.

Back home from three days of mental masturba***n. Working to make systemic changes in the state's Child Protective Services, I decided to take a well deserved afternoon nap when I arrived home. My wife woke me up, telling me the neighbor across the street (85 years old) wanted to show me something in his back yard. I had already expressed to them that if they ever decided to sell their home I was interested (due to the large nice shop buildings out back). So I grumble, get up and we go. He rolled out on his power scooter, had his wife open the doors, and my jaw dropped as I saw a bright red 64 Impala 2d convertible, and a 1928 Model A convertible.

He gave the Impala to his daughter, and is thinking about selling the Model A as he can no longer get into it or drive. So now I am thinking about making him an offer that will include the ability to keep it garaged in his shop! No room in my garage…….(why do people continue to tempt me???)

Well, back to the Ram. I discovered 3M Trizact Clear Coat sanding discs (1500) while in Austin. Tried it out on some slight orange peel on the scrap hood where I had already sanded and buffed. Then I buffed again. What a difference. I was hesitant previously to sand further as I was afraid to burn through the clear. This was not a problem, and the clear on the scrap hood is not as heavy as what I put on the Ram. So I started resanding with a wet orbital sander to get it looking even better. I hate to compromise and some of ther areas would probably not be noticeable to anyone else – but I would probably notice every time I walked up to the truck.

Here is a photo of the scrap hood looking down on it. You can see the reflection of the tree on the fight hand side with no sign of orange peel distorting the image. Keep in mind that the reflection you are seeing is on a BLACK hood! The dark in the image at the top of the photo is the underside of the eave of the garage. At the top and the lower left hand corner you can see some of the orange peel where I did not resand.

 

Finally got to start back to work on Ram today. I think I got the left fender like I want it so I primed it this afternoon. Will check again after primer dries.


Here are some photos beginning from the shot of the original dent to pulling and filling dent to primer today.