Winter of 2012, I got up early to walk the dog on a chilly Sunday morning, and found an abandoned white trash Taurus behind my 1998 Dodge Ram. You can't see from the pics, but the impact was enough to move my truck forward three feet from where it was parked. I assume from the random useless tools around the area and even in the back of my truck that they tried to get it started again. Since it was dead...they left it. The car wasn't tagged or insured. The 'owner' claimed she didn't know it was gone from her home. My insurance company said since I wasn't driving the truck when struck, I was not covered by uninsured motorist insurance. ICK!!!






Being that the costs were all on my shoulders, I took my time ordering parts. I got a new bumper which came with brackets and caps. I got a new inner member which provides the structure and strength, and new bolts. I had the bumper painted black. Once I had everything I needed, I started taking the bent bumper off. This project coincided with a rear axle swap since access under the truck was easier without the bumper.






One other thing I did, was to have the plastic bumper caps coated with Line-X before I put them on the bumper. This not only made it look far better but it improved traction when using the bumper as a step.

Also, I took the front bumper apart, cleaned everything, repainted the front bumper, coated the front bumper with Line-X, and replaced the headlights and foglights with new clear units to freshen everything up.




Overall, aside from a polish, I think it looks great. I've replaced the dented front driver's fender with a newly painted fender, replaced the front lighting, redone the front bumper, coated the cap, replaced the rear bumper, coated the caps, changed the rear drum axle for a rear disc axle, and upgraded to the 20" wheels and tires from a 2008 Ram. I love the way this truck looks and drives.

 

That does look really nice. Great work!

 

Truck looks beautiful. Glad to see you took a crappy situation and made it pretty dang good!

 

Thanks guys. I don't have many exterior plans left, but here are my ideas. I want to ditch the plastic bed insert and Line-X the bed. That one's easy. I also plan on removing the side and tailgate emblems and replace them with a set I have from a late model, maybe 2008. I am not sold on them since they are bigger but I will play around with that idea.

The side steps are a little weak for my tastes...I see them flex when I stand on them, so I am going to remove them to build a few more structural supports and re-mount them. While I have them off, I am going to peel off their rubber traction pads, cut out some new pads that I will coat in Line-X, and then mount back down to the steps after a fresh coat of black paint.

 

that sucks but glad to see you got it back to how it should be. did you ever find out whose car that was? Probably drunk driver I'm guessing. your dodge held up good compared to the car!

 

Yeah it held up great. The bumper and it's brackets too the brunt as they were supposed to, and even though the impact was enough to move the truck forward three feet, the bumper itself didn't damage the rear fenders or bed floor at all. I was quite impressed.

The owner of the car was immediately identified because her work name tag hangs from the rear view mirror and her live in BF had current paycheck stubs in the passenger seat and floor well.

The problem is that it was so late / early at night there were no witnesses to put the lady in the car at the time of the accident, and even though it was not properly registered or insured, she claims she didn't know it was missing so she wasn't held accountable.

I had no legal recourse.