Welcome to the site for RUDY, my 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4.

9/22/08

I just got Rudy back from the body shop:

I had them put on a black powdercoated Westin "Perfect Match" bumper instead of a chrome one.  (The insurance company approved, since the black one was $50 cheaper.)  I like the black much better than the chrome.

9/13/08

Monday morning, on the way to work, some jerk off was tailgating me in rush hour traffic.  Traffic came to a stop, and so did I.  This moron was following too close and ran into the rear of Rudy:

He severely dented my bumper, and you can see that my custom exhaust is completely FUBAR.  He hit me so hard, the cap on the truck was knocked crooked!   Additionally, the entire side of the bed and the tailgate needs to be straightened and repainted.  It's a total of $2,000 worth of damage.  And the stupid pig that came to the scene didn't even write him a ticket!  I HATE MARYLAND COPS!

3/2/08

Well, 3 months later, it's finally warm enough to wash my truck and take pictures of some of the new additions.

First, the new taillights I won from the CarDomain blog:

And the gauges I got for Christmas. These are AutoMeter "Z-series" gauges. I chose them for their similarity to the stock gauges. I also installed green LEDs instead of the stock light bulbs. Now, they light up the same color as the stock gauges, too. The pillar pod is also made by AutoMeter. The paint is factory-matched Chrysler Medium Mist Grey. If you want the part number, let me know.

I got manifold vacuum, transmission temperature, and oil temperature. The oil temp sender was drilled and tapped into the factory oil drain plug. The transmission temperature sender was teed into the line coming out of the transmission.

Here's a night pic. (For some reason, in this pic, the new gauges look a different shade of green. They're the same color in real life.)

12/3/07

The new tail lenses have been on for a while now. And they're not leaking, thanks to the silicon sealant I put on. But it has been raining and snowing ever since I put them on, so I haven't been able to take a pic of them!

11/20/07

Any of you read the CarDomain blog? Well, the other day, Rob had a "contest" to win a set of custom taillights for a Dodge Ram . I won them!

Yes, they are sitting on my kitchen table. No, please don't tell my wife that a set of truck tail lenses are sitting where we eat.

I've never won anything in my life, so this is pretty freaking cool. I was afraid that they were going to be those ricey chrome taillights (which would look fine if I was going to keep all the chrome on my truck). But they're carbon fiber, which will go great with the red and black theme.

I'm going to install them after I seal the taillights with some clear silicon. We all know about the less-than-stellar quality of APC products, and I don't want my lenses getting moisture in them.

9/29/07

I took RUDY in for an oil change the other day. The owner of the shop called me. The conversation went something like this:
Mechanic: "Have you looked at your tires lately, son?"
Me: "Uh, no. Why?"
Mechanic: "They're more bald than I am."

D'oh. My tires only had 30,000 miles on them, but they were shot. We're talking less than 0.125" of tread left. Scary.

So, I got a new set of tires. I replaced those tiny 225s that were on there with some nice MEATY tires:

Yup. I got some 265s instead. My truck looks SO much better. (I think the other trucks made fun of him before for having such small tires. :-P )

EXTERIOR

Not much done yet to the outside. I removed the black headlight covers and installed some black corner lenses. Now I can see at night again!

Full-custom dual exhaust, and Line-of-Fire LEDs:

INTERIOR

Nice and clean:

Eclipse Head-unit with a Zune plugged in:

Seats:

Every AMERICAN Truck needs an Eagle!

Inside of the cap:

Before/After:

(Those tires really made a difference!)

V8 MAGNUM!

BUG REPELLANT

RUDY and the Misses:

Currently Installed:
-Eclipse CD3000 CD Reciever
-AVS Headlight Covers
-AVS Tailshades
-Hella Driving Lights

Stuff to do:
-Amp & Subwoofers
-Lift kit & bigger tires
-Color-matched tonneau cover w/ spoiler
-Delete chrome
-K&N intake & throttle-body spacer
-Headers & hi-flow cat
-MSD Ignition system
-Brush guard
-New speakers
-DVD system

This truck is not going to be lowered! Lowered trucks can be pretty sweet-looking, but they're not for me. I'm jackin' this baby up! Why? Trucks are supposed to be big, loud, and frightening to small children!

Thanks for stopping by and visiting me and Rudy . Please vote on the poll!

And don't forget to check out my other vehicle--Dusty the turbo Plymouth Duster!