5/10/09
This will be an in-depth updated page on my new 2000 Dodge Durango SLT. It has full leather, the 5.9 v8, 4x4, its a pretty well optioned truck. The story is my friend’s mom owned it and used it to drive back and forth to work. It has 114k miles, a lot of which are highway. My buddy was using it one day and smashed it into the back of a big ol' dodge van. His mom only had liability on it so they didn’t want to bother fixing it, and it was never officially totaled so I am receiving it as payment for mechanic services on my buddy’s new truck. I got lucky that the van was a little taller in the back then the nose of the Durango so when they hit the Durango’s bumper went under the vans bumper and it didn’t bend the frame much. The bolts for the bumper pulled through and tweaked the front a hair but a torch and hammer should fix that. It needs fenders, a radiator, core support, hood, inner fenders, grille, and both airbags. Instead of buying a bumper I’m going to use a brush guard for a jeep grand Cherokee and weld it into the frame and build a bumper off it with diamond plate because I don’t like the Durango brush guards. My plans are full intake, T/B spacer and T/B, headers and possibly a custom built exhaust by me, 3 inch lift this summer along with 32 mud terrain tires. I am also going to beef up the trans and run 6 way adjustable rancho off road shocks. The audio system is going to be 4 component amped speakers, a flip out dvd player and 2 7 inch head rest TV’s, and a set of 12 inch subs. Thankfully the body is solid as is the frame, and the interior is almost perfect. I am very excited to finally have a nice car to drive every day, and have fun with. There will be lots of pics, and I will post up pics now that show the damage. It looks much worse then it really is!!
5/22/09
UPDATE!!!
Well I never ended up needing to do mechanic work on the kids truck, so I bought it from them. I paid for it and it was signed over yesterday for 300 bucks. I am picking up the nose, and both airbags this weekend and hopefully getting it towed home and getting to work on it! To save money I’m going to try and make my 3 row aluminum Ford Racing radiator from my mark work in it, so we will see. I am also most likely gonna eliminate the clutch fan, and run a electric fan, and also instead of running the trans lines into the radiator I’m going to run a external cooler.
5/25/09
New!!! Went and picked it up this morning and got it home! And I went out last night and bought all the parts for 350 bucks. I spent the whole day stripping the nose off, and making a custom intake for it. I need to heat the frame on the passenger side and straighen it out but other then that it is all ready to be reassembled!! I am very excited for the car and I have tons of pics to add!!
