For the B pillars, that is a whole different challenge. Dodge never put headliners in crew cabs. As they were considered work trucks, creature comforts like headliners. A such, there was never any crew cab headliner trim as it was never needed! So as to still have a headliner that looked correct, I made the trim to go in that area. I used texted sheet plastic to get the exact same plastic texture as the factory parts:
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Next was trim install, and front seatbelts:
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As our trucks didn’t normally have a cap, I went back to the junk yard and found a Dakota that had the same size seatbelt anchors. I then painted them to match, and installed:
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This is now the way the B pillar looks:
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Next up were the kick panels:
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Dash now got its glove box too. Now speaking of, lets talk about that for a second. Back in 2013, I took the crew cabs freshly painted glove box with me, drove it across half the country to Indiana for the 2013 TDR Cummins reunion. I had signed by a few different people while I was there:
– Troy Simonson – The Dodge engineer who was responsible for putting a diesel into a Dodge pickup.
– John Keele – Head of Cummins initiative of putting a Cummins in a Dodge Truck
– Chris Wilkins – One of the techs who helped get the first 12v into a Ram
Thankfully, I had done this as never would those three guys be in the same place at the same time again. Troy ended up passing sway a few weeks before the 2019 TDR Rally so irony is, he never would have been able to sign this truck.
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And the view of the front half of the cab being almost complete:
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In went the driver’s seat!
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Floor Mats are key. They add that certain level of WOW! To a project. So I had these mats custom made close to 10 years ago, and they finally got to be installed.
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Final view of the interior:
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Exhaust:
Another one of those long time what am I going to do questions, was what I was going to do for exhaust. Back in 2007, right after the crew was painted for the first time, the crew actually sat at MBRP HQ in their prototype lab. They were going to fab a system for it, but we both agreed it was smarter to wait a bit until the rest of the truck was together. Fast forward many years, and I am back to wondering what I should do. After much debate, I decided that the only thing I haven’t done is the paint and body work, so lets stop there. I decided to again do a built not bought, and decided to fab my own system.
With that, a call was made to the owners of MBRP with a list of the items I needed. A few days later, I picked up my hardware list.
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I had been debating for many years now, if I should continue to do the stacks on the truck as the original plan called for back when I got the truck in 2004. I already had the hole in the floor, and to keep true to my original vision, I decided I would do the stacks. This was the layout I put together with my pieces of MBRP system.
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Let the cutting begin!!!
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Welding the adapters from the 6” pipe to 4” feed
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Lots of wood and bin supports to hold up the pipe as I mark, cut, and test fit:
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Rods to hold up the system on the isolators. Each hanger rod has to be bent to shape as needed.
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Gained a few cutoffs lol
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And after a full days work, I had my under body system:
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Individually the pieces looked like this:
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And for the in bed portion….
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Same as with the 90, I hate bare pipes in the bed. So I had a stack cover made to cover the pipes. This also allows for 8” long objects to rest on top and not sit on the pipes. Also prevents things from touching the hot pipes say like a lawn chair, on the way to a car show should it shift.
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Hangers were then formed…..
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Another item that took place at this time while pipes were out being polished, was an alignment. So the truck got a temp exhaust pipe under the truck so I could drive on and off the trailer and alignment rack.1st task was replace the tie rod ends:
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Loaded up and ready to go!
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Thankfully I know the dealer I took the truck to, so I was allowed to do the bulk of the work so no one had to touch my truck! lol
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Loaded and rolling back home!
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