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Cherry 12' 1500 Sport Build

17K views 148 replies 16 participants last post by  Hookah 
#1 · (Edited)
Figured it was time to get a build thread going since I've got a fair bit into the truck already.

Bought it new in August of 2012 for a screaming deal that I made 2 dealerships fight over the sale for. She's a 2012 quad cab sport (turned down the crew cab so I could fit my bike in the back) Tows a horse trailer in the summer and runs meaty studded winters down the highway on the snowy days. I didn't go for the full load, liked the half leather sport seats, went for the non nav touch screen head unit, needed the trailer package with controller, has the oversized fuel tank and of course all the standard sport options. Dealer threw in the aries side steps for free.

So I brought her home like this

First change was to ditch the rc car antenna and get a shorty

Then she got fender hash marks and a painted to match bug deflector

Sitting in the drive with my show truck before I sold it (I put hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in that truck only to get $5000 when I sold it :smiledown:)

Then one horrible night on my way home from the bar (not drunk! I was DD) a taxi cab decided I shouldn't be allowed into his lane when I tried to signal and move over and he floored it to squeeze me out before I realized and this happened :doh:

But this was prime opportunity to get recon lights in replacement and since I had the paint out (I do autobody painting for a living by the way) I figured I should paint my engine cover as well. And I put on a K&N intake around this time as well and debadged it.



This past winter she got her studed winter pumps and a set of tow hooks put on along with a home made winter front.

This spring I got her a set of 2014 rims and cooper zeons and also picked up a diablo trinity tuner.

About two months ago she got a magnaflow cat back system. And installed the power tailgate lock kit. (sorry no pics of it)
Then a month ago I got a hold of a slightly damaged sport hood that I bought off a customer who was getting his replaced. Had one of our body techs put a few hours into carefully massaging out the aluminum and fixed it up for me and this past week I painted it up. Painted the whole front clip as well since this finicky colour was REALLY hard to match.


Next project is to finish my red ram eye tailgate emblem, order some white leds and make a grille one. And finally my retroshop projectors are in so I can finish my stock light retro fit with custom paint project. Also have an EZ tailgate strut on order. And the next investment will either be a leveling kit or long tube headers. Depends on how much money I feel like spending :gy:
 
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#4 ·
Thanks guys, been working on my headlights all day. Had a snag with the stupid chrome plating separating when I primed them so I've got some sanding to do now. Should look pretty good when I'm done though. I like having custom stuff that you wont see around locally. Have yet to see anyone in town with retroshop style lights so I think I'll be one of the very few at least. And with only the cost of a used headlight since my passenger one was wrecked in the accident, and the retrofit kit. I'll be $400 into them.
 
#5 ·
Headlights are done! :D




Before clearcoat


Halos are glued and wired on




4 hours of confusion and an email to Jeremey at Retroshop to figure this out (I'm not great with wiring lol)




I have no idea how my reflector ended up warped :( tried heat to flatten it out with no luck. Just have to live with it.




Sooooo happy with the results. But after the tedious hours and frustration that went into it, I can see why retroshop ones are nearly $1000. So worth it to have someone no one else locally has :)
 
#7 ·
Just got home and took a pic on the highway. They're not bad at all. I failed at aligning my cutoffs for the projectors though. I'll have to get in there and fix that from the backside one day when I'm feeling ambitious. But the light output is really nice and so far no highbeam flashes from oncoming traffic. The difference with highbeams is mostly just a filler in the sides of the light pattern so I didn't bother snapping a pic with them on. These are 5000K HID
 
#8 ·
That's a good looking truck. When you had the Recon headlights on there, you could have very easily passed for a 14 with the hood and rims on there as well. I think your truck is at the right height for not getting excessively flashed at night. Any higher than that and you should expect it.

Did they hold the taxi driver at fault for the accident?
 
#9 ·
Thanks, actually got a few flashes tonight so I may have to do some adjusting. I think they mostly need to be tilted down a bit. But the light output is awesome.

The accident was considered 50/50 fault. And because it was a cab company they either wanted to go through insurance which would have affected mine or I paid them out to save my insurance. So I decided to pay them out rather than have an accident on my insurance and pay double for the next 7 years. I definitely double check when lane changing now to make sure no one snuck up next to me. And whenever I see the cabs from that company I make extra effort to cut them off lol, they drive like such jerk bags as it is.
 
#10 ·
Love your truck, Heather!
Those headlights look flippin' amazing, and I love the color-matching! :smileup:

Bummer about the accident, glad ya got 'er/'im (?) fixed up. :)

Subbing so I don't miss anything!
Keep it up. :D
 
#11 ·
Very sweet ride dude.
 
#13 ·
Thanks guys :)

Yep insurance is kind of a joke sometimes. There was a cop right behind me when it happened. He said we both failed to avoid the accident and said he should have yielded and I should have been paying more attention but didn't feel the need to ticket either of us. But it would have made more sense if insurance had said okay you go your way and they go theirs and deal with their own insurance on the incident. Not each side pays half of each claim. But I sure double and triple check that blind spot when I change lanes now.
 
#14 ·
I don't blame you. I have to check a lot more now as well, because I almost ran into a little Nissan Leaf or something like that doing the same thing. I had my blinker on to get into the lane to merge onto the highway, but they were in my blind spot, and I'm glad nothing happened because it could have been ugly. I'm always looking on the highway the entire time I'm on the ramp, but somehow they got missed.

Half of each others damage is pretty much one of the dumbest things I've heard an insurance company say to do.
 
#16 ·
The morons i like are the drivers who hang back a couple hundred feet from traffic in front of them,then as soon as you turn a signal light on to change lanes they floor it so you can't get into that lane.

No wonder Calgary always has a few drivers who make "Canada's Worst Drivers" show

Also City bus drivers who pull out in traffic as soon as they turn their signal light on,they seem to think that damn sign on the back corner saying "Please Yield to Signal Light" gives them the right to pull out into fast moving traffic with a bus that's barely crawling:smiledown:

Another pet peeve of mine is Semi drivers who run 3 wide on the freeway,screwing everything up:doh:

There's my rant,:LOL:
 
#17 ·
I have to angle my mirrors in a lot closer now so I can see back there.

Hornet, my pet peeve is the guys who hang out in the fast lane and take their time trying to pass a semi right as they come into a ramp merging area, knowing full well he wants to get over because of cars trying to get on the freeway (and cars who don't speed up or slow down, fully expecting YOU to move over for them when it's their responsibility to yield to you).
 
#18 ·
Canada has a few laws that are differant,here the driver who is merging is supposed to yield the right of way,while i think down south it's the opposite.
Correct me if i'm wrong,but that was my understanding of your merge laws.

Calgary is noted as having some of the worst drivers in Canada,not sure it's something we should be proud of though:shy:.

Yea the truck driver who is trying to get over a lane or 2 doesn't bother me much,it's when you get them tying up evey lane that it becomes a nightmare.
I've seen the odd road rage incident involving Semi's in rush hour,lol
 
#19 ·
No, it's the same here. It's just like being at a T- intersection. The main thoroughfare has the right of way. Merging lane is supposed to yield, but most people don't. The mergers always think they have the right of way and get mad when you don't let them in right where THEY want to be.

Semis here are pretty good. They don't take up the lanes, and if they do, they usually get back over in a timely enough manner. I've done a lot of cross country driving having lived all over the US and always driving back to Wisconsin, and truckers are usually the most considerate people on the road.
 
#20 ·
Semis here are hit or miss, some think they have the right of way no matter one, some have no consideration for others, but some are great and actually drive respectfully.

Ordered a mopar reverse camera kit for my truck :smileup:
Now someone give me motivation to finish my led ram eye tail gate emblem... So lazy with that one for some reason. And I have to polish a scratch out of my drivers side, took my mom to Walmart after dropping the horse trailer off and come out to a nice white scratch down the drivers side. Not sure if its from a shopping cart or what but I was pissed. People are so ignorant to other peoples property. :mad:
 
#21 ·
Ordered a mopar reverse camera kit for my truck :smileup:
Now someone give me motivation to finish my led ram eye tail gate emblem... So lazy with that one for some reason.
GET THE EMBLEM DONE!!!!! :box: Does that help? lol

The reverse cameras are awesome. I love mine. It's amazing how helpful it is.

And I have to polish a scratch out of my drivers side, took my mom to Walmart after dropping the horse trailer off and come out to a nice white scratch down the drivers side. Not sure if its from a shopping cart or what but I was pissed. People are so ignorant to other peoples property. :mad:
Have you made some deity mad, or something? I think that something's got it out for you or your truck....
 
#22 ·
Haha yea that helps, I put my ez tailgate strut in last night though. Love that mod, so simple yet so handy, I hate how the tailgates just slam open if you don't support them. I'll do the emblem when the reverse camera shows up since I have to wire that in too. Can't wait to get the camera and make hooking the trailer up faster. I get lined up quick but I'm so scared to hit my bumper with the trailer receiver that I have to jump out and check how close I am over and over lol.
 
#23 ·
I have to put my tailgate assist in too. I bought it from Fast, but when I get home, I get too lazy to do most of the work, so it gets held off. Not really the best thing to do, because then it never gets done, lol. Honestly, I'm not sure why that's not standard these days, with so many options being available.

My camera came standard, and I love it. My parents have driven my truck a couple of times to bring it to the shops where the work has been done, and they want to get one installed in their Suburban now. It kinda sucks for models a couple years older than mine where you have to install all the stuff that came standard on the 14's (tailgate lock, camera, etc.)
 
#28 ·
That's a great spot to meet. I've got my headlights out again. Washed the truck and found a few leaks. Also had my new plastic welder come in so I'm cleaning up some of the edges on the housing that I massacred when I pried the lense out. Also used it as an opportunity to do some aligning. Had to disconnect the solenoid for the cut-off plate to properly align them. Then I'll adjust them down to where the are suppose to point. From there people can flash their lights at me all they want cause I give up lol. I'll just put HIDs in the brights and show them when bright lights really are haha.
 
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