Selling Ol’ Blue – The End of an Era


Well, after a good run since 2011 I finally got rid of Ol’ Blue so I could move on to a new project. Read more to see what I got and some of my future plans.

I had fabricated everything I wanted from scratch and it worked amazingly well. I realized thought that having reached the end of the project, what I really needed as far as a truck/project had changed. With a kiddo on the way and this not being a very practical vehicle something had to go.

After a couple of weeks on Craigslist, I had a guy want to trade me straight up for my truck. He sent me pictures of his truck and it was literally THE perfect vehicle. It is seriously the vehicle I have always wanted since I was a kid but could never afford. A Dodge Ram Cummins 4×4 and best of all, it is BLUE! (I am a huge sucker for blue trucks…)

Gertrude and I went on one last cruise:

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Unloading my junk into the new truck:
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New (to me) truck!

’03 Ram Cummins 4×4
MBRP exhaust, K&N, Adjustable Edge Chip, Nitto Terra Grapplers in decent shape
High mileage but clean and straight, no goose ball in the bed. Got a trans rebuild ~60k ago and lift pump ~15k ago. I was also told it has a new injection pump somewhat recently but no proof.
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Driving away… 🙁
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Gertrude giving me the approval of the new truck when I got home:
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The new owner was very excited about getting Ol’ Blue. He said he spent many hours reading my website www.DIYMetalFabrication.com about what I had done to it. He plans to have rust fixed and truck painted before the end of the year. No plans to change anything else other than some minor things that I didn’t finish like putting the gas tank back under the truck, etc.

I am very excited for the Dodge (could potentially carry on the name Ol’ Blue?? It is over 12 years old). Drives very nice, synthetic oils, couple nice upgrades like exhaust and tint. Fresh oil and fuel filter. No signs of abuse. Registered ~20mpg on the lie-o-meter on the way home. I will double check it by hand calculations next time I fill up.

The new truck has its own issues though minor. Rear bumper is dented pretty good (potential project?), intermittent abs/brake light which means bad sensor in rear axle or bad wheel bearing in front which I haven’t gotten a chance to check out yet. Came with trailer brake controller, cold a/c, and plenty of room to haul our soon to be here kiddo. I plan to sell the TrailBlazer and keep this one for a long time. I can drag some BIG projects home with the new truck 😉

It was time for a change, who knows what the next adventure will be!?

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