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Hello fellow New England car enthusiasts, assuming of course.
My usual user name is Strife, I have a few accounts around the web on various forums, car sites, ect. I am not very good at introductions, so I guess I will just leave a rough list of things about myself. Any questions, feel free to ask. I'd like to meet some new people with common interests.
( Seeing as this turned into a very long post, I will place the most 'interesting' info at the top, lol. )
I was invited to visit one of the stops with the Kanc Cruise today at the Moore Dam Area in New Hampshire, I enjoyed what I saw and now I'm here.
I am a 23 year old male living in Northern New Hampshire. I have been engaged for over 9 years now to my first girlfriend. I live with/take care of my mother since all the family lives 3 hours away or more.
My mother and I currently own a 1996 Dodge Ram Indianapolis 500 pickup, we named her Indy. She has been an amazing truck my entire life and always brings us home, I am not sure how sometimes but always does. I have been returning the favor by taking care of Indy while my mom has been steadily losing care in maintaining her. After years of driving the truck, paying for registration/inspections, several thousand dollars keeping her maintained, and being told I am responsible of her, I feel partial ownership as well.
Some stuff about myself and my car life.
Growing up, my mother and father made decent money and they owned some amazing, collectible cars. After some major work/family issues everything started falling apart and each time we moved we had to sell a car off. 4 years later (2000-2004) all we have left is a 1996 Dodge Ram Official Truck. Perhaps one day I could list off the cars we have owned just for fun, but it is quite the list/history lesson.
Long story short, I grew up with some amazing cars and trucks, went to car shows all the time, and learned a lot about them and their history from my family. As i got older and their knowledge wasn't enough to satisfy my learning appetite, I started reading a lot of books. At one point in 3rd grade, I was told to return some books to a library because they were "too high of a grade for me". I opened up a random page and read it to the teacher, then closed the book and quizzed her on a Cobra. They left me alone after that.
Once i made it to high school and took up my first 'official' classes of automotive, i was running college level classes. I worked on friends cars and our truck. High point in my school career was going to the Ford AAA Competition as a State Finalist in 2012. My favorite project was rebuilding a 1978 Porsche 928 V8 engine while my other class mates worked on 350 Chevy crate motors.
The 1996 Dodge Ram Indianapolis 500 I mentioned earlier is our current, and only, vehicle we own. The original rims are in storage, the clearcoat is gone in most places, and the bumpers started to let go after it became our daily driver. My mother and father loved taking care of their vehicles, but when everything hit the fan it was a steady decline of "i don't care anymore". We moved from Mass in 2004 with 24,000 original miles, the truck currently has just over 94,000 now...
For the truck, Indy: She is almost all original. In a nutshell, for anyone who doesn't know. The Indy Package was essentially a Sport SLT Laramie, short bed, regular cab truck. Only came in RWD, has a open differential with 3.55 rear gears. The suspension gave it a stance of the 4x4 but it handled like a car. Painted Brilliant Blue with White Racing stripes to mimic the 1996 Dodge Viper GTS of that year, which was the Pace Car of the Indianapolis 500. The original trucks were meant to be based on the 1994 Dodge Ram VT (Viper Truck), which included the Viper V10, T-56 Transmission, and a lowered suspension among things. When it came time to propose the idea, it came to light that not enough technicians on the track had the experience to work on a Viper V10 in a Ram. Since all the vehicles at the track required to be torn down and rebuilt for Parade Duty, they were instead built up to a spec they had shown off at SEMA, the Dodge Ram SS/T. The SS/T model was later released in 1997 and 1998 while the Ram VT was released as the SRT-10 Ram in 2004.
Aside from the normal maintenance, (ignition system, air filter, wear and tear), I have rebuilt most of the engine twice now, really just because the gaskets let go.
New water pump.
Rewired some of the corroding electrical.
New brake calipers and rotors in the front. Rebuilt the insides of the drums in the rear and new, rerouted brake lines.
I brought the truck to an Automotive Spa and got a 50% discount on a $600+ job because they couldn't believe she was an original 96, only paid $364. They tried to revitalize the original paint, restore some clearcoat, made the inside look like new, among many things including clay bar, ect.
The original Dynomax muffler and exhaust that came with the Indy package ended up getting replaced by some stupid 1.5 inch pipe because my mom agreed the original needed to be replaced, and in doing so only paid $110 for the job. (You get what you pay for.) Once it was removed and I inspected it, there was a rusted out portion near the rear axle. If we had cut off the rusted portion, rerouted it as a side pipe, we could of kept the original muffler that made our truck sound amazing. On the plus side, they still sell that exhaust kit at my parts store, so its a matter of time before this one is bad enough to replace, lol.
Eventually, once I get talking, i get carried away. It took me 6 hours to slowly type this out and I must have restarted three times. If you read all the way through, thank you for your time, I hope you found something of interest in here.
Strife
My usual user name is Strife, I have a few accounts around the web on various forums, car sites, ect. I am not very good at introductions, so I guess I will just leave a rough list of things about myself. Any questions, feel free to ask. I'd like to meet some new people with common interests.
( Seeing as this turned into a very long post, I will place the most 'interesting' info at the top, lol. )
I was invited to visit one of the stops with the Kanc Cruise today at the Moore Dam Area in New Hampshire, I enjoyed what I saw and now I'm here.
I am a 23 year old male living in Northern New Hampshire. I have been engaged for over 9 years now to my first girlfriend. I live with/take care of my mother since all the family lives 3 hours away or more.
My mother and I currently own a 1996 Dodge Ram Indianapolis 500 pickup, we named her Indy. She has been an amazing truck my entire life and always brings us home, I am not sure how sometimes but always does. I have been returning the favor by taking care of Indy while my mom has been steadily losing care in maintaining her. After years of driving the truck, paying for registration/inspections, several thousand dollars keeping her maintained, and being told I am responsible of her, I feel partial ownership as well.
Some stuff about myself and my car life.
Growing up, my mother and father made decent money and they owned some amazing, collectible cars. After some major work/family issues everything started falling apart and each time we moved we had to sell a car off. 4 years later (2000-2004) all we have left is a 1996 Dodge Ram Official Truck. Perhaps one day I could list off the cars we have owned just for fun, but it is quite the list/history lesson.
Long story short, I grew up with some amazing cars and trucks, went to car shows all the time, and learned a lot about them and their history from my family. As i got older and their knowledge wasn't enough to satisfy my learning appetite, I started reading a lot of books. At one point in 3rd grade, I was told to return some books to a library because they were "too high of a grade for me". I opened up a random page and read it to the teacher, then closed the book and quizzed her on a Cobra. They left me alone after that.
Once i made it to high school and took up my first 'official' classes of automotive, i was running college level classes. I worked on friends cars and our truck. High point in my school career was going to the Ford AAA Competition as a State Finalist in 2012. My favorite project was rebuilding a 1978 Porsche 928 V8 engine while my other class mates worked on 350 Chevy crate motors.
The 1996 Dodge Ram Indianapolis 500 I mentioned earlier is our current, and only, vehicle we own. The original rims are in storage, the clearcoat is gone in most places, and the bumpers started to let go after it became our daily driver. My mother and father loved taking care of their vehicles, but when everything hit the fan it was a steady decline of "i don't care anymore". We moved from Mass in 2004 with 24,000 original miles, the truck currently has just over 94,000 now...
For the truck, Indy: She is almost all original. In a nutshell, for anyone who doesn't know. The Indy Package was essentially a Sport SLT Laramie, short bed, regular cab truck. Only came in RWD, has a open differential with 3.55 rear gears. The suspension gave it a stance of the 4x4 but it handled like a car. Painted Brilliant Blue with White Racing stripes to mimic the 1996 Dodge Viper GTS of that year, which was the Pace Car of the Indianapolis 500. The original trucks were meant to be based on the 1994 Dodge Ram VT (Viper Truck), which included the Viper V10, T-56 Transmission, and a lowered suspension among things. When it came time to propose the idea, it came to light that not enough technicians on the track had the experience to work on a Viper V10 in a Ram. Since all the vehicles at the track required to be torn down and rebuilt for Parade Duty, they were instead built up to a spec they had shown off at SEMA, the Dodge Ram SS/T. The SS/T model was later released in 1997 and 1998 while the Ram VT was released as the SRT-10 Ram in 2004.
Aside from the normal maintenance, (ignition system, air filter, wear and tear), I have rebuilt most of the engine twice now, really just because the gaskets let go.
New water pump.
Rewired some of the corroding electrical.
New brake calipers and rotors in the front. Rebuilt the insides of the drums in the rear and new, rerouted brake lines.
I brought the truck to an Automotive Spa and got a 50% discount on a $600+ job because they couldn't believe she was an original 96, only paid $364. They tried to revitalize the original paint, restore some clearcoat, made the inside look like new, among many things including clay bar, ect.
The original Dynomax muffler and exhaust that came with the Indy package ended up getting replaced by some stupid 1.5 inch pipe because my mom agreed the original needed to be replaced, and in doing so only paid $110 for the job. (You get what you pay for.) Once it was removed and I inspected it, there was a rusted out portion near the rear axle. If we had cut off the rusted portion, rerouted it as a side pipe, we could of kept the original muffler that made our truck sound amazing. On the plus side, they still sell that exhaust kit at my parts store, so its a matter of time before this one is bad enough to replace, lol.
Eventually, once I get talking, i get carried away. It took me 6 hours to slowly type this out and I must have restarted three times. If you read all the way through, thank you for your time, I hope you found something of interest in here.
Strife
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