My Granite Crystal 23 Limited

[relbus]

I always enjoy seeing others "build" threads. First time posting one of these , even though I have had more builds than I can count.
Back in January my beloved 2020 Laramie was totaled when someone hit the truck and pushed me into the center median at 80mph.
I ordered a 2023 on 2/1 from Koons and took delivery on 5/31. My youngest son and I flew out of Midway on the morning of 5/31, arrived at Dulles around 11:40am, and were at koons by 12:15pm. Koons took a bit longer than promised, but had us out the door at 3pm.

A couple pics from delivery day...

 

[relbus]

My son and I made it back home at exactly 3am on 6/1. For the first couple hundred miles my "tape bra" on the front end kept flapping, and pieces would lift. I would hear noise or see a piece flapping and then pull over and repair/retape etc.
After some miles I must have perfected the painters tape technique, as the flapping stopped and no more pieces lifted. It was then I could really get some miles under my belt.

I would 100% use painters tape again to protect a car! I brought 3 rolls in my carry on bag and used 1.25 rolls of tape. After we got home and my son went in to bed, I came back out and peeled all the tape. It took less than 10 minutes and with all the tape came the thousands of bugs that I otherwise would have been scrubbing off the front end.

 

[Crusty old shellback]

Congrats on the new ride.
Hopefully you have better luck with this one.

 

[Roper46]

Congrats on the new Ram! I love the new mirrors on the 2023s. Also the hood looks nice with the front scoop and the emblems on the sides.

 

[phatboy64]

Nice truck! Great idea on the tape

 

[relbus]

Thanks guys!

Thursday I was running on fumes, since I only got a few hours of sleep. Motivation was low, so didn't do much on the new truck. I did however get my weather tech liners and some other items out of my storage unit and back home to get the cleaned up and into the new truck.

 

[mountainears]

Painters tape is used a bit in the corvette world on delivery until they get PPF installed.

What’s your plan, doing PPF? I had my whole truck done. It is expensive but I believe worth it if you’re planning to keep it a while.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[relbus]

Friday I was able to spend the time hand washing it and get it all cleaned up. I also threw my old Bakflip MX4 onto this truck during my lunch hour. I was disappointed to find a ding and some scuffs on the top of my cover.
Not sure how they happened, maybe snow and ice build up when opening. Not thrilled, but not noticeable enough to replace the cover.

Saturday I installed my Thuren level kit, Thuren swaybar, Thuren track bar, and PW isolators. The PW isolators were laying around from my 2020. I had some coil shift on that truck and had intended to install these, but it was not a priority. So they have been sitting around for a year or so...the rubber got some weird 'cheese' on it. You can kind of see the rubber cheese on the surface. Tried to clean the cheese off best I could, and threw them on.

 

[gimmie11s]

Looking good! Best color

 

[relbus]

Here are a couple pics of the finished product..

 

[relbus]

Sunday I threw the BD light bar on. Big thanks to the CJC guys for getting me replacement brackets and a replacement harness. Big thanks to the BD guys as well. I sent them my damaged carcass of a light bar and they pulled the guts and put them in a brand new housing and sent it back to me as good as new!

 

[gimmie11s]

Very nice indeed

 

[relbus]

PPF AND tint went on last week as well. Did 5% all around and 50% windshield. PPF did full front grill, bumper, heads and fogs, partial hood, partial fenders, rocker panels.

Same as I did on my last truck and it served me well.

 

[relbus]

Exhaust tip I had from my 2020 that never was installed. It’s too bad that Ram can’t give us a nice 5” tip on higher trims from the factory. I’m really OCD about exhaust tips…not sure I like the angle.

 

[relbus]

I always like to change the oil early on a new engine. Necessary or not it makes me feel better, so I do it! Oil changed @1355 miles.

 

[relbus]

Discount called and my one tire that was cut in the accident came in. So ran to discount picked it up and then headed to my office to throw them all on. Don’t judge the dirty tires and wheels. Theyve been collecting dust in our shop since January.

 

[phatboy64]

PPF AND tint went on last week as well. Did 5% all around and 50% windshield. PPF did full front grill, bumper, heads and fogs, partial hood, partial fenders, rocker panels.

Same as I did on my last truck and it served me well.

I did the full front and heads on my 2023 and ceramic all around, bringing it back to get the rockers and all 4 doors done. With the lift and the 37’ I put on I gut a bunch of spray going the sides of the truck. What mud flaps do you have on?

 

[relbus]

I did the full front and heads on my 2023 and ceramic all around, bringing it back to get the rockers and all 4 doors done. With the lift and the 37’ I put on I gut a bunch of spray going the sides of the truck. What mud flaps do you have on?

I have weather tech flaps. They're the molded type. I had the same set on my 2020, and pulled them off when I stripped that truck.

I did trim the front flaps inside the wheel well, as WT's front inner part is larger and bulkier than it needs to be and created a spot where occasionally under the perfect circumstances the tire would just brush that area entering or leaving my driveway with wheel cranked. This was on the old truck...and the trimming solved the issue. SO these are technically one off custom WT's.

 

[Joe_Lee]

Very nice!

Do you have factory rear air suspension?

What height of Thuren springs did you go with?

 

[relbus]

No rear air. I was concerned with reliability. These are 2” Thuren coils.

First tow! Taking the boys on a 8th grade grads dirt bike/ATV trip.