Builds ‘68 M715, AKA "Smokey" (Can I post this Jeep on MUD?)

[Rock40]

ECU....

Added the Gen 4.0 Power-Gate battery manager and the Switch Pros distribution block

And all thus is tucked up above the Vintage Air heat and AC unit

 

[Rock40]

Knocked out a few small machining projects too

1.5” 7075 aluminum tie rod tapped for 1 ton TRE’s

Sky high steer arm and a tapered bushing from Ballistic. With how low this truck sits, I can’t put the tie rod up that high. However, the passenger side arm will hook to the draglink and the driver will hook to the PSC ram

Had the arm drilled for a tolerance fit on the sleeve and also milled a bit so the sleeve fits down flush
This pic below is the under side since the draglink comes in from underneath

 

[Rock40]

Wrapping up the steering. Billet arm from some racing application with a 1/4” drop. Was drilled for a threaded 5/8” bolt

Reamed for the 1 ton TRE

Installed. Draglink to panhard angle is just about identical so there shouldn’t be any weird bump steer

 

[Rock40]

Mounting the tilt column was tackled today. Flaming River stainless column and mounting components, Sparco steering wheel

Support bushing at the firewall

Had to notch the dash just a bit for the upper support block

Installed and the DD shaft mocked up. Looks like I was lucky and I’ve got about 1/8” clearance on the edge of the motor mount. Works for me

Pretty slick setup overall

 

[Rock40]

Turns out nobody makes heavy stainless flanges for the 8.1 liter, at least not that we could find. So....got a chunk of 1/2” 316 plate to start from scratch

Cutting this 1/2” with the plasma was slow but doable

Done:

 

[Rock40]

Starting the exhaust. 3” 16g from the manifolds back. All mandrel bent with a crossover from dual to single.

Driver side:

Driver side underneath. Short flex pipe and a small cat because IH8STINKYEXHAUST

Hard to see but this is the passenger side. There is VERY little space to cross it over and the only option is bringing it back to the Magnum and doing it there. If I didn’t care about having a front driveshaft it’d be WAY easier

Crossover will be somewhat “close” to this here

 

[Rock40]

Time for a little body repair on this 52 year old cab while I wait on some exhaust parts

Driver cab corner and rocker. Using a Blair cutter to
break the spot welds loose

Peeling away the cab corner

Up inside the rocker. 1st glance I got scared thinking that was a petrified rubber. Thankfully just a candy wrapper

 

[Rock40]

What’s left of a battery. How this stuff gets inside a rocker is beyond me

Just a mess of spot welds

Rocker coming off...

Unfortunately, the new panels are only “close” to the original. I should be able to straighten it out with a sheet metal brake. These are made in USA but I suspect there are some small design differences between the civilian J20 and the M715

 

[Rock40]

Cut out the rest of the bad spots today. This is the lower portion of the B pillar

Body work

Plasma cut out the last little bit, basically the very inside floor corner of the rear cab. I didn’t want to play around with welding anywhere near it

Cab corner fit-up. Overall pretty good. The only issue is that the corner radius is slightly different. I should be able to mechanically push it to where it needs to go.

 

[Rock40]

Went ahead and welded nutserts into the tunnel. This way the shift boots and rings can be easily installed or removed without a back up wrench

I also cut out the hole for the Ranger a bit bigger to match the shift boot ring

Had it with all the tedious body work. Took the 40 out of its nearly 8 month storage and jetted over to Eastern WA for the day. This is up near Sugarloaf

 

[Rock40]

Back at it. The hydroboost rod needed to be significantly shortened, I came up with this and it threads together securely

 

[Rock40]

Started modifying the dash for all the extras it needs.

This was a big factory hole in the upper left section of the dash that needed to be filled in so an updated wiper switch could be installed

All silicone bronze filler here

Laying out the locations for the SwitchPro and ARB’s

Cutting the hole for the Vintage Air climate controls

 

[Rock40]

Time to cut up the frame a bit. In order to maximize uptravel with only 2” of lift, the frame needed to be relieved for the panhard bar. Max uptravel will be 4” as just beyond that the differential casting strikes the frame and the panhard is in the front differential cover and engine harmonic balancer.

Used a chunk of DOM that I bought awhile ago for doing this same thing with the bump stops

It’s VERY tight at full bump but it’s in

About a 1/16” of clearance on the draglink at full bump

 

[Rock40]

Also ended up modifying the factory GM pedal a bit as it was protruding WAY too far in towards the seat. Cut it, ground it a bit and bent it out some towards the brake pedal. Now at least both are “on line” together.

This also clears room for the installation of the cutting brakes

 

[Rock40]

Notched out and tubed the rear frame in preparation for the bumpstops

Plasma cut then cleaned up with a flap wheel

Using 2.5” King bumpstops

Got a big welding helmet upgrade as a birthday present. Unbelievable how well you can see under this hood and the color while welding appears like natural light

 

[A10Driver]

Notched out and tubed the rear frame in preparation for the bumpstops

View attachment 2337719

Plasma cut then cleaned up with a flap wheel

View attachment 2337725

View attachment 2337723

Using 2.5” King bumpstops

View attachment 2337727

Got a big welding helmet upgrade as a birthday present. Unbelievable how well you can see under this hood and the color while welding appears like natural light

View attachment 2337728

Which model did you get, l have been eyeing those?

 

[Rock40]

Which model did you get, l have been eyeing those?

It’s the Crystal 2.0 After reading reviews that’s what I wanted to go with. Welded multiple hours today and it was fantastic. Worked well with the plasma too

 

[Rock40]

I had these old suspension brackets sitting in the metal bin, decided to cut them up to fabricate bumpstop pads

Fully boxed and burned in

This is 5” total uptravel

Started cleaning up the rear frame which was full of old holes

TIG welded with 70S2, sanded, then the small gaps filled with silicon bronze. Finished with the DA

 

[Rock40]

Welded the rear frame plate in after plasma cutting holes for the shackle mounts

These are fully passed through the outer and inner frame. Solid 1” bar from Ballistic

Tying in the plate...

DUN

 

[Rock40]

Picking away....

This is the mount for the cutting brakes