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Tires arrived. Maxxis 40x17x13.5 Although I'm nowhere ready for them, I wanted to get them in place and at least get an idea for size. The GM Dana 60 is also sitting under it

Took the cab in for blasting once it was COMPLETLY stripped clean. Overall, not too bad. Some expected rust but it could be way worse

Lots more teardown in the cab. The military had the battery box behind the driver seat. Overall, the welds on this truck are deplorable, including the factory ones. Most of the bugger welds on the battery box had burned/melted right through the cab. Plus there was half a century of junk...

It could be worse and I tried to keep it to a minimum. Cuts are rough but will be cleaned up and fully boxed in

You guessed it, pretty much unavoidable to not end up cutting into the firewall to clear the 8.1 engine. Pushing the engine back... And setting up the motor mounts

Here are a few issues with clearance. With the engine as low as I wanted it, the differential housing on the factory front M715 housing was WAY too close to the oil pan. Fortunately with a GM Dana 60, the casting is further outboard which alleviates this issue And.....the factory 8.1 EGR...

One of the main goals on this build to to keep the truck LOW and stable. Go with an absolutely minimum lift to fit the 40's AND have a flat belly profile. Those goals helped dictate how the drivetrain was going to go in Flat belly with drivetrain temporarily supported The ORD is fully...

Fitting the 8.1 again, making sure there is room for the radiator and fan The 8.1 is a REAL tight squeeze for this truck Looking down at the floorpan and roughly where the drivetrain will sit. Eventually, a total of 5 shifters will have to nest here

Hauling the frame in for sandblasting. With the amount of fabrication and welding in the near future, blasting is the only way to go Clean frame.... Cab set back in place

Pulling the cab.... Starting the long process of stripping/cutting off the old un-needed frame brackets. The M715 got a lot of very specific stuff the other "J" trucks didn't Found the hand stamped frame VIN. If I'm remembering correctly, approximately 33,000 of these were...

More tear down, most of the parts came apart fairly well for their age Pile of sheet metal parts ready to be stored away for now Drivetrain mock-up. Using empty cases (minus the ORD Magnum) to save on weight ORD Magnum and NP205 case

Cleaned up engine bay... Pulling the bed, which weighs a friggin' TON Full teardown now

Starting to tear it down. The truck did run OK but it BARELY drove and wasn't safe. Radiator was plugged and it would start to get close to overheat quick Tornado engine coming out... 8.1 test fit, one of MANY attempting to shoehorn an engine of this size where an inline 6 once lived

Hi, first post on this forum but not a new build. I've been documenting this over on another forum but figured there may be more interest here. You will probably see more of the M715 than you actually WANT TO on this thread. They are fairly odd beasts that received all kinds of...