68' M715 AKA "Smokey", 8.1 engine on links, coils and 40's

[Rock40]

Your attention to detail is impressive. I am ready to see the completed product.

Thanks! Got a LONG way to go still. Nothing is quick when everything has to be custom made but it’s moving in the right direction

Just some great work done there. Can’t wait to see the rest of this project through completion. That is going to be one badass truck!

Thanks, it should certainly be one of kind once it’s finished







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[KevinG]

Really impressive work. Can't wait to see more. Fun watching the pup grow up so fast. :cheesy:

 

[Rock40]

Thanks! He's a 100lb beast now :icon_crazy:

 

[Rock40]

Mounting the tilt column. 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 duty stainless flanges for the 8.1 liter, at least not that we could find. So....got a chunk of 1/2” 316L stainless plate to start from scratch. The idea is running full 3" mandrel bent exhaust from the headers back. And of course, the passenger/driver sides are both different shapes with different bolt patterns.



Rough cut circle hole.



Final shape...



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



Both sides done. All sanded up and ready to go

 

[WJCO]

Anytime using a plasma cutter is a fun time. Like a kid with the latest toy on the market.

 

[Rock40]

Starting the exhaust from the manifolds back. All mandrel bent with a crossover from dual to single. Crossover should go from passenger to driver side and then single up from there.

Driver side:



Driver side underneath. Short flex pipe and a small cat because I can't stand exhaust stink on the trail all day



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 dirty ol' rubber. Thankfully just a candy wrapper





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

 

[Rock40]

Just a mess of spot welds



Rocker coming off...





Unfortunately, the new panels are only “close” to the original and I will not name the USA supplier. No amount of hoping, praying or massaging them with a sheet metal brake are going to make them right. So....I'll have to come back to them later



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

 

[Rock40]

Body work :naw:



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]

If it seems like I'm bouncing around from project to project, I am. There are literally dozens of different things to work on at once.

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 and then sanded with a DA



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. You can see the panhard in the background

 

[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. Got a little help from Kaiser too



Plasma cut then cleaned up with a flap wheel



Sleeve welded in



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

 

[Rock40]

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



Fully boxed and burned in



This is 5” total uptravel



Started cleaning up the rear frame which was full of old holes. I don't need them and don't want to see them



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. The mounts pass through both the outer and inner frame sections and will be fully welded. Very strong tow point that way





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



Tying in the plate corners...



DUN. Mounts are tacked in place and will eventually be fully welded

 

[Rock40]

Anytime using a plasma cutter is a fun time. Like a kid with the latest toy on the market.

Oh gosh yes. And SO much better than a torch in my opinion

 

[Rock40]

Plugging away. Fabricating a mount for the cutting brakes here







These will operate the rear left/right brake calipers independently and will allow for much tighter turns at low speed. They should easily lock up a 40" tire