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

[Rock40]

Rebuilding the fender to fit the Accusump, using 16g plate





Just tacking it in place for now. Lower clamp mount is installed, I’ll finish the upper mount portion tomorrow

 

[Rock40]

So glad to see this back underway!

Thanks! I’ve got plenty of time to work on it now that the season has changed, hopefully I’ll be able to make some very steady progress

 

[Rock40]

Hammered out the rest of the Accusump mount

Upper mount portion, fully boxed for rigidity.





Welded and sanded

 

[Rock40]

Fabbed up a quick mount for the Accusump solenoid out of some scrap aluminum. The solenoid will release up to 3 quarts of oil into the engine in the event of low oil pressure



Fully boxed and sanded



It tucks up between the coolant filter and clutch slave

 

[wjtstudios]

So clean, amazing skills

 

[Rock40]

And here’s the fully mounted Accusump. I’ve probably fitted the fender on/off 50+ times, hopefully won’t have to screw with it for a bit now.


It’s kind of a FrankenFender now, ha!



And here’s the pile of old bits. Quite a bit of original fender got chopped off

 

[Bullwinckle]

Damn that looks good! Great metal work.

 

[Rock40]

So clean, amazing skills

Damn that looks good! Great metal work.

Thanks Gents! It's slow and steady for sure. Lots more sheet metal massaging to go

 

[FFPulley77]

incredible work!

 

[Brute]

Looking forward to seeing it finished up...

 

[Bierpower]

Project is looking good. Love the flight suit.

 

[JKbrick]

Amazing! Are you going to try to make the new fender area look old?

 

[Rock40]

Looking forward to seeing it finished up...

Project is looking good. Love the flight suit.

incredible work!

Thanks! Yeah those flight suits are great, but this one is just about done in at this point

 

[Rock40]

Amazing! Are you going to try to make the new fender area look old?

Well, unfortunately no. If the entire truck had looked like the engine bay area/inner fenders, I would have left it and enjoyed the patina but.....It had 3-4 coats of terrible brush paint all over it. Including a horrific orange. So, eventually it'll all get media blasted, primed and re-painted with a Rapco military paint

 

[Rock40]

This showed up along with the PCI radio It’ll be inset into the dash in the next few days.

 

[Cousin Clyde]

Jesus dude. This build is just hammering the incredible meter. Inspires me to get creative.

 

[wjtstudios]

Going to another level! Awesome

 

[Rock40]

Not a ton of time for stuff today. Was able to layout spots for 3 USB/12V plugs on the lower portion of the dash. Drilled the holes and added 10-24 threaded nutserts

 

[wjtstudios]

Nice and clean

 

[Rock40]

Finished out the rest of the USB plugs today


Also, this M715 never had grill of any sort, just a great gaping hole open to the radiator. Maybe the grill was lost years ago, who knows Wanting to avoid jamming a stick right through a very expensive radiator, I picked up some 316 stainless expanded metal. Then, I replaced the 5 factory sheet metal tabs with much heavier 1/8” units



Formed the expanded metal a bit with a sanding wheel, TIG welded some stainless 3/8-16 nuts on the backside and…