J10 / M715 project - Bellingham, Wa

[rollie715]

This is a copy of a thread I started on the IFSJA site at:

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=135924

I figured it might be equally of interest here on the Zone so I will try to duplicate the post on both sites as the project progesses.

Not sure where this is leading, but I'm currently on a path to combine a 1976 long wheelbase J10 with an M715. Having owned a couple of each in the past, my plan is to take the J10 and swap M715 parts onto it. The J10 other then having a good running drivetrain, 401/TH400/Quadratrac is a rust bucket, which is a major factor prompting me to do something with it. The front fenders and grill are rusted through in spots and the bed has holes big enough to lose full pieces of firewood. The cab has some holes in the floor boards, but I think I can patch those good enough to get by for awhile.

I promise I will post pictures as this project progresses.

The plan is to replace the front grill, front fenders, and rear bed with M715 parts. The front end pieces should bolt right on, but since the M715 had a 126" wheelbase and the J10 I think is 131", some modifications will be needed to get the bed to fit. After considering things like lengthening the bed, moving the fenderwells, or shortening the J10 wheelbase, I'm thinking for now I will go ahead and center the box over the the axle and leave the extra 5 or 6" gap between the cab and bed. This will keep the bed unmodified which is desireable. However, the center frame crossmember sticks up right where the under bed toolbox would be, so I'm thinking of moving the crossmember back about 6" by grinding out the rivets, redrilling the frame and bolting it back in where it won't interfere with the bed. If anyone has experience with that, let me know.

As for the gap between the cab and bed, I considered fabbing some kind of storage box, but now I'm kinda leaning towards filling it with some kind of rollbar cab protector screen with possibly a set of dual exhaust stacks running vertical on the outer edges. Not sure yet.

Last week I drove to Portland Oregon and picked up a fair condition M715 bed and a decent set of front fenders, grill, and headlight buckets. Still looking for a tailgate if anyone knows of one in or near Washington State.

I will post more including pictures as I progress, hopefully will get something done on it this weekend.

The picture below is not mine, but a picture I found on the internet that partly ressembles what I have in mind:

[rollie715]

Here's what the J10 looked like when I first got it. The body rust is much worse then this picture shows:
If anyone wants the front grill pieces or the tires and wheels, they may become surplus to me.


Here's the bed which came off an M715 that was also rusting out in many places, although the bed seemed to be salvageable:


Same M715, but this is where I got the front grill bars which need a little repair work and the front headlight buckets:


The front sheetmetal piece shown on the right is what I got:


Here's the front outer fender skins. One has a hole in it where a PO had mounted a fording pipe, maybe I will try to do the same:

[rollie715]

Spent last Saturday removing the old rusty bed from the J10. With all the rust, it didn't take much sawzall work for it to come off in manageable size pieces. 5 out of the 8 frame mounting bolts broke off when I tried to turn them with a wrench, which was a good thing as it was much easier then having to fight them all they way out by unthreading them. this was after I let them soak overnight with penetrating oil.

Here's a picture of the bed off:


Here's the M715 bed sitting on a trailer. It was kind of fun as I was able to move the trailer around with the project J10 as it is still drivable:


Here's the bed initially set on the J10. With the fenderwell centered over the axle, the rear sits on the frame just fine, but the front sits high because the front of the M715 box is sitting on top of the J10 crossmember. I purposely mirrored this photo so it would be in the same orientation as the rest of this group of photos so it would be less confusing, so don't get confused and remind me the picture is backwards:


Here's a closeup looking under the front of the M715 bed showing how it sit's right above the J10 crossmember:


Part of the good news, is the M715 and J10 frames are the same width, so at least some of the frame mounts will line up perfectly, although I will have to drill new holes in the J10 frame to bolt them down:


I'm not exactly sure at this point, but it looks like maybe if I ignore the axle position for now and move the M715 bed closer to the cab where it belongs, the remaining frame mounts may line up perfectly. I would still have to drill new holes through the top of the frame in a couple places, but it might actually fit like it is supposed to. If this is true then I may reconsider my previous idea of where to mount the bed and take another look at what will be involved in moving the axle forward 5" instead.
As you can see in this picture, (as with the other photos, the front of the truck is to the left), the J10 frame seems to have a long horizontal section directly above the axle as if the shorter wheelbase version could use the same frame, so if I moved the axle forward 5" which would be towards the direction left in this picture, it would then have the same wheelbase as an M715 and most all of the original bed to frame mounts may line up perfectly. I plan to work on it again this Monday which is a President's Day holiday so I don't have to go to work.
Here's a close up showing the axle as it relates to the frame:


If my theory is correct then this might be good information for those who would like to mount an M715 bed on a long wheelbase J10, at least the 1976 version or those similar to them.

[rollie715]

After wrestling with various options to make the bed fit, and considering how rusty the m715 bed was, I decided to cut a notch in the bottom of the front lower tool box and drop it down over the J10 frame xmember. It's diificult to see the notch unless you stick your head down underneath and look up, but the end result was I was able to center the bed above the rear axle and sit it down flat on the frame using some of the original bed mounts to bolt it down. If it had been a pristine bed, I would not have made that cut. I wanted to set the bed as low as possible to fit the cab better and then do a suspension lift later if I need the height.
Here's a shot looking inside the toolbox at the xmember sticking up inside:


Here's the bed sitting on the truck: I know it's ugly, but that is just how M715's are and it will look much better after I change the front fenders and make everything the same color.


Here's the gap between the bed and cab. I'm still thinking of fabbing some kind of rollbar, cab guard and putting in some exhaust stacks. Still not sure of the color scheme yet as the J10 has a lot of chrome trim and I'm thinking maybe of leaving it and making the exhausts stacks chrome too:


Here's a close up looking at the bottom of the toolbox. The bottom notch is barely noticeable:


With the bed centered over the axle on the longwheelbase J10, the rear hangs over the back of the frame a little, I suspect if I had moved the axle forward to 126" to match the M715, then the front tool box would have fit perfectly in front of the xmember and the rear of the bed would have sat on the rear of the J10 frame without this over hang. As I did it, I will probably need to support it better when I add a new channel iron bumper:


Rear view:

[fisherman]

Great project, can't wait to see it come together. I'd love to give those 6 lug wheels a home on my cj6 project. Don't throw them away I'd love to have them, been looking for those for awhile. I'd even drive up north to pick them up.

[SVENG52]

Im not feeling the space between the bed and cab. I would just redrill the spring mounts and shorten the wheelbase but Ill be watching

[rollie715]

Great project, can't wait to see it come together. I'd love to give those 6 lug wheels a home on my cj6 project. Don't throw them away I'd love to have them, been looking for those for awhile. I'd even drive up north to pick them up.

I would trade the wheels for a good M715 Tailgate w/ hinges.
Or some usable 35" tires if you want the 31's that are on them.

[rollie715]

Im not feeling the space between the bed and cab. I would just redrill the spring mounts and shorten the wheelbase but Ill be watching

I'm struggling with that also. If I could figure out an easy way to shorten the wheelbase, I think everything else would come together nicely.

[robkamm]

cut the frame rails behind the cab. looks nice and strait there. ive done it with my long bed 56 ford. measure 10 x then weld it with a extra plate for strength.

[militarypotts]

Lots of good photos of your project. It's fun to look at, for those of us that don't atempt thing like you are. I'm always amazed at what zoners do, and the projects they get involved in.