J10 / M715 project - Bellingham, Wa

[rollie715]

Got home from work early enough today to snap some more pictures before it got dark. Looks a lot better in the daylight. Enjoy

[97XJSP]

looks like those wheels and tires are a great fit! I too like the look of "full" fender wells... This is going to be a neat truck. Any idea where you are going to draw the line as far as the cab? will you swap over as many of the 715 parts as you can, or keep some original stuff?

[rollie715]

Any idea where you are going to draw the line as far as the cab? will you swap over as many of the 715 parts as you can, or keep some original stuff?

This is a low budget project mostly made up of cheap used parts, so I may keep it like it is. I do have some more M715 grill and guard parts for the front, and plan to make some channel iron bumpers with tow shackles. The civvy cab is kinda rusty and has holes in the floor, so I'm thinking if a good M715 cab came along I would consider swapping it out as I do like the flat windshield and ability to remove the top. Although I'm not really looking forward to all the wire harness swapping related to changing the cab. Also here in the Northwest where we get rain quite often, it is nice to have a sealed up closed cab. I'm guessing the civvy cab is probably here to stay, at least for this project.

Now there is always room to think about what the next project will be like . Hmmmmmm.

[rollie715]

Here's some quick photos I took before it got too dark. Spent the day making the front fenders and grill fit. I will post the details when I get more time:

[rollie715]

Here's some details of what I did to make the front M715 sheetmetal fit on the J10. Some of the pictures are not that good and this probably is not that interesting to all of you, but for those interested or who are considering similar projects, here's what I got:

This first picture (somewhat unclear) shows the difference of the cutouts around the radiator. The M715 has a smaller radiator and the factory notch is smaller, so I had to cut out a bigger notch to match. I don't have a picture of the newly cut piece, but you get the idea.


Here's some shots showing how the bigger tire hits the J10 front sheetmetal



Here's the same piece that came on an M715. Note how the factory cut out a notch and modified the same area to miss the bigger tires. The small notch in the lower right area of the picture is to miss the M715 fender flares. This is not my M715 piece, but I did notch and bend the J10 piece to look like this one.


Here's a shot showing the forward front sheetmetal pieces in the same area. Note how the M715 piece is notched out in the same area

[brute4c]

Good stuff Rollie...keep it coming.

[jeeper]

Thanks for sharing this with us. I'm interested and watching.

[rollie715]

Here's some very poor pictures I took this morning in the dark before going to work.

I bought a piece of 6" channel and had it cut to 74" to match the original M715 bumper dimensions. It is held on with two bolts so far, but I plan to add some D-Rings or Clevis mounts and secure it better to the frame:

[rollie715]

Here's a few more front bumper shots in the daylight.


Here's a couple shots behind the bumper showing the J10 stock bumper mount brackets. I'm thinking of either bending the bracket forward until it meets the channel. marking for a new hole and bolting it in place with the bumper staying straight, or possibly putting a slight bend in the bumper to meet the brackets and bolt it up that way. I've seen some M715's with similar bent bumpers and I like the look. On the other hand I'm also trying to lean towards keeping the mods to a minimum and staying with stock M715 looks as much as possible.



Here's someone else's M715 I found on the web that I like the look of. If I put a similar bend in my bumper, it may line up perfectly with the J10 stock bumper mount brackets.

[saxon]

For a modified, that looks good to me.