A touch of civilian comfort?

[Dreadwater]

Hey, as alot of us know our jeeps are built off the civilian version of the J series pickups from the early To mid 60s, and alot of parts from these vehicles either fit perfectly or fit with mild modification. Im curious in what people have done to bring in civilian stuff from the civilian jeeps to our jeeps with out taking away completely from the military design of the M715. Obviously there are parts that very Obviously fit, like inner fenders and such and the the civilian heater set up that requires removing the vacuum driven controls to manual control ect. But what else?

So far ive found that the bench seats from the pickups fit in place of the buckets, and the doors can be modified to work with our trucks, but what else? There was a guy on the Facebook that made the fresh air vents work but that required him cutting the holes to add them. There are many posts spread throughout the forum that discuss this individually but it might be beneficial to have it all on one thread.

Please comment what you know and have done or link your post to find it! This is aimed with the mindset of thing remaining original like the engine and such but simply adding civilian stuff for ease and comfort from the civilian FSJ!

[Barrman]

Cup holders, radio and power steering to me really make the truck easier to live with. I tried to add AC by building my own evaporator/heater core/fan and duct assembly that fit under the dash. Then I got a factory civilian heated and realized even with a hard top getting the interior more than 15? different than the outside was not feasible. That stopped my AC effort.

I built a center console to house and lock up a radio, provide storage and put cup holders in. The batteries are now under the hood.

[Kaiserjeeps]

The civi inner fenders do not fit. The tail piece spot welded to the rear portion is specific to the m715. I relieved the spot welds, aligned it and attached the m715 rear section to a civi fender skirt. Maybe you could cut one but I did not entertain that. And if I did not cut it that means it must have been a different stamping. I have slept since then so I can't recall exactly.

The civi doors are a ton of work to convert. You have to remove the entire upper window frame. By unscrewing the fasteners and cutting the braze up front. The inner upper panel needs a hole drilled and a proper height stand off needs to be welded inside the door for the rearward wing window attachment. I charged into this thinking no sweat but it was more work than I thought.

The kick panel vents were easy. I just used everything from a full size and had to the cut holes. I ran the control cables to the bottom of the dash where I put the rest of the hvac controls.
Round decals designed to fit there by yours truly can be found here at vintage reproductions.

https://clickitandstickit.com/produc...ll-knob-decals

The heater was all civi full size jeep stuff. I used the later fiberglass fan housing as it has a taller fan and moves more air. I used 66 mustang defroster ducts. I had to heavily modify the drivers side with ABS pipe to clear the 3 lever light switch. It was easy since the piece was ABS. ABS Sewer pipe glue was like welding. Both ducts needed an aluminum extension ear made to reach the m715 mounting studs as the mustang ducts were about an inch plus short. I sealed them to the cowl with low density foam with adhesive on one side from McMaster Carr. The vacuum control cans got removed and simple sheet metal angle mounts were made to clamp the ends of the control rod housings. It took a bit of work but the end result is sweet and all controlled with push pull knobs at the bottom of the dash. And surrounded with the decals I designed.

There are a ton more mods on this truck. I am at 80 percent complete on the wiring and I am resuming the work shortly. Then breaking in the engine and off I go.