The project

[2ndA]

A guy is giving me a 60 and a 14blt in trade for the original axles so it looks like the Jeep 360 is going to be the choice for motivation. 456 gears, so with 39's an OD is sort of overkill and since it's all ready to go the Caddy is just resigned to the shop corner... On the other hand if I swap axles I might as well do a springover and when you add the 2 inches or so of cab lift to line up the bed lines I've got, what, 6.5 inches of lift total...? 39's may not be tall enough to fill the wheelwells...

Anyway, just looking today and it appears to me A) The M's motor mounts are close and B) that original crossmember is gonna havta go. So how close ARE the motor mounts, and isn't that crossmember a MAJOR structural issue for the 715? Will replacing it with the Jtruck crossmember be sufficient?

And what's the story on the QTrac Tcase? I've owned enough of them but never messed with one.

[tacoma]

Take the motor mounts from the Jtruck. Find someone who builds race cars or buggies or something, have them fab up a new crossmember. The Jtruck one will work, but it's nice to have some beef in there.

Besides, you'll need more clearance for the front driveshaft anyway.

[rjenkins]

Is this going to be a cab off swap?
Let me know when I 'll bring the camera and lawnchair.

[2ndA]

Feh. Nope. If I'm doing it this way there ain't diddly comin' off that frame.

Seriously, I've stood there and looked and tried to decide, what do I want? A near perfect show item I'm scared to use? Or something with decent paint that runs good, looks cool and that I can run the crap out of? I'm leaning towards the latter real strong now, so what I can get to will get bead blasted and/or pressure washed, primed, painted and called done.

You can still bring the lawn chair but bring a grill and steaks while yer at it.

[2ndA]

...

[2ndA]

OK, well, I messed that up the first time...

Let's try again...





And no, I didn't pay that much for the steaming pile.

[Binford]

Actually, that looks pretty good, man! Great deal! Looks pretty straight and it has lots of the tough stuff to find: tailgate, b/o driving light brackets, straight brush guard, top bows/window frames, etc.

[Elwenil]

Yep, that's not too bad. I don't see any shackles on the front, but they might be stowed away where they are supposed to be behind the bumper. If not, they aren't real hard to find. The Black Out driving lamp is easy to come by since they are the same on most models, even Deuces and 5 tons. Yours even still has the original front turn/parking lamps with the pesky hard to find brackets and the gerry can mount. I love the primer on the passenger front tire. Looks like the spray gun crapped out and they just sloshed it on out of the bucket, lol.

[2ndA]

Well, the hood is just garbage. It's been stomped so much it's literally *soft*. But that's ok, the Jtruck is happy to donate. The front shackles are not there but that's ok because apparently that's not a 715 bumper anyway. The slots don't match the mount quite right. OTOH the back ones are in place. I have two of the hood BO lights.

Cab floor is shot as are the rockers. That doesn't much scare me. The bed is outstanding, as is the tailgate(one dent that's not bad enough to worry about). And you should see the driver's rear tire if you want to talk primer slop. Dayum. Interesting thing is this truck appears to have had a VERY nice charcoal grey metallic paint job on it at some point in its life. The dash and jambs still show it. I know nothing of its history, though, so anything could have happened between then and now.

Cost me $400 bucks so I'm not going to complain.

[Binford]

$400?! Nice score!

I've got an extra pair of shackles I might could sell ya if you need them.