The longest build thread ever, at least it seems like it!

[teking]

Well shucks.. An hour here, an hour there is not cutting it. I can say this summer has not gone to plan. I am on a generator and have been for 4 days. We had a what I would call a mild wind storm. Only 50 MPH winds. It downed a tree on a line up the road 500 feet and started a darn fire. With a tinder super dry forest we almost had a very bad situation. Myself and a neighbor got it put out fortunately. So I will post a picture or two of truck progress when power comes back on. It is to much work and I still need a nap. I ended up finding some really old wheels and tires to put on the truck chassis so I could do all the needed work and not worry about messing up my new stuff. Bought cheap it worked out great. So I carefully cut the 230 I-6 frame horns off the frame. I had two sets of Buick motor frame horns and got the best pair bolted on. I lowered the motor with new motor mounts in place to find that the motor won't seat down all the way to allow me to put the bolts in. So somehow the frame rails have gotten narrower and I have not been able to investigate yet. I have two J trucks here to compare frame width's, but I had to go do other things. I hope to solve that mystery and get the frame pressure washed very soon while it is still almost warm out. We are dipping below freezing at night with close to 85-90 during the day. All the gear boxes and crossmembers I got from Glenn are standing by. I hope to also fit everything and then remove it all for paint. Snow is going to fly soon. Our garden shut off and died almost a month early. Pictures of the truck stuff coming soon.

Yeah weather here is horrible too .... 92-95 during the day and upper 70s at night. Just horrible!!! pool was 82 yesterday ... almost too cold to float around on my floaty and drink a beer. Sun is so bright it's faded my new beach umbrella! Climate change I tell ya!!!

[Don Cavey]

Yeah weather here is horrible too .... 92-95 during the day and upper 70s at night. Just horrible!!! pool was 82 yesterday ... almost too cold to float around on my floaty and drink a beer. Sun is so bright it's faded my new beach umbrella! Climate change I tell ya!!!

I'm not far from you, Fernandina Beach, NE corner of FL. Yes, this "Fall" has been worse than the summer. Similar temperature but now, we have an on shore breeze which is bringing lots of humidity and pop up T-Showers off and on every day. (One good thing, irrigation is turned off!!)

I have an NOS heater that I need to install in the truck. Cool weather will help.

[Kaiserjeeps]

You guys have it rough. Somebody has to do it. At least you don't have super thick smoke. The Oregon forest fire smoke has drifted into the area. All the way up here hundreds of miles away. It is bad enough to have to stay inside. I finished my furnace install today. Looks like I might get some quality time with the M truck this week. Oh yeah.. the power is back on.

[Hammer]

Al!!!!
Glad to see you back in the M715 game!

And stop trying to blow smoke on these guys, your talent with working metal is top notch!

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well I'll be!! Hi Ed! and how the heck are you? It is good to hear from you.
Crazy how much time has passed eh? I had to move out of Oregon as I could not stand the drug houses all around me. I moved up near my favorite aunt and am so darn glad I did it. It is beautiful here. Wild life everywhere and nice neighbors too.
So yes I stumbled on to another truck. I had planned on having more done by now, the summer was a weird one and I had to go with the flow. I am doing what I want with this one.
I hope you and Danielle are well and doing fine. I am pleased to see your post.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Ok so where did I leave off? My Buick engine did not seat down into the Buick Frame horns as planned. I measured the 71 J4000 out in the yard and found that the gap between frame rails was roughly 5/16 wider than the M715. I am not sure if the hopped up 502 that was in my truck or rough off roading may has caused the change, but it is fixable with hydraulic's. The rails appear straight and my eye is pretty good at seeing things like that. The bolt hole centers are spot on for the transmission cross member. So I will bolt that in and start pushing with a port-O-power. I also placed a call to Todd (fisherman) and asked him if he had any issued putting his buick 350 in his 67. It went right in he said.
Both sides look like this. Those are new rubber mounts.



So I thought something was different. The M715 shock towers have the pin welded in a few inches from the top verses a full size Jeep truck or wagoneer. So if a guy wanted a little longer shock travel for a rig that flexed offroad, you could swap in civi shock towers. I would bet you would never ever get stuck again...



While my truck had a 502 in it, this Buick 350 came with it. I was surprised to find a Poston aluminum intake on it. Seeing the HEI and a high volume oil pump makes me wonder if it has a lumpy cam or??? Poston for anyone who knows buick is a buick dedicated builder that makes good performance parts for the 350-455's etc. Pretty cool. I will be opening up this engine to see if it is in good shape. Good bearings, no flat cam lobes from low zinc oil etc.
The 350 also came with some spendy ceramic coated headers. I wonder if they will fit this rig?



So story of my life this summer. I hoped to finally grind some hours into this truck build and now I have two plow trucks to fix and some full size jeep parts to make and ship. My plow truck is ship shape and ready to go. Has been for a month Who am I kidding? I love this stuff.

[Kaiserjeeps]

A really nice discovery this evening. I had three days into completely reworking a plow frame for my aunt and I had the port-o-power out to hold a mounting width while welding it up. I decided to bring the port-o-power in to spread my M715 frame. I set the length for the frame, took a measurement, then started to pump up the pressure. There was nothing there....? I had just used it and it worked fine. I went to get hydraulic oil to fill it. Then I had a thought. Check the motor mounts. I had an older used set from my jeep CJ 225 V6 sitting there. The 350 and the 225 share the same mount. I took the new mounts off and sure enough. They looked the same but they were not the same. The rubber was thicker. My V6 mounts were 2.5 inches from the metal to hole center. The new mounts were 2 7/8 same measurement. There is my problem. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my frame. I would believe the computer at my favorite parts store is wrong and I think these are mounts for a Buick 455. I put the old used mounts on to check all this. The motor went right in. Bolts slid home without any problems. I will get the correct new mounts. But for now I can keep fitting everything and get a game plan for this coming winter. I like it when things go like this.
I don't know where the nudge to check the mounts came from. But I am grateful for it.

All set up ready to start wrecking stuff...




Wrong mount on the left. There is my nearly full inch loss in width.



Thats more like it.



Onward.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well I am glad Memphis Equipment has reproduced the windshield gaskets. I have one with left and right outer door wipes on the way. The gaskets are 73 dollars now. I found some old posts where they were 60. Honestly having the correct part is everything. Having something fit and not consume time is priceless.

[m38inmaine]

I purchased mine from Memphis and it's a perfect fit.

[Kaiserjeeps]

I received mine yesterday! A windshield gasket and the two outer door wipes. The gasket is super. Glad to have it for later. The wipes came with a baggie of the clips not installed and the wipe itself cut from a bulk stick. Not overly impressed as for the price, I thought I was getting something ready to install made for an M truck door. Had I known I would have bought the materials myself and built it. I found a plethora of hard to find pieces like the wipes and clips doing the wagoneer restoration I recently completed. The clips are super brittle and you get one and only one chance to bend the ears back on the flange of the wipe. That is after you puncture the metal rubber encased flange with a very sharp very small chisel without distorting it. Insert the ears of the clip and bend back.

I am getting ready for a trip to Glenn's tomorrow. Towing my trailer with my old cab and if all goes well Gonz's wheels. I need to go get the tires off the rims. I drank two extra pots of coffee for this. Looking forward to hearing about Genn's trip. I have been cooped up here to long.