68' M715 AKA "Smokey", 8.1 engine on links, coils and 40's

[Rock40]

Got the whole exhaust mess in. It’s tacked and has support brackets, just needs to come out for final welding

LOTS of bends. This piece gets the exhaust up and over the rear frame rail



3rd Borla muffler, right under the bed and just behind the 14B axle. 3 mufflers? Since neither one of us are 16 years old anymore I’d rather hear the conversation than listen to the exhaust drone away. It’ll be stealthy, HA! If I sneak up on you out on the trail you’ll know why



Rear dump exits just behind the passenger rear tire






It’s up and out of the way, it’ll be mostly covered when I add the rear bumper extensions

 

[Ddays]

Kudos on your attention to detail. Love all these trick pieces too

 

[Rock40]

Moving on to finishing out the rear suspension. Need to set the King bumpstops in for good and determine the limit strap length

This is full stuff driver with the passenger side coil over fully dropped/extended. Essentially the wheel hub is on the floor



Perfect fit!!



Blue towel roll is simulating the coil over, it’s the same diameter. Very close clearance to both the tub, fender and coil over

 

[Rock40]

Rear bumps are in, what a pain. Apparently it’s a well documented issue that the King bumpstop cans distort when they are welded, which makes it impossible to get the bump in and out of the can. After fighting this for a bit, I had a friend machine up an aluminum slug to help keep the can round

 

[Rock40]

Full droop. Quite a bit





Ride height. About 1” of up travel before the axle begins to hit the bump. Bumps have 2.5” of travel

 

[Rock40]

Couple small things today

Mounted the Hole Herse floor switch for the headlight High/Low beams



Fully waterproof and tucked up behind the inner fender

 

[Rock40]

Cut up some chunks of DOM to make rear frame reliefs. At max droop, the coils were JUST making contact with the outside of the frame





Of course there just had to be a nasty old chunk of frame or leaf spring support right where it needed to go



Relief pieces, they are .120 wall





Done on the driver side, passenger side needs the same

 

[KevinG]

Geez your attention to detail is awesome. Love seeing when this thread gets a bump.

 

[Rock40]

Geez your attention to detail is awesome. Love seeing when this thread gets a bump.

Thanks! Slow but friggin’ steady

 

[CalSgt]

With the amount of love you've given that frame you could have built a tube frame for it, good work man...

 

[Rock40]

With the amount of love you've given that frame you could have built a tube frame for it, good work man...

That is completely true. The amount of frame mods required to sandwich in a suspension like this is ridiculous. FAR more than I was planning on

 

[Rock40]

Got the passenger side coil notch completed today

Blasted through the frame….



Welded and DA sanded



Sanded and blended out the driver side notch also



Fairly minimal intrusion into the frame once it’s all welded back up

 

[Rock40]

Planning ahead for the rear sway bar. We are going with a custom length Sway A Way

Bar should sit where the blue sharpie line is and have room to articulate upwards to max bump

Unfortunately about 1/2 of the factory bed mount has to be chopped off since it extends outboard of the frame



See ya!!



I’m officially past the point of fretting about slicing bits off the frame. Just when I think I’m done I end up hacking off more

 

[A.J.]

Glad to see this build still coming along. Bad ass!

 

[Rock40]

Glad to see this build still coming along. Bad ass!

Thanks!! The goal is to really forge ahead and make some serious progress in the coming months

 

[Rock40]

Got all the nonsense holes plugged in on the driver side, used 1” round tube caps





Cleaned off the old mount in preparation for gusseting it again. Using 1/2”-13 welded nutserts

 

[Rock40]

Part of the old mount. The hole is far too large and the bed was obviously loose. All the holes are hogged out

Used an oval tube cap, drilled it to just over 1/2” and welded it in with the correct offset so everything lines up





Gusseted mount, upper mount shortened and welded back in. Uses poly CJ5 body mounts



Last of the old spring hanger bolt holes filled in with silicone bronze

 

[WJCO]

Got all the nonsense holes plugged

Sounds like a good Friday night.

 

[WJCO]

The hole is far too large and was obviously loose. All the holes are hogged out.

That too. It happens.

 

[Rock40]

H

That too. It happens.

Ha!