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

Cutting the bed for the coil overs... Measuring these out included long discussions, accusations, veiled threats and measuring about 7 times. Not easy to determine where a shock mount comes through in 3 dimensional space.

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Mark removing all the extra bits that were in the way so we can lay the cuts out correctly.

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Marking the rear of the bed to bob it. Hard to see here but the rear lower portion of the fender will actually be frenched back into the rear vertical upright.

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Marked for shortening on the inside. If you look, you can see that we marked/cut this so that we didn't have to seam together ANY of the corrugations on the inner bed.

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And off it goes. If I haven't managed to offend someone by cutting this 715 to pieces I've surely done so now :icon_crazy:

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Freeing the sheet metal bits. The very rear will be retained and the rest is getting cut away

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Bed splicing....this is the cleaned up main portion of the bed, ready to be re-united with the rear. You can see that we retained the factory vertical lip after cutting through the spot welds. This will make the overall joint stronger and more visually appealing.

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Rearmost section, ready for reassembly

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Putting it back together...

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Installed. Mostly. Not leveled out or actually bolted down but it's in :thumb:

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22.25" shorter overall

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This is us at the end of a 5 day wrench fest, 12 hours per day, pretty tired. Getting this done without two people would have been impossible and the assistance from Mark was invaluable.

It took a long time to do measurements, plan and carefully cut steel so that we had an ultra clean final product that had nearly no gaps prior to welding it. The prep work was killer, welding it back together was a piece of cake ;)

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Thanks for the swag Filthy Motorsports!

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Here’s a better shot of how we married the bed after shortening it. Inside cut eliminated the need to splice the horizontal bed surface. Pretty slick

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Finally quit pouring rain this afternoon so I was able to push this out of the shop for some better overall pics. The departure angle is FANTASTIC now

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Good shot showing that compared to the body and fenders, the M715 really isn't any wider than it was originally. The factory M715 axles are just ridiculously wide so squeezing a Dana 60/14 Bolt in wasn't too bad at all.

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I suspect this will be a very good hill climber. Overall wheelbase is 124”

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jdofmemi said:
Love this one.

You certainly deserve to be smiling at the progress.

The vision and quality of this build is off the charts. I am excited to see how it performs.

I may have missed or forgotten it, but did you "massage" the 8.1 before it went in?
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Thanks! Nope the 8.1 is bone stock at this point, I believe it has about 70,000 on it. Tilden Motorsports deleted all the EGR/Emissions stuff, reworked the factory harness and re-flashed the computer.

I'll do the intake gaskets on it when the whole truck comes back apart again as I believe that is about the only weak link on them. Then the plan is just running it. With a HUGE fuel tank
 
This is one awesome build. I love the detail.
And, addicting. I just read the whole thing from the start.
Keep this coming.
 
Rock40 said:
Thanks! Nope the 8.1 is bone stock at this point, I believe it has about 70,000 on it. Tilden Motorsports deleted all the EGR/Emissions stuff, reworked the factory harness and re-flashed the computer.

I'll do the intake gaskets on it when the whole truck comes back apart again as I believe that is about the only weak link on them. Then the plan is just running it. With a HUGE fuel tank
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With a cam and chip in my 8.1, my fuel economy improved by about 15%, and it really opened it up.

I forget what cam, but it was the largest lift you could run and still not do major work like changing the fuel system, it other changes.

In addition to the fuel economy, it had much improved low end torque, and towing ability. 25 mph hills towing turned into 45 mph, and it became fun to drive instead of just adequate.
 
Need to swap RF and LR tire. It’s driving me crazy.


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A.J. said:
Need to swap RF and LR tire. It’s driving me crazy.


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CalSgt said:
LOL... Good eye, I'm so glad I don't have o deal with directional tires anymore
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Hahahahaha! Ok, OK. You guys are hilarious. I was worried about whether or not the spring rates were correct and if the truck would collapse under it's own weight. Literally just tossed tires on it so I could roll it out in the open air. You've shamed me into swapping them :doh:
 
jesse3638 said:
Yes I saw this too and have had the same feelings...haha. Paying such close attention to detail yet tread patterns are mismatched. Just flicking you shit. Great work can't wait to see the finished project.

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I know. Sheesh. Now of course it's going to bother ME enough to go swap them
 
jdofmemi said:
With a cam and chip in my 8.1, my fuel economy improved by about 15%, and it really opened it up.

I forget what cam, but it was the largest lift you could run and still not do major work like changing the fuel system, it other changes.

In addition to the fuel economy, it had much improved low end torque, and towing ability. 25 mph hills towing turned into 45 mph, and it became fun to drive instead of just adequate.
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Interesting. That is something probably worth looking in to. Not that a cam swap would be too hard with the engine in the truck but it'd certainly be easier with it out. Thanks for the input
 
Totally liking the bobbed bed...I'm doing the same on my next truck. On my Brute pickup, I've done my fair share of "trail grading" going down and up a steep dip...
 
Brute said:
Totally liking the bobbed bed...I'm doing the same on my next truck. On my Brute pickup, I've done my fair share of "trail grading" going down and up a steep dip...
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Thanks, I know what you mean by “grading”. I’ve watched some YouTube videos of stock 715’s off-road and the factory bed overhang is nothing short of totally awful

They are a 7’ bed originally


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