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

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well super. Thank you both. I will have to make a decision as either looks great. Years ago I bought a NOS gas fired heater for my first truck from Midwest Military. Ah... memories... And Scassidy I don't know how you keep such a clean shop. I am always impressed. When my shop is that clean, I can't find anything.

The dash looks great!

[Kaiserjeeps]

Minor progress. Can't post pictures till I get a new laptop online. I'm working on it. I now have room in the shop for the M715. In preparation for giving my cab to Glenn, I have carefully cut the welds on the door latches and removed them and the welds. I am getting ready to patch the cut out floor pan on the trans hump. Now I can reach the rig with the welder. Once that is done I can take the cab to Glenn or have him come up. 97 degrees out. It's going to snow like heck in 4 months.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Who turned off summer? It was in the high 90's and wham... Low 70's and we had a night of 39 degrees. There is a lot of talk that this will be a bad winter coming up. Conditions exactly like the winter of 96. There was 9 measured feet of snow on the ground. Mkay... I see fearmart is having some sales right now and people are buying. I guess we will see when it happens.
So my wifes brother was here for most of July. I did not get much done and honestly the change of pace was welcome. We were sorry to see him depart for home in Alaska. What a great visit. First in order is to get Glenn his cab and data plates back. I swapped cabs with him but mine needed some repairs before taking it to him. Again, thank you Glenn for reducing my cab work.
Two issues needed fixing. One was later model door latches were welded to the body. Even the screws were welded over. I did some careful grinding and facing and presto, gone...



Both sides cleaned up and painted to protect the metal till Glenn gets to his project.



Next was a hole in the floor at the back of the trans hump. Here it is covered with a rivet attached cover.



Drilled the rivets and punched them to the floor with a drift. So cut with tin snips and edges were as bent as heck. Can't weld a patch to this so there was a lot of edge work first. Then minor clean up for a patch. Oh yes, lots of degreasing underneath first.



Straightening using what ever worked.





I use thick fiber board for patterning. It is great stuff. Like the back of a note tablet but a little thicker.



Continued...

[benjamintx@gmail.com]

Looking awesome, Kaiser! What did you topcoat the SEM product with?

Also, what are you planning to do for paint on the body? I saw you used a rattle can primer to stop surface rust on the upper cab repair but is that just temporary? What primera do you like for the sheet metal?


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[Kaiserjeeps]

Yes, the cab is really looking great! I am so close to moving to the front sheet metal and the bed. I top coated the SEM with Eastwoods black internal frame paint. It has a lot of zinc and some type of phenolic resins that looks good on the label. I have used it extensively on the last wagoneer I restored. One thing I did after paint on the wag was heavily spray 3M cavity wax on every interior panel after the Eastwood paint. I will do that on the M715 here but only after it is completely painted. I have the 1 inch access holes 2 each on the back wall of the rocker panel. I keep forgetting to show the nice rubber plugs I got from summit. I will post them and the part number later.

This is the color I am leaning towards. I thought about the olive brown and even the Dakota brown. Honestly with all black trim parts, I think the buckskin tan would really look sharp. Second choice is the olive brown.

https://tcpglobal.com/collections/ho...t-Buckskin-Tan

I would use the primer that goes with the Hotrod flatz. It is urethane. I don't like spraying urethanes. No filter cartridge made will filter out isocyanates. Not one. People don't realize this. You have to use a fresh air respirator. I had to get one for the wagoneer work. It was stupid expensive. They are awkward as heck to spray with. But I don't want to poison myself. Of course I found all this out AFTER buying all the wagoneer paint. Oops...
I asked the paint company if they would flatten an acrylic enamel. Nope what you see is what you get.
I will probably spray it outside. LOL.

Looking awesome, Kaiser! What did you topcoat the SEM product with?

Also, what are you planning to do for paint on the body? I saw you used a rattle can primer to stop surface rust on the upper cab repair but is that just temporary? What primera do you like for the sheet metal?


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[benjamintx@gmail.com]

Man I hear you on the urethanes. Architects often want matte finish on steel in our builds and I’ve had great success with the pro industrial acrylics from Sherwin Williams.

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/pai...urface-acrylic

I wonder if that would work on our sheet metal?

PPG also has a line called Pitt Tech that I haven’t used. I think the lowest sheen they come in is egg-shell but it seems like you could top it with a flat clear coat to knock it down?

I did think that the magenta/olive 3m cartridges would catch isocyanates? I don’t risk it with my guys anyways but it would be good to know if those cartridges don’t work!

I like the tan with black accents, would look awesome!


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[Kaiserjeeps]

Yes double check on any cartridge for is ability to remove the isocyanates. Last I read several years ago nothing worked well. I had bought all the paint for the wagoneer and THEN found out the issue. TCP global would not take 1500 in paint back so I had to buy a fresh air system. It is very difficult to paint with them. Managing two air lines. Getting the fresh air hose stuck while you are walking and have your head yanked back. A regular hoot...

I will have a look at the Sherwin Williams and PPG. I have not settled on a black statin for the frame and all the nit noids yet. I was gong to use cerakote glacier black. But it is super expensive and does not sand well later. That cerakote is good for 1800 degrees. For manifolds it is just incredible.

I hope to be back on the truck later today. Gotta go mail a bunch of stuff and get a new bottle of welding gas. Mine decided to empty itself.
Thanks for the great feedback. I want to be ready for painting weather. My 30 minute window this summer.

[eightydeuce]

Agreed. Big reservoir for disc and small for drum. Before I went to the hydro I used a MC that had a small and a large reservoir but disc brakes all around. Didn’t have an issue. As long as you add fluid occasionally as the pads wear it’s fine. But going from manual to hydro was a huge improvement. Al I think you’ll find that brakes are somewhat necessary sometimes…

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well brake lines are done. Big reservoir to the fronts, small to the back. I ran a couple coils around some 1 3/4 tubing for body to frame flex. I think it just might stop now. I need to change the rear axle gear ratio. To 4:56 like the front dana 60. Dana Spicer makes a thick gear set for a three series carrier. I have them here..

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well I decided yesterday to get after the rear gear ratio change. This is a big axle!



The 4:56 gears to match the front dana 60 are Dana Spicer and a thick gear set to use on a three series carrier. That saved a lot of money by not having to change the Powr-Loc out. I really like Powr-Loc's. The design is genius. The 3:54 gears I took out ( on the right) have a thicker tooth than the new 4:56. Probably not enough to matter, but I noticed it.



The Powr_Loc is easy to identify even through a fill hole.



I had a very strange diagonal contact pattern that was very hard to interpret. I have never had that happen on all the gears I have set up. I changed a couple things to move the pattern around, that took a long time, but settled on what I have now. I can run a pattern after break in and see if there is something amiss later. But it was weird.



Glad to have this done. I will land the shock mounts after cleaning up the tubes and soon I will clock the axle and weld the spring perches. After setting the U joint angles.

The brakes looked good. But someone put the shoes on backwards on the drivers side. The primary shorter shoe is on the back and should be on the front. Easy fix. But lots of material left.