'66 M35a2 Bobber with Dump Bed

[aheilmann68]

Kinda late considering I got the truck in the last week of June but wanted to share my build and say thanks to everyone who contributes to the forum as i do a fair bit of lurking and think the knowledge base here is incredible.

got this '66A2D from a former member selling his truck on CL, great guy and was upfront about the truck and awesome to deal with. Had the tuck low boyed the 140 mile trip home after contemplating driving it and although it was fully capable, being able to follow the truck home is pretty neat.

I purchased the truck with the intent to bob and had everything planned in my head, i was able to complete the bob in a four day window. Just my luck it was one of the hottest weeks on record for NJ and was working in 95+ heat in the shade.

I picked the truck up on a wendnesday got it home and started to remove the mud flaps and other parts off the bed to prep it to take the bed off. took off 5 tires to bring to Kublos to exchange for some 365/85r20's and loaded them into my 101A1

Thursday i spent the better half of a day at DMV getting everything straightend out before i did any work to make sure that i had a tile and regestration for a 1966 Jeep M35A2 pickup 4x4 with a GVW of 17000lbs. After dealing with all that i started sliding the bed back to get it shortened up. I shorted the bed 32" by cutting the tailgate 6" towards the center of the bed and rewelded the tailgate section to the bed and reinforced it in the frame.

Friday started at 530 driving out to kublos (great guys to work with and will continue to get parts from) to get the tires, bob kit and all the hardware that i needed which saved me as ken had all the grade 8 harware i needed to do this bob saving me another stop in having to order the hardware. Got home around 3, unloaded the trailer and finished stripping the frame for the next days long hours of removing the back axle.

Saturday got the old bogey set out and started getting the front hangers mounted up on the truck using the existing driveshaft locating the axle exactly where it was as a 6x6. Measured like 6 times to make sure it was square, true and goood to go trianglating the centerpoints and center line of the axle and started drilling the holes for the hangers.
Sunday was finishing the drilling and bolting as well as reconnecting the axles and break components. By the end of sunday i had taken it for a victory lap up and down the road.

Monday was remounting the bumperetts and lights and finising the air line connections and putting the bed back on an bolted down. at this point i was dont with the bob job by about 3 and took it out for a good 30 mile drive and it took me and my girlfriend out to dinner.

The next weekend was painting time, during the week after work my father and i would wire wheel the truck and had it all ready to shoot by friday after work. I had a gallon of rustoleum rusty metal primer left over and shot it real quick friday night and it was ready for its two tone of forest green (too bright for what i wanted) and flat black, which was shot on saturday. I did only the cab since we were planning to put a dump hoist on the truck and the bed would have to be taken off anyway.

 

[aheilmann68]

Got a bed hoist from preium supply and started to put it in a few weeks after getting the truck. I did not like the look of running singles dish out with no mud flaps and since a dump bed with mudflaps would take out the fuel tank i made brackets to support them uzing existing holes that were in the frame where there were handles. the bed hoist went in using the supplied hinges as i wanted to get it done in a weekend and not make custom hinges so i made a reinforced bracket to hold them where the bumperette wouls still fit and would only need to be trimmed to allow the dump angle. I mounted the pump under the bed as i had room and ran the controller into the cab through one of the knockouts in the cab.

 

[aheilmann68]

here are some of the finished pictures of the truck. I put 2 6" hid off road lights on the bumper, put surface mount leds in the cab the light up the floor and dash, put led running/reverse lights that help when backing up at night or driving in narrow places. the truck now has a snorkel and as some can see in the pictures a muffler that makes the truck a lot easier to drive around town which i usually do

i love this truck but seriously debating selling it and moving on to an A2 crew cab project.
feel free to comment/ask questions

 

[aheilmann68]

Also another issue i came across was a faulty and intermittant turn signal, i checked the ground on the steering column, and the flasher relay to no avail. the flasher would only work when the engine bay was warm so i removed the relay and took it out to mess around with it. I began by removing the sealant on the back of the relay to get to the pcb inside and check for any shorts. I had to heat the back sealant which was tar like with either sand or glass beads for an insulator, heating it made it a little easier to chip out with a screwdriver, pick and a dremel with a wire brush. i got the circut board all clean and found that i in fact did have a short and a loose connection and that the thermal expansion of the sealant when the truck was hot resolved the short and allowed the relay to function properly. after testing the relay exposed on the truck it worked perfect so i resealed the cavity with high temp RTV and put it back in with zero issues to date.

 

[RAYZER]

Nice job!

 

[aheilmann68]

Thank you