M-715 Bed Restoration Project
February 22, 2002

Today marks the beginning of the restoration of the M-715 bed for my 79 J-10. I considered just putting the bed on the J-10 as-is and working on it as time permitted, but I decided that it would be easier to do all the restoration work while the bed was off the truck. This is going to be quite an extensive project, the bed was in pretty good condition considering that it is over 30 years old, but it does have some issues that need to be addressed. There are a number of original welds that have stress cracks in them which I will be re-welding, there are quite a few "extra" holes (particularly in the top of the bed sides) that need to be welded up, and there are several extra brackets and patches which need to be removed and the original sheet metal repaired. I will try to document each step of the process, but I cannot guarantee that I will actually keep accurate records as I will be working on this project as time permits. My goal is to have the bed done and on the J-10 by August of this year. I spent a while looking at the bed trying to decide where to start, but in the end I just picked a place and got started. I am starting on the front left corner, each corner has a plate welded to the outside of the bed rails where the stake holes are. I assume that these plates are there for added support, but there are not any signs of use at any of the stake holes so this must have been a preventative measure. Unfortunately, these plates have to be removed because they are very ugly, and they were welded on poorly enough that moisture has gotten behiend them and began to rust the original sheet metal.

Click on any picture for a larger view These pictures are of the various corners of the bed before starting any work on them. I don't have a picture of the left front outside corner prior to starting to work on it because I didn't think about doing a photo-documentary of this project until after I already started cutting and grinding on it, but it looked pretty much like the right front corner. Looking at the front inside of the bed from the rear. Looking at the rear inside of the bed from the front. Looking at the inside left front corner. Looking at the inside right front corner. Looking at the inside right rear corner. Looking at the inside left rear corner. Looking at the outside right front corner. Looking at the outside right rear corner. Looking at the outside left rear corner. These pictures are of the repair of the front left corner. I cut the plate off the side and sandblasted the surface rust, then welded up 5 holes in the top of the bed rail. I repaired the corner seam where it was cracking and got a thick coat of primer over the bare metal. I removed the front compartment cover and sandblasted it to bare metal and preped it to be painted. I also cleaned the cover hardware and prepped it to be powdercoated. After the hack job of a plate was removed. Close up of the crack in the seam and holes in the bed rail. After welding up the holes in the bed rail and re-welding the corner seam. Front left compartment cover sand blasted and primed (outside). Front left compartment cover sand blasted and primed (inside). Front left compartment cover hardware ready to be powder coated.