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My M715 'rework' project

olly hondro

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The Marines used all the types in the M715 series. M725s were used as ambulances and as radio trucks (without the red crosses, of course!). I saw them all on Camp Pendleton c.1979-1981, and in Norway in 1980.
The Seabees were still using a few M726s then too, and I saw one M715 used by USN Beach Masters.
One of my own M715s has faint USMC markings visible on it, as well as painted out USN markings on the tailgate. Unfortunately, the data plate is not the one that should be on the truck! I grew suspicious because the plate says W/W and my truck obviously doesn't have one. I looked at the VIN on the frame, it doesn't match the data plate. Or the title... (which does match the data plate) :oops:

Pictures of USMC M715s are like hens teeth, it seems. I took some in Norway in 1980, but they are in an album, in a box, which is ??? after I moved house. Most of the ones on the interwebs are of restored vehicles.
If anyone has in-service pictures of M715s in Marine markings, please feel free -nay, encouraged! - to add them to this thread.

I also took some pictures at Jack's yard outside Tucson a few years ago to document the markings (I collect as much information about Marine vehicle markings as I can).
There were numerous USMC M715s there (Jack seems to have a LOT of old USMC vehicles), but most were pretty picked over. My notes say that the hood on the bed of the M715 with the white hood is the one that actually belongs to it, the data plate said USMC and had the same serial number. The other hood doesn't look like it belongs to the truck it's sitting on, I don't recall if I checked that data plate.
In the b/w photo, you can see the nose of one, and the back of another M715 between the A-4s. The visible hood has Marine markings, the tailgate of the other looks like it does too, from what little of it that can be seen. Picture taken in Japan in the early 1970s, most likely at Iwakuni.

Cheers

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That hood ended up on my truck 😉
 

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M813rc

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This M715 didn't have the rear tie-downs for some reason. Unknown if it ever had them, there was nothing to indicate any had ever been there, and I don't know why someone would remove them. Maybe having tie-downs on the ends of the axles was considered to be enough, but my other trucks have rear ones too, so...

M715 rear mounts are the same ones that go on the ends of the axles. Somewhere along the way I had picked up four of those mounts, some rings, and a box of pins, all NOS from the early 1970s.
I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of that came from my trips to Memphis Equipment over the years.

Since one side of the mount uses the bumperette bolts, I cut a couple of spacers of equal thickness to the bumperette from scrap steel for the other side so they would sit level.

As my bride wants this truck to be hers for parades, she once again got to help, and I introduced her to the joys of removing bolts that were probably put on in the factory in 1968. They were very happy where they were and did not want to come off!
I like to clean up and reuse original bolts as much as possible when I redo a vehicle, but for high stress areas like tie-downs, they are replaced with new Grade 8 hardware. The bolts look all pretty and gold in the pictures, but that isn't proper, so they will get a squirt of paint shortly.

The rings (loops? clevises?) are still in their rather ratty factory paint in the pictures, though they will get repainted imminently. While they look unacceptably grubby and have a little surface rust, silly or not, it is hard for me to pull the labels off and repaint NOS parts, and these still have their original labels wrapped around them. I have to talk myself into it. :rolleyes:
Since they haven't been painted yet, the last picture shows all the parts in place, but not yet secured with a cotter pin.

Cheers

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