Desert Turtle - M1010 Build

those are considered skinny?

I thought the 255 whatever was pizza cutter status. These on my sprinters look huge

hahaha... yeah hard to think a 255 is skinny. Given that most 33" tires are 10.5-12.5" tread width, these being 9.5" makes them "skinny" :D
 
Well I haven't forgotten about the 1010. Been on vacation and recovering from being sick.

My first plan of attack is going through systems and getting maintenance done. Been picking up items like new glow plugs, oil/filter, new diff covers, cooling parts, etc. You might ask, why new diff covers? I figure since I want to drain and refill the diff fluid and don't want to do this job twice, I would install new covers while I am at it. Found some great prices on Solid cast steel diff covers, directly from them at $60 each. Heck the cover I put on the back of my Jeep was twice that price.

Once I get some time, I'll start knocking out this stuff and documenting what I am doing.
 
Getting some parts in. New diff covers and new Bilstein 5165 shocks. Oh yeah!

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Gathering more parts. I had these gauges custom made by Speedhut. This is their Revolution line but done up to look like their HUMVEE line of gauge. Wanted to keep that military vibe but have modern gauges, since there are none in the CUCV rigs. The LED near the bottom of the gauge is a programmable warning light, that will light up red when activated. Speedo is a GPS unit, so doesn't matter what size tires or gear ratio I run. Also has compass and altimeter. Tach is a diesel model that will run from the "R" output on the alternator. I have used Speedhut gauges in a couple other projects and have loved them.

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Being deep into a 5 speed trans swap in my '65 C10 Panel truck, I took the M1010 down to the local gear shop (Pro-Gear) and had them drain, install my new diff covers, with Lube-Locker gaskets and put fresh fluid in. Got that system marked off my list.
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Been toying with a different idea for the box interior. Wife and I are looking at the idea of bunks instead of a single bed. Much better use of space and no one ends up having to crawl over the other one. Rough idea, fairly to scale but not 100%. More of a concept drawing.

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A little update, I was able to get another M1010 dash bezel for my gauge project. Just started to mock up things and it looks like the larger gauges drop into the factory sized hole and the spin lock rings square up nicely to the back of the bezel opening. This sets them to the factory angle as well. Looks like the smaller gauge holes, I am going to need to trim off about a 1/4" off the backside of the holes and I think they will drop in and mount like the larger ones. Couple pics.

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Finally got some free time to do some work on the 1010. Wanted to upgrade my headlights and headlight harness. Have new E-code style H4 headlights (Autopal ones, I have used in a half dozen vehicles). I wanted to install a new headlight harness that uses relays to control the lights, so they get power directly from the battery. End up brighter and takes all of the load off the headlight switch as it only triggers the relays now. That went in easily but I had to order new headlight retainer rings as the ones were missing tabs to hold the lights, so I couldn't finish installing the lights.

While I had the grill out to run the harness, I tested the horn and found it to be dead. I happened to have a set of hi/lo horns laying around and installed them. They work great and you can't see the red back when looking through the grill. Forgot to get pics while the grill was out.

Then I needed to change out the transmission mounts. OMG I have never changed a set that was so bad. They had expanded with oil/trans fluid over the last 35 years and felt like squishy Jello. Put a new set in from NAPA and much better. That was it for my work yesterday.

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Still working through ideas for interior layout. This one my be close to our final idea. Fairly to scale but really need to do some tape layout in the box to get a better visual idea. Nice thing about this design is the front pass thru door would still be usable.

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Well I was able to get a few things done this Labor Day weekend. First up, getting the wheels swapped out. When I had the new Toyo's installed, we found a bent wheel. Since I was never a fan of the black steel wheels my search started for some narrow aluminum ones. I found a set of pre-metric pattern Ford wheels that were 16x7 (stock were 16x6.5). Definitely liked the way they looked. Went into my local Discount Tire and had them swap them over and order up a spare tire for one of the original wheels. Very happy with the change in the look of the rig!

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Next up was working on my gauge panel project. As I found, the 4" gauges dropped right in but the smaller ones were going to need the bezel modified to fit them. Looking things over I was able to cut the "cones" that butt up to the stock gauges down shorter, which opens up the hole bigger. Trying to keep these cuts square so the spin lock ring would square up the gauges in the holes. About an hour or so worth of work and bam, gauges installed. Very happy with how this turned out! Next will be getting the sensors installed and things wired up. Luckily wiring is easy as Speedhut gauges use locking plugs at the gauge side and Weatherpack connectors at the sensors. Very minimal wiring needed. I am going to do the cooling system overhaul and install that sensor at that point.

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Had a little bit of time Saturday to get some work done on the M1010. Finally got the front shocks swapped out to Bilstein 5165 series. To my surprised, the original shocks still had pressure and no leaks. 35 years old but only 15,000 miles. LOL

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Picked up a couple things for the rig. Found some very high quality solar panels. 150 watt, 24 volt panels that when using a DC/DC solar charger, I should get 20+ amps of charge power. I think that will work very well for our needs. Got them cheap at $0.50 per watt.

Also picked up some 2012 Jeep Wrangler JK front seats that I will swap in. Should end up more comfortable as they recline versus being fixed back seats. Look like they will be fairly easy to adapt.
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Finally got some free time to do some work on the M1010. Next up is the cooling system refresh. I am going to be installing a Paradox By Design cooling upgrade kit, which route coolant from the rear head ports to the crossover tube. They found by doing this, it balances out the coolant temp across the hole block. Normally the 6.2/6.5 diesels have the rear cylinders run hot and tends to cause head gasket failures at the rear. I am using their hybrid kit that allows me to use a HUMVEE crossover tube. This gives me the return port at the top and allows me to move the sensors from the rear to the crossover tube, since the Paradox kit uses these ports. I originally was going to just flush the radiator but there is more crud then I hoped for. I think the radiator is in good shape but just needs to be boiled out and cleaned. Going to take it to a shop to get that done. I really want to keep this radiator since all of the replacement units are using plastic side tanks. I also removed the A/C compressor as it was not hooked up anyways. Made a lot of room on that side to work now. Also had time to remove the hitch that came on it. I assume the old Sheriff dept. had installed that. Had no need for it and am trying to fit the spare tire back into the stock location, which requires this to be removed. I think that is it for now.

Radiator removal

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Pulling crossover tube and test fitting the HUMVEE one

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Hitched removed

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