M1009 gets rear window repair, body work and new paint.

[Roboskid]

Well the M1009 that I bought from K9Vic awhile back was in great shape mechanically and looked okay. There were a few things that need to be done to her. My Brother Dman69 was driving her to Lonestar MVPA club events as he did not a have a MV of his own. Well I have 3 MVs with M37B1 being the one I always take to shows and events. The vehicle was pretty much staying with him 99 percent of the time.

We made a upgrade plan and started collecting parts. My rear window never closed properly as the top of the tailgate had a big dent in it and would not let the window raise all the way up. Surface rust was starting to form in several places. The hood had couple of dents in it. At some time in its past life something had been mounted on the roof as there were 3 holes drilled in there. If the tail gate was open and the rear end of the truck was facing down hill the rear window would partially roll out on its own. We had to insure that window crank was in the stored position to keep that from happening. Also if you were driving and crank came out of stored position the window would roll down. So all that window weight was being held in place by the cam on the crank. We all know that the weakness of the rear window is the cam which always breaks.

Well when Pawnshop's M1009 "Pinky" was totaled she became an organ donor so that other M1009s could live happy useful lives. I acquired a complete tailgate from Pawnshop. Let me tell you removing said tailgate was no fun and took some doing. Time came for tailgate repair. Our first thought was to just switch out tailgates but that was a going to be work. So we decided to repair mine. We tried to pull the dent in the top of the gate by using a dent puller. It was a cheap AutoZone one that didn't work, not enough mass to pull the dent.

Plan B...Remove the window and regulator which was dangerous because it was broken and wanted to unwind as the weight of the glass was removed. We drilled a hole in the center of dent. Made a "T" out of 1/4 inch square stock and round stock. Inserted the T from inside then welded a chain link to the bottom of the T. Attached a come along to a tree and to the T. Out came the torch, heated the dent area and pulled it out with the come along. Cut off link remove T and weld up hole. A little filler, sanding, primer and paint, looks much better. Clean and grease regulator from Pinky, Clean window from Pinky, was better looking than mine as well. Window rolls up and down nice and smooth and works as it should. One project down.

Next came removing parts for complete repaint. Brush guard, grill, lights you guys get the point. Pull dent from hood and weld up holes in roof, stop rust. Sand, filler and primer repairs. Very little filler was used. Bang several dents out of bumpers and fix pintel which would not rotate. Pintel now rotates nice and smooth. Two down

A few days latter my other Brother Jhyatt7 came over and helped me install the OEM hood insulation and we did some more paint prep work. He also helped me earlier in the year install a the spin on Fuel Filter conversion that we both got from Gimpyrob. He also has a M1009 we put one on his as well.

Time for Rapco Carc Green. Converted my shop into a paint booth and painted base color with the help of Dman69. Let paint cure for a week inside of the shop. Easter weekend arrives, tons of family at my place. Monday start Nato 3 color camouflage. Used Rapco rattle can brown and Rustoleum high heat flat black BBQ. Right trigger finger still hurts from all the rattle can use. Project finished.

Worked out a deal with Dman69, M1009 is now his. Hate to see her go but she is staying in the family and can drive her anytime I want.

 

[Roboskid]

Still needs new bumper Blackout markers and proper stenciling. Brother is ordering stencils and new blackouts.
.

 

[T. Highway]

That looks great! Is there a reason that you used the Rustoleum and not the Rapco Black paint?

Bert

 

[Roboskid]

Thanks Bert, It was recommended by another SS Member. It supposed to stay darker longer and not caulk as fast. I also found out the nozzles on the Rapco cans are more of a fan pattern. Much harder to use when making Camo pattern shapes. The Rustoleum cans have a round pattern spray which is much easier to use. We sprayed the Rapco green base color with a Harbor Freight HVLP gun. I sprayed in the rattle can brown as best I could then used the black to make the pattern more defined where brown and black meet. I wish Rapco sold their paint in quarts. It would have been easy to spray in the brown with a touch gun or air brush. If I were to do this again I would also try to order the Rustoleum in a quart can.

 

[K9Vic]

Looks good with the new paint, camo was a great choice.

Do not recall about the issue with the rear window, if I would have known about it I likely would have tried to fix it. Glad you got it corrected and cleaned up the common rust area on the lower tail gate. I think I recall telling you about drilling a drain hole in the gate to keep water from building up going forward.

The fender that was on there was really bad, but I did not replace the hood as I knew it could be fixed. The fender was not repairable to the time that it would be to just replace it. That bad fender is on my M1031 and I also swapped out the door because the area around the mirror was cracked and flopping. The rear bumper was the worst, ripped out from too heave of a load on a trailer from the previous owner. The one I changed out was allot better, but still had minor issues. That really bad bumper is on my 1984 Suburban, I was able to repair it.

Here is what they looked like before I replaced these parts. I see the dent on the tail gate you noted, does not look that bad in the picture.


This is your old bumper on my 1984 Suburban clone with the hole patched and plate brackets bent back in place.

 

[Roboskid]

Thanks K9. The dent was on the top of the tailgate where the window came out of. If you put a straight edge across the top you could see the downward bow. The regulator broke after I had it awhile. The other dents where minor but might as well fix things right before a good paint job.

 

[lostintexas]

How well did the hood insulation work? Did it quiet things down much?

 

[Roboskid]

To early to tell about the hood insulation as I haven't driven it enough. Sitting in the cab with engine running seems a bit quieter. Could just be my imagination though,