Dirtroadoutlaw's '86 M1009

[dirtroadoutlaw]

Here we go, fellas. I was a little conflicted as to just where to start so I'm taking you all the way back to the humble beginning.

Here is basically what I started with except for a pair of HID KC's, light bar, worm-drive winch, & the first bumper I built for it. It was bone stock otherwise

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

So, as you can imagine, it didn't take long after wheeling through the fire lanes and mowing down trees and such to realize that upgrades were coming. One indication of that was a kinked rocker panel and another was a 10-bolt gov-bomb that certainly lived up to its name.

I sourced an '83 k10 with 4" of lift, an 8-lug, 10-bolt front, and a 14bff rear geared with 4.10's. Having traded a 12ga shotgun for the whole rig less the engine, it was well within my budget though not exactly what I wanted. It would have to do for then. The guy I got that donor from had a cousin with a set of 36" OZ's on American Racing wheels for 3 bennies so I scooped those up too and the wrenches went to spinning.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

Then it was 8-lugged......
Lots & lots of modifications transpired..... One, another set of axles from a m1008, building the d60 & adding a Yukon Grizzly locker. I failed to document that, crossover,high steer, frame repair, steering box brace.

Stripped all the paint & sound deadener from the floors from the back seat forward then removed all the surface rust with hydrochloric acid solution followed by baking soda to neutralize then a phosphate rinse. I went ahead & got the seat pedestals while I was at it.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

The next step was to prime then Herculine the floors followed by the priming/painting of the seat pedestals.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

The Herculiner product is "okay" but has begun to have a "chalky" appearance over the last couple years so that leaves a re-do coming someday. On with the updating.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

I wasn't really satisfied with the lift blocks and Rancho shocks that came from the donor so came an ORD shackle flip using stock shackles which quickly became replaced with DIY4X's USDR Super Shackles. At $15 per pack, I acquired multiple sets of 56" rear springs from a C-30 Burb, a C-30 pickup, and a C-30 van at my local Pull-A-Part. All were 80-something models. Anyhow, I ended up using the Burb ones in original form when it was all said and done because the rig sat how I wanted it to and I was still towing the boat and ATV trailers with it. I added a set of 5100 series Bilstein shocks to the rear and called it done.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

Looks like I missed the disc brake swap but oh well. Run of the mill stuff anyhow.

Along with the influence of worn out, soft F.U.S.H. bushings, I was inspired to use my now extra 52's up front. I got a nice set of F.U.S.H.'s from DIY4X along with a set of B-52's, and bushing sets then got to work.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

I made some 6/7" shackles out of some 3/8"x2" bar that I had, put the kid to work smoothing the radii on the ends of them then we got to work deleting the overloads from the spring packs and replacing them with the bottom 3 leaves from the lift springs that we took out.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

Let's see what's next. I liked my custom bumper just fine with the exception of the weight. The winch box was built from 3/8" plate and the shell from 3/16". Something new was needed

I decided that since Heavyleft had that nice Blazin Offroad front bumper and that company was no longer around that I would clone his from pictures of his rig since I had not yet seen it in person. Here are a few pictures from that project.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

And more

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

And the rest of the bumper construction

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

So the rig was now lifted 6" and had the killer front bumper that I wanted and on to other improvements.

I found a set of four more 36" OZ'S on Craig's list mounted on 8-bolt H1's for four yards so wasted no time going to pick them up. I mounted the newer tires on the bullet hole wheels and painted them black. That would do while Kert recentered the H1's.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

I think I got all the good out of the old ones!

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

So I decided to take a crack at some dent removal and rust repair one day. The military sure knows how to let the sun bake the paint off! Also, so I'm told, some of these CUCV's were actually lifted by their shackles and, unfortunately, the lifting harnesses were often dropped onto the tops of them which explains the dents. Here's a look at the damage that I had.

A hole, rusty drip rail, surface rust on roof. I'm amazed at how the roof was the most rusty thing on this rig:

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

Then I had a look behind the windshield gasket. Plenty of work was in store.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

At some point prior to this point, I got a set of poly body bushings and 1"aluminum lift pucks and stabbed all that in.

I also put a tachometer interface that works of a pulse from the alternator "w" terminal. It is a Dokata Digital piece that came from Summit. Here's a bad picture of it installed.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

Back to the rust remediation on the roof... along came a sawzall.

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

Then, after much measuring and charting the measurements, I laid some tape down at the cut lines as a guide and triple checked all the measurements again then CHOP, CHOP!

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

And more

 

[dirtroadoutlaw]

And the last