My 1990 GMC Suburban CUCV clone AKA: M1007 or M1029

Well I might as well start this tread since my CUCV Suburban project is about 1/2 completed. About a month ago I bought a 1990 GMC Suburban 2500 6.2L 2WD base fleet from a local city auction for $1000. It was a little rough on the inside, but the body was solid. It is not a 4X4, but I have had no luck finding a good 4X4 6.2L for cheap enough locally. It is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack, so I just broke down and bought a 2WD 2500 that has the correct 8-lug wheels and higher ground clearance. Most people will not see it is not a 4X4 unless they look for the locks outs.

I am painting it with Behr house exterior paint with a high foam roller, something I have done many times in the past with Rustolhum. It is a simple method and works well, but spaying it would prob be faster with house paint. Takes about three coats to cover it well being a white truck. I scuffed it down and primer paint any metal spots as that Behr does not like metal base. The outside is 80% done, just have the roof and trim. The interior & door jams I am thinking about painting black or a Rustolhum green that should blend well with the outside. The primary goal is to get the outside done, the interior can wait for a while.

So I already had a rear CUCV bumper and front bumper with shackles in preparation for this project when ever I got a Suburban. Little did I know that adding them required frame cutting, especially in the rear. Not a big deal as I have a plasma cutter, but the rear took me several hours to install. The front was easy small cut and fits perfectly. The rear for some reason slops slightly down, probably due to the frame slops slightly. Not going to worry about it as it will let the rain water run away and not to the truck.

Mechanically the truck is solid, runs and drives great on the freeway at 70mph. The best part is it has A/C front and rear in addition it was converted to R134 so I can service it myself. It is the basic fleet model with manual locks and windows, there is nothing power there. I am going to add good speakers and stereo as this will be a regular driver.

So here are some pictures, will be in multiple posts.

More pictures
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Last for now.
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Now that is a cool project! The Behr paint looks really good from the pictures, nicely done sir!

Did you paint the other two rigs the same way? Wonder if those fancy pads would do as well as the roller...

Zombie avoidance and team extraction vehicle!

forest522 said:

Now that is a cool project! The Behr paint looks really good from the pictures, nicely done sir!

Did you paint the other two rigs the same way? Wonder if those fancy pads would do as well as the roller...

Zombie avoidance and team extraction vehicle!

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Thanks, it is a fun project.

The other trucks were just Chevy pickups and I used the same roller method. With Rustolhum you mix it with about 10% with mineral sprints, this helps to flow the the paint to give it a spayed on look. It is similar to home paint method, but Rustolhum requires more prep time and have to have the mix perfect or it will bubble.

If you are talking about those foam brushes that are dark grey or black that come ins various width. They work well for trim work, but not so great over large areas. The roller works better and is faster to apply. I used the brush only for the trim and indents on the body. The brushes are cheap, to you can buy allot of them as they will wear out quickly.

I do not want to go too far off topic, but this is the truck I painted completely inside and out with Rustolhum almond & black gloss paints..

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It looks great - I did not know you could do that with house paint.
So - you gained comfortable dual unit AC, civy interior. What besides 24 volt system do you give up?
Do Civy 'burbs have weaker frames, suspensions? What is the difference?

K9 Im so digging that.It looks amazing i really like that newer single worktruck headlight.You have just sealed my decision. Im gonna go with that radiator support and grille set up to fix my m1008.Thanks for the pictures my friend looks good.:]

Looks great! I have been thinking of rolling mine with Rino liner.

Is the paint latex? Love the grill! Cool project.

I love the look of it. Keep up the good work and keep the pictures coming.

Looks great!!

Love it. Been looking for one for the TXSG for troop transport.

K9Vic,

Yeah it does look great. When I'm done rolling my M1028A2, I'll post up some pix.

It's actually come out better than I thought it would. You will see it at the Alliance air show in two weeks.

LOVE the look. May have to do my 1991 Burb the same. The wife wants me to use flat blue - aka Air Force or Navy blue. I would be OK with that. Flat blue...

It will be easier as it's already two tone blue any way.

looks great, can i put this one in line? 88 3/4 ton 4x2. 6.2 th400. 3.73. front a/c only. no rear seat. cruise control. former tx-dot.

markg said:

looks great, can i put this one in line? 88 3/4 ton 4x2. 6.2 th400. 3.73. front a/c only. no rear seat. cruise control. former tx-dot.

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LOL, I did not bid on that one as it was too far away from me. I was considering that one but decided the one in Fort Worth was closer and newer. You got that for a good price and is a Chevy so it has the correct grille and lights.

K9Vic said:

LOL, I did not bid on that one as it was too far away from me. I was considering that one but decided the one in Fort Worth was closer and newer. You got that for a good price and is a Chevy so it has the correct grille and lights.

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it was close enough for me to preview, they had quit driving it because the a/c was out of freon, and it was hard to start cold.

i charged the batteries, changed out the fuel cartridge base, as fuel was draining back to tank overnight. runs and drives great. ill fix the a/c later.

as you can tell needs paint bad!! oh and it needed a couple of tires. passed inspection though. with the 3 speed trans wont run very fast but will pull a house down.

Made some progress on it today, painted the front door handles, mirrors and gutters black and installed them. The handles and mirrors I had from a parts CUCV so the chrome handles were not painted. I still need to get three more non-chromes for the rear doors. I also painted the roof and outside alone the door trim. The exterior is getting close to where I can start driving it. I want to get all that done before I stripe out the inside as all the outside parts are being stored in it.

So here are pictures from today, still have some trim work to do getting rid of the white spots. The reason the one cargo door is not painted is because it is bent and dented, so I will be replacing it.

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That rig is lookin awesome man.... Sweet project...

More progress today painting the brush guard and engine bay black where there was white. Also installed the car stereo and put the dash back together after cleaning it of all the dirt and dust. Getting close to be able to start driving it, hopefully with in the next week. As long as I can get the outside done and basics inside I can drive it. I will worry about fixing seats, dash and door panels later when I have more time and money. I can always keep watching Craigslist for parts over time.

The hood needs to be redone as I have been using it to put misc parts on, so that is why it looks like that. Not a big deal as it will be easy to fix and will add more of a base as well when done.

I added a few close up pictures of the paint as this was requested. Still kind of hard to see the paint quality, but it is cheap and easy compared to spending a $1000 for a auto paint shop price.

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Lookin good K9 and thx for the additional close ups. Looks like it touches up just fine also. Are you going to paint the wheel wells too? What color if you are?