Terminus M1009

Your work on the tailgate is coming along nicely.
You might be on to something, starting a side gig rebuilding M1009 gates.
It scares me to think that when I started to play around with K5 Blazers in the early 90's factory GM gates were $98 at my local Chevy dealer.
Looking back I wished I saved some of the ones I scraped. That won't happen again.
Thanks.

I was looking around in the shop and found this piece. It is a fuel fill cover that is used in a cube van truck body. Pretty spiffy.

set up 2 sets of new inner fenders and a set of fenders for Mr Rusty and a drivers side fender for Mr Crusty. The both are getting new inner fenders. I took the time to remove the horrible front seat from Terminus M1009. What a mess in this rats nest. I will be cleaning it and putting a new set of bucket seats in place of the discarded bench seat. This floor is in descent shape. I am NOT restoring. I am NOT restoring.

I worked on the rear gate of Terminus M1009. I have it where I want it. I am taking it to get access to a mig welder. With the 12 gauge strip clamped in place on the top it is as tight as a new gate. No more flex and slop. When I stitch weld it. It will be awesome tight. I want to have this gate reassembled and back in place by the weekend. I opted to use the # 11 steel rivets to reinforce the lower panel. That was an easy fix. and should outlast the rest of the truck. I am NOT restoring this truck. I am NOT restoring this truck.

Today I met the guy that I sold Terminus M1009 to back in the 90's. It was about 19 years ago. I thought 20 but it was only 19. He said he never done anything to the truck except change the fluids every year in everything on the truck. He said it only had 3 sets of batteries in it in all that time and he never done anything to the starter or the alternators. Never even changed the glow plugs. I ask are you sure. He said I never done anything to that truck and it ran all the time. It has 115K on it and he only got rid of it because the rear was broken and it would not move from job to job. He was told it was to rusty to save it. Well he was dis appointed when he saw it. I found a wallet /his under the seat cover and called him to return it. It fell in the seat and had been lost for 6 years. It had $27. in it. I was surprised that it did not need anything and still ran and started every time so far. I made great progress on the rear gate today. I will be painting the rear gate tomorrow and getting it back on by weeks end. I had a paint gun failure. My Sharpe model 75 is worn out it is over 30 years old and I need a fluid tip for it. I could not find one. I went to Harbor freight and bought a new cup gun. It will do the job. I was surprised it came with a 90 day warranty. I have a lot of painting to do in the next 90 days. it will get a real work out.

That's cool you found a PO of the truck.
Maybe he will buy it when you are done with it.

Ah no this guy has a new truck and liked this truck but not that much. I keep fixing this it will be a road vehicle again. Maybe. I just want it clean and reliable for Rausch Creek in 2 weeks. I am heading that way. This week I will have the inside completed and the gate back on and operational. You shall see. I have it listed in the classifieds for $2,000. I will be adding more to the price as I add more new parts. I have the 4 shocks and the new seats to install. The gate I am basically fixing for free. It looks real good. I will post pictures tomorrow of the gate and rear floor area. I have spent minimal money on the gate. Just a lot of time and a few strips of scrap 12 gauge galvaneal.

Ok.
I guess the guy doesn't want to make some new memories in an old truck.
I really like this good ol budget build.

I wanted to show you the repairs I made to the rear gate. It is not a restoration quality gate. It is a fully functional operational gate. It has more strength then it did when it was new. Thanks for looking I hope it helps you get some ideas on doing some repairs to your gate.

I stripped out everything from Terminus M1009. I had to get all of the trash and oil off the floors. It is filthy and I don't want it that way to drive off road.

I have all the trash cleaned out and the 4 new shocks installed. Now I am going to work on getting the rear threshold reinforced and do some repairs to the rear floor. I removed both of the rear body bolts. Not to bad. They came out. I will be putting longer ones in after I rebuild the threshold.

I cut the rear fuel can mount out because someone had hacked it up and it is in the way of my threshold I am designing.The galvanized duct work gas fill was not heavy duty enough for me. I made this aluminum one out of scarp tread plate. That will fit the bill with this build. I am only doing needed repairs and making it mud proof as much as possible. Also doing much needed repairs. I will keep telling myself that. Tomorrow is another day. Thank you for looking.

Sorry but I love the fuel filler cover. You should make me one.

This is what Terminus M1009 had as a tail gate last Friday. This is what it looked like today when I closed the shop. I did damage the new paint during installation and adjusting it. It don't matter I am going to shoot the whole truck next week one day.

I started out the day with a clean work bench. That was before I decided to rebuild a pintle hook assembly for Terminus M1009. This one was locked up tight. I used the rosebud torch to get the nut and pintle free from the assembly. It is all good now. I went and purchased the $2.00 spring for the pintle latch. I will paint it and install it on Terminus M1009.

I have the perfect piece for the rear threshold area of Terminus M1009. Now to cut and shape it. I used the holes that the rear body is mounted to the frame. I also used self tapping 5/16" bolts to attach the rear threshold and gussets. I had to do some shimming to get the gate opening square again. The gussets tended to pull it in and I wanted the strength but it was easy to narrow it at the top. The rear gate opening is adjustable now. I needed to remove the bottom part of the gate seal to get the gate to close nice. it was tight. And that was what I was looking for. All in all this M1009 is not as rusty in the back as I had thought it would be. Getting closer to completion. Thank you for looking.

I envy the time and dedication you have for your truck. I wish I had the time to maintain mine. I hate to change the alternator durring my lunch break lol.

Today was a very busy day. I had a windshield installer over and while he was replacing a windshield I took advantage and had him install a new rear view mirror on the windshield inside of Terminus M1009. He was the same guy that put the windshield in the truck 20 years ago when I owned it. I will get more done tomorrow if the weather holds out.

Today I was busy with some other projects and had some time at the end of the day so I worked on Terminus M1009. I had not put the torsion rods on the gate when I installed it. I had such a hard time getting the gate to fit and getting the gate opening correct that I did not want to remove the gate to get the torsion rods installed. So I gave it a whirl with my Son and we installed them with the gate on. It is not that hard now that I done it. I do always recommend using new fasteners every time you can. It makes everything nicer and easier to work with. Scrap is low now but you can save the scrap for when the price goes back up. But it has lots of tension and could end up hurting someone if you are not careful. Most of the work is done with the gate in the almost up position. It opens and closes like new now. I can basically throw it closed from half way up. That is how it is supposed to work. We will be doing a lot of welding in the rear area tomorrow. The gate should be complete. Once I get the interior rear area all welded and adjusted. I want to clean it up and paint it so it looks pretty again. Thank you for looking. I was going to completely reassemble the gate today but decided not to with the welding going on back there tomorrow. I will do that after I paint the interior rear area. Thank you for looking. Have a great day.

WOW what a pair. I seen these laying at a friends place when I helped him move some stuff in his garage and he did not even have a CUCV. Never did. He said he picked them up at a flea market cause he thought they were cool. He said he was tired of moving them around and gave them to me. I put them right on Terminus M1009. I had to take the original ones off Terminus M1009 to remove the snow plow set up. What a deal. At least I won't have to store them. Right from his hands to the front frame. Good deal. New bolts, washers and nuts and onto the truck they went. That was easy. I will be cutting the bolts off the front bumper and brush guard. These are not tight and I cannot even budge them with a 3/4" impact. Almost got me pinched. That was enough. The torch will fix the problem and new bolts. I just use 1/2" grade 5 carriage bolts and serrated flange nuts. Works every-time. A real time saver not to mention it is painless that way.