Worth the trouble (M1009)

[Prospect62]

Well it's funny, just when I got bitten by the CUCV bug for the second time (I was bitten a couple years ago but then my wife got pregnant) I found one for sale nearby.

I've searched high and low for CUCV's for a long time and NONE seem to pop up in my area, not within at least 250 miles. This one is literally a 5 minute drive away.

Check it out, look at the pictures. Assuming it is a running, driving truck with a title, would it be worth the trouble? Those rockers and floors look SO far gone that I don't know if I can really make it work without replacing the entire body. I'm no welder.

I tell myself it's not worth it, that it's a basketcase and that with a little more patience, maybe I can find a more solid CUCV. But I just keep going back to it. My budget for a CUCV is around $2500 and I just don't know if I'll ever find one this close for this cheap.

Someone talk me out of it before I drag this swiss cheese home...

 

[ralbelt]

Being sold as salvage / parts vehicle. Will you get a salvage title and will you be able to register, tag it in NY.

 

[Prospect62]

Yea they say that about all of their cars. I wouldn't be surprised if it had a clear NY title. But knowing the backwards City of Utica, I also wouldn't be surprised if it had NO title at all and has been driving around on switched offical plates for the last 20 years. Good point though. If it does have a salvage title, you can still register it in NY - it's just that the title will say "salvage" on it. No big deal for me.

 

[ryan77]

You better take that down! Its against the rules to put live auctions on!!!

 

[ryan77]

You did see the massive hole in the floor by the rocker panel right?

 

[Prospect62]

Yeah I did. That's the crux of this post.

 

[wreckerman893]

Well it's funny, just when I got bitten by the CUCV bug for the second time (I was bitten a couple years ago but then my wife got pregnant) I found one for sale nearby.

They found out what causes that.

Ref the truck.

You can't gold plate a turd.

Save your money for something decent.......don't pour money down a rathole (ask me how I know).

 

[Recovry4x4]

They found out what causes that.

Ref the truck.

You can't gold plate a turd.

Save your money for something decent.......don't pour money down a rathole (ask me how I know).

Beg to differ.

 

[ryan77]

You will spend more money on that rot bucket then a clean southern truck goes for!! Save your money buy one in Alabama! There is a nice guy down there that will pull it off base for you!

 

[Prospect62]

Cooler heads shall prevail. Thanks for the advice guys.

 

[wreckerman893]

There is a nice guy down there that will pull it off base for you!

Keep an eye out at Redstone (Huntville AL) and if you win one I can hook you up.

 

[Prospect62]

Thank you very much. That would be a great help. I'll keep you posted. I've got to get over to govt liquidation and see what's available.

 

[ryan77]

Keep an eye out at Redstone (Huntville AL) and if you win one I can hook you up.

Hes the nice feller i was talking about!!!

 

[tequilaiam]

I thought GM put the rust there in the factory?!

FWIW, it may be an expensive and time consuming PITA to make it original but its not hard to make good enough for a $2500 truck. $50 for two new rockers from LMC truck and some sheet steel from lowes. Add sawzall (or even a dremel tool) and cheap harbor-freight welder (or even cheaper o/a torch) and one or two evenings and it can look almost factory.

I'm no welder either but did a little reading and practice before tackling my rust bucket and I didn't find it difficult using a $90 harbor freight flux-core welder. Even easier if I would have just borrowed or bought a used decent machine.

Making nice, smooth welds that blend piences into eachother is hard without requiring a lot of grinding afterward. Sticking the metal together as good as factory is easy and roll-on bedliner in the cab can hide a lot of those ugly welds.

GM only spot welded that rocker in there in a few places anyway. When I did mine, I started cutting carefully until I realized this, then just removed the old rocker with the heel of my boot. Other than the rocker, the rest of the cab I repaired with scrap sheet metal and now its stonger than it ever was new. I can actually jack the vehicle up by the corner of the cab pan now.

Guess it depends on your time/money tradeoff and how much extra it will cost to drive/tow one back from down south and how much risk you want to take with a sight-unseen one. With local, you kind of know what you're going to get.

That's just my $0.02 but since I'm known to underestimate the time involved in any of my projects, maybe its just $0.01

 

[Prospect62]

I thought GM put the rust there in the factory?!

FWIW, it may be an expensive and time consuming PITA to make it original but its not hard to make good enough for a $2500 truck. $50 for two new rockers from LMC truck and some sheet steel from lowes. Add sawzall (or even a dremel tool) and cheap harbor-freight welder (or even cheaper o/a torch) and one or two evenings and it can look almost factory.

I'm no welder either but did a little reading and practice before tackling my rust bucket and I didn't find it difficult using a $90 harbor freight flux-core welder. Even easier if I would have just borrowed or bought a used decent machine.

Making nice, smooth welds that blend piences into eachother is hard without requiring a lot of grinding afterward. Sticking the metal together as good as factory is easy and roll-on bedliner in the cab can hide a lot of those ugly welds.

GM only spot welded that rocker in there in a few places anyway. When I did mine, I started cutting carefully until I realized this, then just removed the old rocker with the heel of my boot. Other than the rocker, the rest of the cab I repaired with scrap sheet metal and now its stonger than it ever was new. I can actually jack the vehicle up by the corner of the cab pan now.

Guess it depends on your time/money tradeoff and how much extra it will cost to drive/tow one back from down south and how much risk you want to take with a sight-unseen one. With local, you kind of know what you're going to get.

That's just my $0.02 but since I'm known to underestimate the time involved in any of my projects, maybe its just $0.01

Just when I thought I was out....they pull me back in!

Haha. Yea I'm just thinking that $500 for a truck that needs a little floor work isn't such a bad deal. I'm going to look at the truck today to see just how far gone it us and how it runs.

 

[shopteacher]

I'd buy it. A cheap flux core welder is easy to use. You will not get pretty welds. It will not be diffiicult to cut and paste it back together. Just don't expect professional results.

 

[forest522]

Learing to MIG weld is manly....might make the wife pregnant again...

 

[tequilaiam]

Learing to MIG weld is manly....might make the wife pregnant again...

That is no BS. I got mine knocked up right after I bought my flux-core and then again when I started playing with it again while repairing my '09.

Must be that awesome tan you get when using the no helmet/eyes-closed method when in tight quarters.

 

[tequilaiam]

Just when I thought I was out....they pull me back in!

Haha. Yea I'm just thinking that $500 for a truck that needs a little floor work isn't such a bad deal. I'm going to look at the truck today to see just how far gone it us and how it runs.

That's a killer deal if its $500. It's got to be worth almost $1000 as scrap metal alone. Probably more if you just part it out.

A year ago when I bought mine, I started trolling the local pick-n-pull and there were at least a dozen similar year GM trucks as donors. Now, however, I'm having a hard time finding stuff to pick from. They've all been crushed or bought.

Its getting crazy at my lot. One week I spot a good donor and make a mental note to come back for it, the next it's gone. I have a feeling these things are about to start getting a lot rarer.