72 truck doors on a 72 k/5??

[smartcarkiller]

Hey all, My brother in law just picked up a 72 pickup and it came with two extra doors and I was wondering how hard it was to convert them into blazer doors? I have searched around here but can't seem to find any info on it. I know it has had to be done already so if someone can shoot me in the right direction that would be awesome!!

 

[Greg72]

The Factory Assembly Manual shows how to cut a truck door to make it into a Blazer door.

I've heard rumors that "real" Blazer doors had extra reinforcements internally (possibly in the hinge or latch areas) But as far as making them fit....even the factory used truck doors as needed for their own production runs....

 

[smartcarkiller]

That's awesome because my drivers door is about to fall off the hinges! Thanks for the input.

 

[smartcarkiller]

Oh another thing is I am going to have to replace my rockers here soon should I wait to install the new doors till after as to avoid alignment problems?

 

[SHANES SOCAL 70 K5]

Oh another thing is I am going to have to replace my rockers here soon should I wait to install the new doors till after as to avoid alignment problems?

Not if your door is about to fall off. It wont be hard to remove the door, to replace the rockers. And why is your door going to fall off any way? Are the hinge threads stripped. If so it might be better to fix that. You can drill and tap. Or there is a product called rivnut, they are used in aircraft.

 

[GRINCH]

Here are the GM diagrams.



I used truck doors on my build.
Greg is right, there is a piece added to the latch area. I took mine off and put it on the donor doors. Just drill out the spot welds and re-tack to the donor doors.

Here is some pics of my doors.

 

[smartcarkiller]

Wow thanks guys, my drivers door hinge has almost tore itself from the door, it started to crack right at the top of the hinge where it mounts to the door and over the last year or so it's just continued to split. Now I have to give it the love touch to get her to shut right. I have contemplated just going doorless during the summer while the top is off but this year when I took the top off I could tell that the body sagged a bit, enough to tell that it probably wasn't a good idea to leave the top off . It doesn't look as bad as it seems but apparently the rockers are way weaker than last year so to avoid any unwanted carnage I had to put the top back on till I get it sorted out.

Thanks for the diagrams and pics. They will be of great help when I start this part of the project next week!
I will post some pics of my progress later this week when I get the donor doors to my house and start to tear things apart.

 

[Greg72]

When you start the repairs in the door/sill area pay careful attention to the mounting points for the door hinges on the cowl as well. I noticed some tearing of the metal around the captive nut area especially on the lower mount. If those areas are bad, no amount of shimming (or a new door) will ever resolve your fitment issues.....better to just dive in and get fresh, strong metal in there.

It will be hard to replace rockers with a door installed; it's probably easier to just weld in a solid support across the top of the door opening to hold your gaps in place, and then cut out the rockers and weld in the new...

BTW -> 1st Gen guys in this forum are really great when it comes to providing techical info (and emotional support for rust-related issues! )

 

[smartcarkiller]

Yeah luckily the cowl is still strong with no signs of weakness. So since my rockers are so bad is there a easy way to make sure I've got the right dimensions before I weld in the support? Like the distance between the top of the bed rail and the top of the door cowl? Or is it not really important that it be exact at this point, I just don't want to weld in the new rockers and find out I'm off by a half inch or whatever.

 

[Greg72]

I think the Factory Assembly Manual will show some specific dimensions in that area for reference, but if your door fits correctly now, just take some measurements now before you start cutting things apart...

 

[smartcarkiller]

So I have never bought an actual assembly manual before but while on ebay I didn't find a book I did find a cd that seems pretty useful. It seems like it would cover all aspects of fix and repair/overhaul. Have you ever used one of those or should I just try and find a hard copy? I've never been one for manuals before because I always found it easier to just tear things apart and find out how they work but I guess it would save me from asking dumb questions.... Ha Ha,maybe... Thanks again

 

[Greg72]

Link to the Factory Assembly Manual:

http://www.amazon.com/1967-1972-Factory-Assembly-Instruction-Manual/dp/B000GGWWSG


and the Factory Service Manual:

http://www.themotorbookstore.com/19ch10setrse.html



Those two are "must have" books as far as I'm concerned. You can learn a LOT about how to repair our trucks just by reading how they originally went together.

 

[smartcarkiller]

well I got the drivers door striped down and cut the window frame off. Now its time to sand blast it to see the real rust issue. I didn't notice when I picked it up that the drivers door is got some rot down on the underside but it doesn't look like too hard of a fix. Thanks for all the help so far guys!