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Found an easy way to convert to barn doors

H20 Toie

H20 Toie

1/2 ton status
Joined
Jun 13, 2016
Posts
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Location
Valencia California
Since i'm not the smartest person sometimes i bought a 90 suburban to fix up. like a lot of you just going to do a few things. That few things ended up being new engine. interior, crossover and hydraulic steering. rebuilt axles. wheels and tires bumpers etc. but really wanted barn doors. even being 6'4" it was a pain to open the tailgate.
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so what better way than to buy another suburban and start over, makes perfect sense :)
But instead of swapping out the motor and drive line just switch the bodies
So here we go

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Sure hope this works out like i planned
 
I've seen a few Burbs that were swapped from a tail gate to barn doors--guys just got the barn doors and hinges from a salvage yard,removed the tail gate,and placed the doors in the right position and simply welded the hinges in place..

This left a large gap at the bottom floor area,as the whole rear tail section of a tailgate Burb vs a barn door version is also different--they just fabbed up their own sill plates and welded them in..."crude but effective"..

This probably was as much work as just chopping the whole tail off a barn door version and grafting it in...your way is more work than that,but if your old body was rusty anyways,it'll be worth the effort..

I wish my '85 Burb had barn doors..tailgate is rotted to death on it ,but I have a decent spare for it--I just hate the 200 lb ingot and the electric window that "might" work when needed,since I don't open the gate very often,and barn doors just plain look better and make for easier loading.....a pair of home made wooden swinging doors has crossed my mind more that once!..(also thought of sawing off the rear roof section and make it into a 4 door pickup truck !)..

GM would have to make the Burb's tail gate wider and taller ,so a pickup tail gate and a camper cap rear window cant be adapted..grrr!..
 
Nice! Your rigs are always nice, I’m sure this will work out in the end with a little patience!
 
The old body only has surface rust on the roof, needs a paint job bad , the body itself is excellent condition, and the interior is great with a killer stereo. cold air and everything works so will either put it up for sale or drive it out to Atlanta and use it there at my other office.
 
Well the gray one is almost all back together. just need to decide if its worth painting it before selling it. Haven't driven it yet, ill be curious to see if putting in the new body bushings makes any difference. the factory ones were still in pretty good shape which kind of surprised me


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The white was has a couple small dents, but the paint is pretty good, ( good enough i dont have to paint it) . the interior is great on both of them except for the dash pads.
 
Well even thou i'm going to sell it i couldn't do it the way it is, so the start of the repainting starts, thankfully it is just surface rust from the old paint flaking off.
Working on a California truck is pretty amazing, 30 years old and all the body mounts/ bumper bolts came out without an issue.
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Yeah,it must be nice to have things unbolt instead of the bolts snapping off..
On my '85 K10 Burb I had to remove the front sway bar to install a plow frame,and I dreaded taking out those 3/4" thick bolts that thread into the plates on the leaf springs at the U-bolts..I've had them twist off other trucks in the past,made for a miserable chore drilling them out and extracting them without taking off those plates..

But when I put a 1/2" ratchet on the bolts,I pushed on it with my foot,and they came free easily!...I don't know if someone had them off in the past and never-seized them,but I doubt it,there was no sign of any never-seize and the bolts did not appear to have ever had a wrench on them before..

Truck came from the state of Washington,only spent a few years in VT and MA before I bought it--it was like new underneath..not so much any more now after I stupidly let it sit 10 years outside ,the rockers are gone now,and the wheel wells and door bottoms are bubbling up..still looks rust free as far as the frame and underside though compared to any Burb thats been here since it was built..

I've only had maybe 3 or 4 cab mount or body mount bolts come out without having to chop up the floor,that welded nut in the floor & cab mount almost always tears free and spins..ditto for pickup bed bolts, 9 out of 10 always end up stripping the square part of the carriage bolt or tearing the sheet metal away,forcing you to cut them off..
 
Did you get them finished?
 
Not yet.
i got to deal with having Covid so that put a delay in things.
The Gray one is all painted and came out pretty darn good. just need to put it all back together, even thou they were both the same year and for the most part same options it still ended up being a lot more work than i expected.
should have some time in the next couple of weeks before work gets busy so hopefully ill get a least one of them finished.
The white one needs a stereo so need to decide if i want to pull the one from the gray one or just get all new one. The one in the gray one is all custom built and sounds so good and of course the white one has blue interior so changing all the panels probably isn't worth it .
think ill put a dakota digital dash in the white one also. ( really like the one in my crew cab) and its going to get some power steps, so still lots to do.
 
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