Well, for ‘78 and older it is easier than ‘79 and newer. The old body style was factory setup to accept both tailgate and barn doors. The newer stuff are 2 completely different bodies. You have to cut the entire body section with the barn doors off and graft them onto the tailgate body. Floors don’t match...etc etc.
Where the barn door hinges bolt into.
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Wish GM had never stopped making the Suburban's that way..
I'd like my '85 a lot more if it had barn doors--I even bought a pair that had the matching factory paint job at a salvage yard,but when I found out you'd have to chop off the whole rear of the donor truck and mine to install them,I took them back..(I figured it was too good to be true,finding barn doors that were not rotted to hell and wouldn't even need painting !)..
Normally they refuse to give any cash refunds,but someone else had called them a day after I got them,who saw them and didn't buy them before I did,and told the owner "If that guy doesn't end up using them let me know"..
I had told the yard owner "these may not fit my truck" and he agreed,he said he was pretty sure GM changed the back of Suburbans in the late '70's--then said "don't come back with them looking for a refund if they dont.."..
I called him the next day and told them they wouldn't work for me without the back half of the donor Burb,and they were hauling it off to be crushed when I saw the doors and begged them to sell them to me,so even if I had the skill & ambition to do that kind of a conversion,it was already squashed..
He had the other guy's number who wanted the doors and he ended up buying them,so he gave me my money back..
