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Removing a the top of a '90 1500 Jimmy

Is there a seal that attaches to the top so that it comes off with the top or could that one be reversed? In the catalog it shows it mounted to the bed rail. I realize that it could be a misprint and I have never seen a top off of one or didn't pay any attention as I drove by. I figure that my grandkids would pick at and mess them up.

I was just looking through the LMC catalog and saw that there was a Burbon made from '73 to '91 that had doors on the rear. It didn't list any Blazers or Jimmys. Could the doors from a Suburban be put on a Jimmy without major metal work or fabrication?

Paul
 
Not sure of you question. There are four seals and one window channel. There is one seal on the back of the cab. There is one seal on the front of the topper and 1 seal on topper each side bed rail. There is a window felt in the back of the top for the rear window to seal to the top. When the top come off only one seal remains attached to the blazer. As two your question as to putting Barn doors on a Blazer would be a major undertaking. It was never an option from the factory.
 
I have seen a few K5's with Suburban barn doors grafted onto them locally...it can be done,but its a job best left to an experienced body man who is good at "customizing"..one of the K5's I saw was done "right" and looked very "factory"--the other one was a sawsall & welder's hackers delight...(that guy also cut the barn doors in half below the windows so they could open the top half,without opening the entire door..)

I do think the barn doors looked awesome and were much more practical than a tailgate though..but once those barn doors are on the truck,you can forget about taking off the roof ever again !..(That might be why that one guy cut his in half,maybe the upper half could be removed too ?)..
 
Appreciate it Diesel,

First, I didn't know what to call them so that everybody would know what I was talking about, Thanks. Barn doors makes a lot of sense.

I think that you gave me my answer. It's not just a swap using factory parts and it's way too involved for me to try. I wish that it was a parts swapping thing because it sure would help me getting stuff out of the back by not having to stretch across the tailgate.

I had a '69 Chevrolet Kingswood wagon that I put a slightly modified 'Vette motor in. When you got it wound up it felt like it was floating. Don't have any Idea how fast it was, the speedometer needle was in the dash long before it topped out. Anyway, it had the two way tailgate, let it down flat or open it like a door. That would really be the best of both worlds. I don't know of any manufacturer that still makes anything like that. It was extremely heavy though. I'm kind of missing it now.

With all of the fabricators on this site, maybe a fabing a preferably bolt-on "Barn Door Conversion" kit for the Blazers and Jimmys would worth making. Try to keep the cost down and keep it simple enough for people like me.

Anyway, Thanks again Diesel, Paul
 
IMG_3474.JPG IMG_3475.JPG IMG_3476.JPG I built a frame, to support the cap, out of an old swing set! Backed in, slid 2 2x6s across the front and rear of cap, drive out!

Oh, don't forget to unplug the harness! (I've done THAT a couple times!)
 
That sounds a lot like what I'm thinking about. I wish that I still had my girl's old swing set. They're in their mid 30's now, so you can imagine how strong it was compared to todays, heck imagine mine from the late 50's, you could pull a motor with it. A BIG motor.

The only thing that I like about my plan over yours is that I can lift it high enough that it doesn't take up room and have to cut grass around the legs.

The limb is about 15' off of the ground and over 6" in diameter. I'm still going to hang a bunch more weight on it before the top. Anybody got any old weight sets? Actually, I'm thinking about sand bags or concrete blocks on a pallet I'll cross that bridge later.

Thanks, udy2554
 
I was pretty bummed out when I found 2 Suburban barn doors at a nearby junkyard that had the same 2 tone paint as my '85 Suburban K-10 ,for 50 bucks,and got them home,only to discover after 1978,GM decided to make the "tailgate" versions have a different rear clip,with the floor section and the area where the door hinges go ,making it a major undertaking to put barn doors on a "tailgate" Suburban--it used to be from '73-78 you could simply unbolt and swap...stupid move in my opinion!..

I was lucky they took the doors back and gave me a refund--normally its a one way transaction--you bought it--you own it!..

Lifting heavy things has always been difficult for me..so I improvised as needed...

I have used an old clothes line posts to hoist off a K5 cap ,and a truck's 8 foot fleetside bed once!..

The clothes line was supported by a pair of
1-1/2" plumbing pipes ,someone just used 2 elbows and made the pipes in an upside down "U" shape,and put each pair about 10 feet apart, and anchored the pipes by slipping them in larger pipe sleeves cemented into the ground,so the poles could be moved to mow,etc..it sagged a bit,but it worked!..
I used a Come-A-Long to lift the cap and bed up..

My older brother bought some items off a mobile home supplier that was shutting down,he bought a Reese truck cap hoist they had,and I had it at my house ,I used it for lifting the roof off my K5 and to pull engines--it was a neat device,it straddled the truck's bed with a wide square tubing base on wheels and it had a hand crank winch to do the hoisting..I have a picture of it below,but not a good one,never thought to take a close up of it when I had it...

I also scored an old swing set from a city park that was being replaced,it was built from scratch by town dpw workers out of schedule 40 pipe,I had them cut it down to 12' wide (from about 30 feet!) and I have lifted a LOT of weight with it using a hand winch and pulleys,everything from truck cabs to beds,engines,even hoisted the back end of a truck 3 feet off the ground with it once..
I made it so you can wheel it around on 4 wheels..
Its getting really old now though,and I do not trust it as much as before..

Nothing beats having a good "crane" or A-frame for lifting things..

I have two engine cranes and need both at times,my back is junk and I cant hoist things like I used too...use them often to load stuff in my truck,and my truck has a Harbor Freight "crane" mounted on the rear bumper & frame that will lift 1000 lbs..

I had bad luck with those tripods made of three pipes bolted together at the top,they almost always ended up sinking one leg into the ground at the peak of a lift and flopping over...

I had a friend who used a maple tree branch about a foot thick to lift just about everything he tried with success,even a backhoe off a Case 580 !..--but one winter day a strong wind snapped the branch off,it was hollow for about 6" inside,full of carpenter ants!..the 3/8" chain had grown so deep in the branch it was a real chore to dig it out after the branch was cut up..we both stared at that branch as we cut it up and thought "man--we could have been under that thing when"--:yikes:..just the branch alone would have smashed us flat,never mind any load it was holding up..

Be careful hoisting anything up--I have had some really close calls using a crane on my other truck's flat bed,I had a garden tractor swing towards me and I could not hole the crane from rotating--had to jump out of the way as it slammed into the side of the truck bed--would have pinned me between them if I had not moved FAST...

All it took was for the truck to tilt a little as the spring sagged under the weight of the tractor (rule #1 is always put a block under the bumper to take the weight off the springs!)..rule # 2 is DO NOT FORGET to remove the block and put it in the bed before you drive off !..:doah:..done that more times than I care to admit..:blush:..

Also had a gust of wind start a load of pallets I had tied together and hoisted up spinning around,and I learned the hard way you cant just walk up to them and "stop" them by hand--I got tossed on my butt so fast I didn't know what happened,and a car driving by nearly ran me over..:eek:..

Below is a picture of the swing set I made into a gantry crane--behind the '41 Studebaker Champion my older brother used to own....
Still looking for the picture of the Reese truck cap hoist--I'll add it later if I can find it...(no photos of one on Google Images either,I must have had the only one they made ?)..
1941 Studebaker Champion.jpg
 
Diesel,

My back's gone too. I had a 13' solid wood roll-up door on a tractor trailer break 1 cable and other bracket, the trailer was on a good incline. The door came down and crushed me straight down. It hit me on the head right across from ear to ear. That's why it didn't kill me, my head cushioned the impact. It took 2 grown 'ol boys to get the door up enough for another one to slide me out. I was 24 yrs. old. They wanted to do all kinds of things to me including the rods down the upper part (cervical?) of my spine. I made it to 52 before they disabled me. You don't want to hear any more of my problems, #e!!, I don't want to list them.

I think that one type of frame that you mention, Gantry, i think that they use them at the port of Charleston to lift the shipping containers, only a bunch bigger. The Tri-Pods that you mention, I use them with the small block and tackle with braided nylon rope not nylon that comes on them, to handle our deer feeders that are built out of steel 55 gal. drums and then the legs are drilled and the big nail type spikes (about 16"?) that they build pole buildings with are driven in. After about a week, it'll surprise you how much it takes to pull those spikes.

That roll around frame that you don't trust, Put a truss type brace on the top and maybe put a smaller steel pipe through the top pipe, or maybe get a piece of "H" or "I" beam and mount it with the 2 parallel flats pointing up/down. Just get a good bead on it. If it were me and I could weld, I'd probably run beads all the way across on both sides of the tube.

If I didn't have such a nice big tree, that I've got to cut around anyway, I'd seriously consider the steel plumbing pipe. I will make sure that it is solid. Thanks, hadn't thought about that.

Don't worry about pics for my benefit. I haven't sent any fees yet. Hopefully before too long though.

One thing that we used to use when we were drag racing was a long braced pipe that attached to the hitch (3 or 5 point?) on the back of a big Massey-Ferguson tractor. Looked alot like the rods that they use to pick-up and transpore the round hay bales. It worked great as long as the hydraulics valves were smooth. We finally bent the pole loading old cars, like 50's and 60's full size cars on a low boy. Finding 2 trees big enough to cut and drop the attachment down into to straighten it back up. Than we, actually he welded a bunch of bracing on it and I fetched and watched.

With all of the articles on here about fabricating parts, etc. it looks like that might be a nitch market for retro-fitting barn doors to post '78, especially if it can be done without permanate damage to the vehicle like mine, all numbers matching, family owned since 10/7/89, 33 on the mile-thermometer. As handy as the 2 way tailgate was on my Kingswood, they ought to bring it back out.


Thanks Diesel, Paul
 
I had a '72 Chevelle "Nomad" wagon on a '69 Suburban 4x4 chassis years ago--it also had the dual action tail gate..I liked it a lot--opened it like a door most of the time,not as a tail gate..thing weighed like 150 lbs!..1972 Chevelle Nomad Station Wagon (4x4) 001.jpg
 
I'd have loved to owned that with an aerodynamic shell. There was one that kind of made that series of Chevelles look like a stretched Vette wagon. You said Nomad, did you mean an El Camino? I don't remember ever seeing a Nomad on a Chevelle body. It could be that I never saw or remembered seeing one. The 5's were on a Belair or 210 chassis weren't they? The El Camino with the top was sharp! I only saw a few. Thinking about the top, I don't remember if they came out early or late in the production runs prior to the toy Camino's.

Just took my meds. Good Night or I'll have to crawl back there to keep from falling or messing up the walls.

Later, Paul
 
You are way overthinking this. Just take the top off. The seals will be fine.

The tamper proof torx screws are the ones holding the top to the body, I don't believe the seat belt bolts are tamper proof. The top screws are no where near as big as a T47.

Martin
 
I put a picture up of it here--you might not see it until you make more posts...(or join up ?)--yes,there was such a thing as a Chevelle Nomad ,they also had Greenbrier wagons and a few other unusual named Chevelle wagon models...
 
Diesel,

I figured that I probably just didn't remember them. I do remember the sedan deliveries from around the early '60's. Sometimes certain models didn't sell in one area but a dealer in another area couldn't get enough. What's a Greenbriar Wagon? I'm planning to join at some point, but on a fixed income you have to budget wisely and that's hard for us. Back when I used to travel for a large Toshiba office equipment dealer. I wasn't rich but, I could go buy most anything that I wanted within reason. Even after being retired almost 9 years, I'm still not used to budgeting and my wife never has even tried. I do miss my expense acct. amount, that was real handy.

You said that the tailgate on yours weighed 150 lbs. I don't think 150 would touch what mine weighed. I never had it off, but it felt like more than that just lifting or closing it.

Martin,

I know that I'm going to extremes, but I don't want any surprises. I haven't really messed with cars and trucks since around the early to mid '80's, I think. With all of the different factors, I'm probably going to leave it on and spray it there now that i've been given the idea to use 2 ladders and lumber to make a low scaffold for me to work off of. I don't think that it will be too bad, but if there's anything else that somebody comes up with, I'll be happy to listen, especially since this is a first for me.

I also have a pretty good set of Torx, and I know where there's a bigger selection than mine.

It snowed yesterday (didn't stick, it's been too warm), today it's supposed to start raining and rain for 2 or more days off/on. So, this ain't exactly a pitstop type of operation. We've had this crazy weather for about 2 months. It was nice a couple of times, but I didn't trust the weather people and they were mostly right for a change. It's an adventure to try to fish, hunt or camp. Sometimes you have to carry enough clothes that it looks like you're running away from home.

After I get the fiberglass top back in shape, then I start undoing all of the stuff that has happened to it from sitting about 8 or so years with over a half tank of gas if I remember correctly. I plan to start by draining and dropping the tank, cleaning and using a rust killer if it's not full of pin holes. Cleaning the pump and fuel and return lines.

That's the start of a pretty long list of things that are probably going to have to get done including brake systems, tune up, trans service, rear end svc, etc. Those things comprise the tip of the iceburg.

Well, y'all have a good one, thanks, Paul
 
Painting the top while its still on the truck is probably a good idea--your likely to do some damage by removing it and while installing it (I mean chip it,or scratch the new paint mostly)..

I painted the roof on my van by parking it along side of a 2 foot high retaining wall next to my driveway--painted half of it ,as far as I could reach,then turned the van around and did the other side..
Looking back it would have been even easier if I had parked beside the deck on my house,its almost the same height as the van's roof is..
I could have removed a railing easily to gain better access..

As far as my Chevelle wagon goes,it was just a typical wagon,GM dreamed up the "Greenbrier" and "Nomad" names mostly as a model designation,nothing real special about them..
I was surprised they actually had some SS Wagons in the Chevelle line up too..you can use google images to see what a '72 Chevelle wagon looks like..
 
The Greenbriar was Chevrolet's 'van' version of the Corvair. The Lakewood was the wagon. And the rampside was their Pickup.
 
I remember those, didn't know that's what they were called. I don't think that they made that many, did they?

When I was Hot Rodding,I had a Corvair pull up beside me at an intersection and nod for a race. I had my stereo up and was laughing under my breath so hard that I didn't listen for his car. He finished pulling up to the intersection and I looked over at a Chevy SB with a tunnel ram and 2 4 bbl's through the roof and a weird air filter/reverse scoop. I got my ARSE handed to me so bad. I don't even think that I cut a half arse light, if any at all. I was about in shock. I'm just glad that it was for fun because he got me!!!! A buddy with a Judge had something similar done to him with a VW and it had a VW engine with 2 2 bbl. Webbers I think. I think he sprained his jaw before it hit the floor.

It's a wonder that myself and about a dozen of my friends aren't dead 4 times over.

Good Night, Thanks, Paul
 
I know that they made alot of "Naders Nightmares". A buddy had the sporty one (Monza?) with the pointy front, 3 or 4 speed and multiple carbs. I just don't think that they made very many wagons, trucks, and didn't they make some weird type of a van? I might be thinking of something else. I know VW made some of those things.

I'm not sure about the finer points of building one because I've never been in or been around when one was having/had a V8 conversion done other than that one, but it seems that I remember hearing that you had to flip the transaxle. If you did that wouldn't you be turning the ring and pinion backwards or would turning it side for side correct that? If you turned the ring/pinion backwards, I think that it would kill the ring/pinion by applying the torque backwards. The corvair engine wasn't a counter rotating engine, was it? I can tell you from experience that they are SUDDEN out of the hole. I don't know anything about the one that got me, but I have to wonder if he had weight in the front. I know that mid-engine helps, but as fast as he moved, I would have expected the front end to be carried and it didn't seem to be and I know that there weren't any wheeley bars. I got a real good look at that end!

I knew another guy that took the engine/transaxle out of the front of a Olds Toronado (455 4bbl I think), welded the steering so that he could fine tune the alignment with the tie-rods IIRC. He put it behind the front seats of a Vega wagon with nothing in the front end, no engine or trans! He enclosed it for use as a trunk. He did have to build almost a whole frame under it because it was a uni-body type car or had a real weak frame. I'm almost sure it was uni-body. When he sold it, he had turned down several offers from younger hotrodders because he didn't want to be responsible for somebody getting killed.

He tried to drive it when he first put it together and it was a real problem to keep the front down. He almost wrecked it the first time out. After several starts, he finally kept it stable up to about 40 -45 mph. He tried to open the back bbls. and the wheels immediately came off of the ground. He had already added heavy steel front rims and bigger/heavier 14" tires. The originals were 13". I think that he got some wheels from an old square body Nova. He still had some problems, so he started adding steel I or H beam and some railroad rail (HEAVY!!) to keep the front end down.

David built several strange vehicles, including a '57 Hardtop that he sectioned, chopped and channeled. It looked almost like about a 60% replica. It had a FULL tilt 427 in it. When you came up from behind, you could see between the rear tires, but not a whole lot. IIRC it had 4.56's or 4.88's. He said that there was too much top end for 4.11's or higher, it got real squirrely. To remove the rear end cover and do service it was easiest to remove both rear tires. I never rode in it. I was brave but I didn't have a death wish. I could go on but some of the things are just too hard to believe.

Stoney B., not named for that reason, "Rocky" was taken a couple of times, had an old style slingshot dragster (engine in front of the driver) and his street car was an Anglia panel wagon with a built 392 Firedome (?) Hemi sitting where most front seats were and he got in from the back doors. A passenger sat inline with the driver (mostly between the passenger's legs) and was very cramped. I rode in that one......ONCE!

I'm going to stop because I know that some/most of this is hard to swallow, but it's as true as I can remember. That was between 21 and 44 years ago (+/-) that this stuff was going on. I don't know, but does this forum have a "General B.S." area? If it doesn't , y'all might consider it.

Have a good one, Thanks, Paul
 
Yes,we have a "BS area,its called the "Lounge"--but you have to be a paid member to post there..

I have seen Corvairs with Chevy 350's grafted to the transaxle--like old VW's,you could flip the ring gear to the opposite side to compensate for the rotation of the engine being "reversed"..

One Corvair I saw at a drag strip had a 455 Olds Toronado engine and transaxle in it...I later saw photos of the engine in a welding book I have!..thing was a terror,mostly it did wheelies,and was pretty much uncontrollable at high speeds..

While it's true Chevy did name those weird Corvair vans a "Greenbrier",they did have Chevelle wagons with that model name also..seen a few in person...
 
I knew about the Chevelle wagons. I don't remember any with the "Nomad" emblem on them. Did they make a 2 door Chevelle wagon? With my memory I can't be sure of very many things, but weren't sedan deliveries/panel wagons and Nomads 2 doors and (station) wagons 4 doors. I think that the '55, '56, and '57 Chevrolets had 2 and 4 door models.

We live in the area where there was/is more moonshiners than most realize. Everybody thinks about the mountains but, there was a lot of other types of locations. We have Santee-Cooper, there were several back in the swamp. One ol' boy got tired of them burning his shack, built between cypress trees, so he put a dose of dynamite in the roof. I heard that the DNR (Game Dept.) found it and was burning it this time instead of the Tax dept. The game wardens had backed off about 50 or so yards and was sitting back watching when the dynamite went off. They said that it blew them out the back side of the Jon Boat. I'd have liked to have seen it. There's another lake, Lake Murray (big lake) that has a lot of banks that are 10' or more with some natural and some kids dug caves. They used to run shine in those. All of this led to all kinds of car/engine combinations. We've got Darlington and Charlotte raceways, both about 100 miles away. There's several round tracks and dragways that have closed over the years. We also had several spots just outside of town and the CB radio craze really helped a lot of us keep our drivers licenses.

A truck driver friend was in Florida and looked over and was eye to eye with a guy in a Black suicide door Continental. He didn't know what kind of vehicle was under the body, but he said it sounded good. He said that when it pulled off that it had mid-size 1 way tractor tires. In Florida they run the swamp type of mud bogs. I've never been to one but, I've watched them on TV. Usually those are the big ones with tires that must be 6' or more tall.

I didn't realize that you could flip the ring over. I really figured that they reversed the engine rotation. I know that they did/do that for the small tracks, especially the dirt tracks.

I've seen alot of strange things at the track. Everything from twins that weighted over 400 lbs. ea. drag racing the 1/4 mile on the old mini-bikes with briggs motors to the himi under glass.

On the original subject; how many vehicles did they label with the Nomad name tag?

Oh well, Good night, Paul
 
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