Tailgate to barn door conversion

[LIVEAnimals]

Has anyone seen or heard of this being done on a suburban. When I was looking for a suburban I really wanted the tailgate and passed on so many barn door rigs. I'm kind of regretting it, the tailgate is such a PITA and every time it rains my spare tire well fills with water, even after I threw a new seal at it. Anyways can it be done?

 

[82355]

Not easily.

Martin

 

[Big Ray]

...the last 6 seconds...

 

[LIVEAnimals]

...the last 6 seconds...

Hahahaha ok ok

 

[Big Ray]

I'm in the same boat..I have one of each, the barn door burb is down for a while.

The barns doors are truly more convenient for me, but the tailgated burb has it's advantage. Here in NC it's really hot & humid in the summer, the tailgate stays cooler with the rear window down.

I can go without the a/c comfortably longer, and since my a/c needs repaired that's a good thing.

Having said all of this, I believe yellowk20 has done the swap. He is much more gifted at this kind of work than most...

 

[Metrodps]

as I posted asking the same thing. The answer in short was yes but it is a pain in arse!

It is possible to convert a tailgate to doors, but a horrendous amount of work. So much that if you want doors buy one with doors.

6.2 will go for a long time not million mile stuff but 1/2 million if taken care of.

When I bought my '85 Burb,I was elated to find an identical one that had the same color scheme and barn doors at a local pick & pull....
I wanted one with the barn doors but mine had a tailgate (badly rusted one too!)...so I bought the 2 doors and the hardware for 50 each,with the agreement I could get a refund if they would not work..

Well,I ended up taking them back after reading a few posts here about converting from a tailgate to barn doors--the guy at the boneyard aid he was pretty sure that after 1978 you couldn't just swap from one type to the other any more,it used to be a bolt on swap back then,and posts I read here confirmed that...without changing the bottom sill and adding reinforcement and plates to bolts the hinges too,its no do-able...not by a backyard hack like me anyway...I'm not very good at body work..

I was bummed,because I dont much care for tailgates with electric windows...I did score a fairly decent tailgate for 40 bucks though,but its been stored away,no sense in letting it rot on the truck while its sitting in my driveway for 3 years now.....mine is a 6.2 also...not sure if I'm going to keep it now...the thoughts of paying 165 bucks just to fill its 40 gallon tank isn't exactly encouraging,never mind the other things it needs fixed to be roadworthy now...

 

[dremu]

I gather that eary Burbs (say, 73 through mid-70's sometime?? unsure) were drilled/fit for both so they could use the same body. In these cases it was a bolt-on affair.

My understanding is that later bodies are only drilled/kitted for one or the other, so while the barn doors would FIT, you'd have to drill, put captive nuts and/or plates inside the sheetmetal, and maybe do some metal work for the latches to fit.

It's a shame, but really, normal owners wouldn't make the switch, so if it cost the General more to make I can see why they'd drop it.

-- A

 

[LIVEAnimals]

Hmmm maybe ill just stop dreaming