1989 Chevy K1500

AuroraGirl said:

The doors increased in weight but the hinges are basically like squares, right? so the extra weight and size and larger glass on the same hardware in the same amount of time = sag city? The 1996 i have doesnt have too bad of a drivers door surprisingly, for a silverado trim door.

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I noticed the small hinges when I looked at my friends ‘95 WT with its driver door hanging on for dear life. From what I’ve seen, the hinges seem a little undersized for square body doors too, although the sag doesn’t seem nearly as bad as a lot of GMT400s I’ve seen. Not beefing up the hinges for the heavier doors on the GMT400 was one of GM’s more questionable design choices on these trucks. Thankfully they mastered the art of the door hinge by the time the GMT800 was introduced.

I won’t pick on GM too much for this though, because I’ve seen many 80-96 Ford doors sag, and a sagging Ford door gives you the added bonus of snapping off interior door handles on a regular basis until you get the latch/striker alignment just right. This applies to both the early die cast handles and the later plastic ones.

AuroraGirl said:

The doors increased in weight but the hinges are basically like squares, right? so the extra weight and size and larger glass on the same hardware in the same amount of time = sag city? The 1996 i have doesnt have too bad of a drivers door surprisingly, for a silverado trim door.

Click to expand...

CheemsK1500 said:

I noticed the small hinges when I looked at my friends ‘95 WT with its driver door hanging on for dear life. From what I’ve seen, the hinges seem a little undersized for square body doors too, although the sag doesn’t seem nearly as bad as a lot of GMT400s I’ve seen. Not beefing up the hinges for the heavier doors on the GMT400 was one of GM’s more questionable design choices on these trucks. Thankfully they mastered the art of the door hinge by the time the GMT800 was introduced.

I won’t pick on GM too much for this though, because I’ve seen many 80-96 Ford doors sag, and a sagging Ford door gives you the added bonus of snapping off interior door handles on a regular basis until you get the latch/striker alignment just right. This applies to both the early die cast handles and the later plastic ones.

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I don't *think* the newer doors are much heavier, if at all. I've never weighed them, but they feel about the same I guess.

It's my belief that the hinge pins fail more often on the '88-up trucks due to the design of the cab. Rain water runs down the channel in the upper door jamb and right down onto the hinges. This washes the lube away much faster, and people don't often lube their hinges enough anyway. The '94+ S10's also have the same issue.

The '96-current Express vans use the same basic hinge design and size, but they really don't wear out the pins and bushings nearly as often. I believe those doors are heavier too.

bucket said:

I don't *think* the newer doors are much heavier, if at all. I've never weighed them, but they feel about the same I guess.

It's my belief that the hinge pins fail more often on the '88-up trucks due to the design of the cab. Rain water runs down the channel in the upper door jamb and right down onto the hinges. This washes the lube away much faster, and people don't often lube their hinges enough anyway. The '94+ S10's also have the same issue.

The '96-current Express vans use the same basic hinge design and size, but they really don't wear out the pins and bushings nearly as often. I believe those doors are heavier too.

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I would be confused how the doors could be much lighter construction with larger size and not be very... flexible lol. The glass piece itself is larger, albeit i dont know how much larger. that would be some weight there. Then a bigger door panel/with more to it
The seal setup to the cab isnt great, for sure. the gmt800 is improved but its not that much better. I did appreciate the addition of more seals to a strange excess lol, not sure what GM was doing lol. Esp if you have an extended cab (extra seal between the doors that isnt a perimeter one x2)

But as far as the doors go, a base model gmt400 door i could see being light and on par, since there is no vent window assembly which is , to be fair, quite hefty in the squares. Wonder how well hinges on deleted vent window squares go lol. Is there more open space on the double wall/brace/cross piece in the gmt400 door than a square (quite closed up)

If you want some stuff that would be beneficial, if the truck has working ac, you would benefit from this:


Also, the door hinge stuff is apparently different after 91?




Not sure why GM cuts the gmt400 in half with these, the part numbers are the same it turns out.

Also found these, may be helpful for next summer? not sure if they came with the valve OEM but we all know how much that little bit of difference of hot coolant not circulating the heater core while the AC is on can drop temp in the vents like 15 or more degrees

CheemsK1500 said:

I noticed the small hinges when I looked at my friends ‘95 WT with its driver door hanging on for dear life. From what I’ve seen, the hinges seem a little undersized for square body doors too, although the sag doesn’t seem nearly as bad as a lot of GMT400s I’ve seen. Not beefing up the hinges for the heavier doors on the GMT400 was one of GM’s more questionable design choices on these trucks. Thankfully they mastered the art of the door hinge by the time the GMT800 was introduced.

I won’t pick on GM too much for this though, because I’ve seen many 80-96 Ford doors sag, and a sagging Ford door gives you the added bonus of snapping off interior door handles on a regular basis until you get the latch/striker alignment just right. This applies to both the early die cast handles and the later plastic ones.

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my 96 f150 i think the door was over-opened, the cab where the hinge mounts is distorted.. lol

I like your 89 allot man!
On the gmt 400 doors there dang heavy. The hinge brackets are welded in. On our 99 I fixed the sloppy pin hole by adding material slowly with a mig only adding where it was lost. Git it close but too tight to pound in. Heated the hole orange hot then pounded old pin through hot hole and it made a new tight machined like hole. Now it's all tight!

Like I said, I've never actually weighed them. Just lifted a bunch of them and never really noticed that they were heavier. Maybe that's why my back hurts so much these days, lol.