Build Thread - Burb Barn Door to Tail Gate Conversion

[Daveo91Burb]

Thanks for the suggestions, But I gave my sawzall a workout tonight and cut apart this chunk of ****:

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And ended up with this little guy:

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It's just a thin plate with a square nut welded to it. I think I can chisel off the body metal, clean it up, paint it and install it on my jam so the nut is recessed, but the plate on the outside. I'll just use sheet metal screws should be pretty easy. No tools to buy or rent this way



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[yevgenievich]

Woul it not be easier to make one from scratch instead of seperating old if going that direction?

 

[Daveo91Burb]

maybe, but my welding skills leave a lot to be desired! I'm thinking the time it will take to get those plates cleaned up and installed will be pretty small compared to some of the other aspects of this crazy project.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Got my cable support pin mounting plates installed. And the tailgate seal. 'Bout ready to install the gate - finally.

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[r67northern]

That's coming along really well - I thought about this many, many times with my old v1500 - the colors were even the same as your truck. Keep up the great work.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Thanks! Hit a little snag tonight.... thought I was going to get by without ever removing the window but no dice. Too much refurb needed inside there. Glad I did - found out that the defroster wire was severed (easy fix at least) and the side u-channel tracks have zero felt left. Any ideas of a material I can use in there? I don't think LMC has just the felt, looks like it's integral with the tracks and they want $50 a side. The tracks themselves are fine, just need to put some sort of felt or sweep on both front and back of each track and it should work. Just needs to keep the window from wobbling around in the track. I'm thinking of something I might find at Home Depot in the door or window section. do the parts houses sell a universal window track felt material?

 

[yevgenievich]

I would think the same felt as used in the doors can be cut up for the tailgate. And LMC probably does not sell it integral to the tracks. I made that mistake on the doors and have two new window tracks sitting on the shelf.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

I would think the same felt as used in the doors can be cut up for the tailgate. And LMC probably does not sell it integral to the tracks. I made that mistake on the doors and have two new window tracks sitting on the shelf.

Well that's good to know - I'd have been pissed if I bought the tracks and they didn't include the felt. I stopped at Ace on my way home today and picked up some of this stuff:

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Seems like it should work pretty well:

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.

Also got my wiring finalized at the fuse panel. Pretty cool how I was able to plug in the original plugs from my parts rig right into the proper slots (pretty sure) in my panel. Everything seems to work as expected- constant voltage on the orange wire for the key switch control and the dash switch put voltage on the blue and tan wires when I had my wife come out and work it with the ignition key on.

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[Daveo91Burb]

That's coming along really well - I thought about this many, many times with my old v1500 - the colors were even the same as your truck. Keep up the great work.

Those colors might not stay - thinking about going to black on the maroon part. Factory color was black on silver, must have had a repaint somewhere along the way. Paint store couldn't even find that color for a 91 burb - had to look in the book for Astro vans to find it!

Thanks for the encouragement- hoping I will soon be able to definitively say this possible, just a helluva lot of work!

 

[r67northern]

Those colors might not stay - thinking about going to black on the maroon part. Factory color was black on silver, must have had a repaint somewhere along the way. Paint store couldn't even find that color for a 91 burb - had to look in the book for Astro vans to find it!

Thanks for the encouragement- hoping I will soon be able to definitively say this possible, just a helluva lot of work!

Silver / black would be really nice too, I've seen a few of those over the years and they are very sharp looking. Now that you mention it I can see that the maroon you're running is a little darker than the red that I was familiar with, still a good look.

At any rate, again, the project is really turning out well. Way to go for it, I was gun-shy and then found the r20 which will be better at towing and has a tailgate anyway. If I'd had the tailgate on the v1500 though I don't think I would have swapped it. I would have had to figure out how to keep it one way or another.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Hey can one of you guys with a burb tailgate shoot some pics of the how the torsion spring is mounted? I sort of got my TG installed tonight but the stupid ass torsion thingy (makes the gate easier to lift) is giving me fits. My thought was to have one end inserted into the sleeve inside the TG but then everything else loose. When I was installing TG I got it into a near vertical position and it was fairly easy to get the other end of the bar to go under the cross member and above the retainer clip where it belongs. I thought I was all good so I spent a lot of time getting the hinges lined up and bolted on but now when I open the gate the spring bows way out and binds up on the bottom edge of the gate. Unfortunately it even tweaked the exterior of the TG at two spots. I think I need to loosen the hinges and pull the gate enough away so I can get the bar mounted snugly to the bottom of the TG first (with the 2 clips and plastic inserts) and then get the hinges mounted, but I am open to anything if there's an easier way!

 

[yevgenievich]

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[Daveo91Burb]

Well, I got the f----r on! No latch pins or glass yet but I do have support cables and a working torsion spring. Spring seems to be doing its job and not making too many creaks, but it still bows out in the middle when TG is open. Guess it's ok. Latch pins next then get the glass installed. Getting close.....

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Thanks for the pics, Viktor, very helpful to make sure I had things oriented correctly.


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[Daveo91Burb]

Well, didn't have much time to work on the project this weekend - family stuff - but I did get the latch pins installed tonight. I don't think the way I installed them allows enough adjustability. The biggest drill bit I have is 1/2" and I think the threaded end of the pins is 7/16" I did get one side to latch, but it's not quite right and the other side couldn't get to latch at all. Think I'll got to HF tomorrow and get one of those stepped drill bits that will let me get the hole to 3/4"

 

[Daveo91Burb]

I've got a latching tailgate now! Bigger holes worked - just enough adjustability to get both sides to fully latch.

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