swap barn doors for tailgate

[Daveo91Burb]

So I know this question has been asked multiple times before, here and other sites. Although almost all of those that I found, however, were asking about the opposite proposal: tail gate for barn doors. I believe the swap I am proposing is easier than the other way. Here's my plan, please let me know if I've missed anything or if I've made some wrong assumptions.

- I have everything for the swap from a 1990 with a tailgate: tailgate, cross member, all trim and hardware, even all the wiring and dash switch.

- structurally the two styles seem to be identical except for one major difference, the tailpiece or rear cross member. Since the tailgate one has holes for the hinges and is filleted to allow clearance for the tailgate, it has to be replaced. It will be difficult, but I think I can get the one out and the other in by removing a bunch of bolts and using a heat gun to loosen the glue.

- other challenge will be the backing nuts for the pins that hold the tailgate closed as well as the attachments for the cables that prevent it from falling. Tricky but i think I can use the slots from the barn door hinges to get the backing nuts in. Maybe.

- The switches and contacts for the tailgate vs. barn doors are in different places. Might be some challenges in moving those.

- I think the rest is bolt on and go. But I'm probably underestimating.

- I know most people will ask why. Just really want a tailgate. Don't have a pickup anymore so I want the ability to put the window or even the gate down to haul long items. Also don't like the visibility aspect of the barn doors and the fact that when you open them they swing into things nearby. I've had a K5 before so I know they're heavy and the window mechanisms can be finicky. I'll live.

Thanks for the help, sorry for the long post.

 

[bucket]

I prefer a tailgate too.

The older Burbs had the bolt holes for both door styles in the sides, that stopped in the early 80's sometime. Someone once told me that the newer bodies had the bolt holes too, it was just the outer layer of sheetmetal that did not have the holes punched. Maybe you will get lucky, and I'd really like to know the outcome if you do the swap.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Thanks and will do. So the most important bolt holes ARE there - the ones that the tailgate hinges bolt to in the frame. There's just no cutouts for the hinges to go through on the tail piece. And if I cut them myself I don't think there's clearance for the bottom edge of the tailgate to rotate. But all that seems to be do-able. Most worried about figuring out a way to secure the gate's latching pins and the cables. Will keep folks posted and I'll take a lot of pics along the way.

 

[SpeeedRacer62]

Hi Dave,

Let me give you some ideas about the rear cross member removal and replacement. Its not going to be a simple bolt in/out application. I am currently working on my 86 Sub, having to replace my cross member due to a rust out condition. Its a tailgate model and I plan on keeping that way. The old one was relatively easy to remove because it was in such bad shape. It came out in 2 pieces. While its true its mostly held in with a bunch of bolts, there are spot welds holding on the bottom sheet metal area to the corner areas of both left and right quarter panels.

Now the fun stuff! The new cross member is one piece and will not simply bolt into place. You either need to:

1. loosen all of the body mounting hardware and jack the rear of the body up high enough to slide the member under both quarter panels and into place or
2. Cut the rear of the floor pan back far enough so you can lay the member diagonally on the rear of the frame and then slide it into place.

I felt that option 2 was an easier path, so I cut my floor at the rear-most floor support, unbolted 2 bolts from the lower pass side, broke 1 spot weld on the far right floor support, cut the seam-sealer on the pass side and removed the spare tire well.

As you can see from the pics Ive had to make some creative patches on both quarters so that I can bolt the new member back into something

Hope this helps you with a few ideas. Here are a few pics of my project.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Thanks for the pics and info, SpeedRacer! Will be helpful. Hmmm, was not counting on welds and especially the issue of sliding it in between the two fairly rigid rear quarter panels. So getting the tailgate cross member removed from the 90 - was pretty easy: sawzall. We just took an entire C-section out of the back (ends of the C started just above the tail lights. But I've since removed all the bolts that hold the cross member to the quarter panels and then I was just able to use a BFH to hammer off the remains of the quarters so I ended up with just the cross member. I don't think I had to break any welds in the process, but I'll check more closely to see if I can find the ones you're talking about. And to get the barn door one out of the 91 I was hoping to just use the same method: remove all the bolts and then use a BFH, although I would hammer down this time instead of to the side (realizing I will ruin the existing cross member). Then I was hoping the tailgate member would slide up easy, but it sounds like not so much from your experience. I haven't quite found the time (or courage) to really dig into this project. I also need my burb for a number of events this summer and don't want to be without it!

 

[SpeeedRacer62]

No problem Dave, hope I can help you make it easier on yourself. I've got lots of high res pics of the things I went thru that Id be glad to share with you. I've seen where others have posted some, but I haven't figured it out. Perhaps the best thing to do is to put them into my Dropbox, post the link, and then you can download the ones you wanna keep. Would that be helpful at all ?

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Your pics would absolutely be helpful! Thanks for the offer. I don't have dropbox (I use Google Drive) but I think you could still post a link that's open to anyone? Or you could just put them into an album here - it's a pretty easy process, I just completed a couple of albums in a few minutes.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

So I'm thinking I might try to do this swap without swapping the full cross member - Speedracer has made me see the light in how difficult that is. I've been studying this page of the LMC catalog:

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/csb/full.aspx?Page=12

I think I can replace just the tailpiece rather than the whole crossmember assembly. I think the tailpiece is spot welded on to the member, but LMC does sell them separately. It will be difficult to get them apart, but I'm hopeful I can do it. I can destroy the barn door one that's on the rig now and, if I have to, buy a new tailgate one from LMC for $50 plus shipping. I believe the cross members are identical (I've studied both of mine) except for one difference: there are welded on plates with threaded holes for the tailgate hinges on one and the cross member is boxed there for strength. So I will have to figure out a way to get those plates there (there are already bigger holes in the x-member there) for the hinges and then strengthen/box the member so it doesn't flex. Thoughts?