Suburban Barn Door Removal?

[Big T]

I found this Suburban barn door at a boneyard. Same color as mine, but no rust (there are positives to living in SoCal).

My current left barn door has rust on the lower rolled edge to the point that the edge is breaking off. They want $50 for this door, but I need to remove it. I pulled two bolts from each hinge, but the hinges must be anchored by a third bolt or something as I could not get it off. I did not bring a philips screwdriver, so I could not remove the plastic trim to expose the inner portion of the hinge plate. Or do these remove by punching the hinge pin out?

Any how to removal advice appreciated.

 

[Suburbank2500]

I am not shure, but i think there is bushings also inside the hinges.

Børge

 

[Pruittx2]

open your door, there should be a door check of somesort,, then you have to push the pins out,, they are a Biotch! most times you have to use a torch to heat up the hinge rings,,, and use and air chisel with a pointed bit to push thru the pin. Most the ones I did, when doing body work for years,, ended up needing the hinges painted at the least. Some times you get lucky, by just poppin the pins out,, but not always. Good luck.

 

[Big T]

open your door, there should be a door check of somesort,, then you have to push the pins out,, they are a Biotch! most times you have to use a torch to heat up the hinge rings,,, and use and air chisel with a pointed bit to push thru the pin. Most the ones I did, when doing body work for years,, ended up needing the hinges painted at the least. Some times you get lucky, by just poppin the pins out,, but not always. Good luck.

This is in a bone yard, so I won't be able to use an air compressor and air chisel. Sounds like I'll have to go at it with the 2 lb hammer and pointed chisel. I'll bring the map gas torch.

Tapping into your body work experience.....There is a palm sized spot on the upper right corner door where the clear coat peeled off. Can that be sanded out and redone? I have a couple of these clear coat peeling spots on the truck.

And no I did not vote for the Socialist Obama.

 

[jrsavoie]

Are they concerned about damage you do to the area surrounding the hinges? If not, I would hack and whack the hinges out. Battery sawzall, metal cutting cirular saw, torch or similar

 

[Big T]

I don't think they care, but I do. That would make a mess of the hinge, which is pretty stout. What I don't get is why there is two bolts to the hinge and presumably the remainder is spot welded?

 

[NVW]

1/2 Acetone and 1/2 trans fluid mixed, soak it with that. If that fails I would use heat if possible. Or bigger BFH

 

[Turbine Doc]

How did ya'll make out with this project, I'm in the middle of it myself on my 98 Burb, every method I've tried (soaking as above) even with Kroil (which has never failed me before) without success including "heat & beat" torch-straight punch-BFH,

I eventually removed the doors by cutting the pin with my Dremel, now I have a short piece to drill out will grab some pics later.

For replacement pins I went the expensive route http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/csd/full.aspx?Page=27 but the are the correct pin, but the quantity of bushing is incorrect 8 item (19) bushings part 31-0758 are required, I ordered (4) more bushings today dang ship/handling was more than the cost of the bushings.

 

[Big T]

I haven't done the side doors, nor the barn doors. Never found the pins for the front doors. I have a new/used clean barn door which I cut the body side portion of the hinge using a cordless sawsall at the bone yard. Can't get that pin out, so I'll probably drill it out.

So was the barn door pin #18 in the link? Bushing #19? Pricing? How do you order?

 

[Turbine Doc]

I haven't done the side doors, nor the barn doors. Never found the pins for the front doors. I have a new/used clean barn door which I cut the body side portion of the hinge using a cordless sawsall at the bone yard. Can't get that pin out, so I'll probably drill it out.

So was the barn door pin #18 in the link? Bushing #19? Pricing? How do you order?

Part #s that match the page are on page 26 http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/csd/full.aspx?Page=26 use the next/previous page to advance through the catalog at top of the page you can set up an online ordering profile or call the 800 # at top of the page.


I did same thing for my donor doors and rotten doors sawed off from the truck with saws all, tomorrow weather permitting I'll grab some pictures and post them.

Side doors are easy pull pin past retaining clip and pin comes out

 

[Suburbank2500]

I used the pins from LMC when i replaced mine a while ago, they are good.
I had to grind of the top of the pins, and i used a air hammer to drive it out. No mercy.

 

[Turbine Doc]

Well I realized my error after the fact posting before in the side door thread so I copied the discussions from there to here, I've got a couple of side doors to do yet as well, but here are some pictures from my forray into barn door repair. They will be out of order as I believe the software places them in order of date/time stamp photo was taken.



Tomorrow I hope to grab some pictures of the doors going back on.

 

[Big T]

Good stuff there. So you had to use a cutting wheel to get the center section out? Then drilled and BFH's the remainder of the pins in the door side hinge?

Also, you had to order extra bushings for each hinge?

Although I have a rear barn door I need to install, this is completely different from the hinge pins for the forward doors.

 

[Turbine Doc]

Yes to the removal methods, thin cutting wheel on a Dremel tool, flex shaft would have made it easier.

We decided it would be easier to paint without the doors on since I'm changing the color. Left my camera-camera at home so i had to resort to the cell phone camera feature but I think you get general idea of what I had to do. Yes I had to order extra bushings LMC catalog is wrong on the quantity you need a total of 4 pins & 8 bushings.

I didn't have time to grab pictures during the side door removal, it was raining & lightning just as I finished removal barn doors are WAAAAAY harder to remove than the side doors, < 15 minutes to remove the side door both pins.

Attached are the doors that were removed from the burb

 

[dangerousdave]

I pray I never have to do this. What lube or antisieze would you reccomend to make it easier next time?

 

[Turbine Doc]

The bushings come prelubed with a teflon type coating, is suspect if you are not in the land of salt your problems would not be as severe, my body for the frame I'm running got jacked up in Katrina storm that dropped a tree on it, guy I bought it from said it had been "Professionally repaired" yeah right, doors pass side and low on driver side frame to body clearance, my local body guy said it was too jacked up to try to fix it, live & learn on ebay trades, rest of it was a great runner I finally got tired of getting wet in hard rain and also having AC air leak out did not seal at roof to door seals.

So I got another rolling chasis for the body but it came from IL and had some road salt exposure, so I'm taking parts from 2 burbs to make 1 good one, pins from the doors donor were not as bad rusted, I don't think any lube would prevent it from being stuck you might try some never sieze, the head of the pin when driven home is tight fit by design into some serrations in the hinge strap so the pin dies not move but rather provide itself to being a axle/shaft for the door to swing on.

 

[john65td]

the pins seem to always sieze in the middle. i have seen people put grease fittings in the hindge. and gm has a new style pin with a grease fitting in it. i just had to replace some recently the hindges are also rediesigned to preven the pin from seizing

 

[Big T]

Well I realized my error after the fact posting before in the side door thread so I copied the discussions from there to here, I've got a couple of side doors to do yet as well, but here are some pictures from my forray into barn door repair. They will be out of order as I believe the software places them in order of date/time stamp photo was taken.

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Tomorrow I hope to grab some pictures of the doors going back on.

I'm in the middle of doing this. The cut off part with the dremel is fairly easy, but drilling the top portion of the pins is a major biatch. Of course, I complicated matters by breaking the first bit off after going all the way through. Broke several more bits off in the effort. Finally it was a combination of BFH with a sharp punch knocking the bit down, more drilling, more BFH. Once I got the bit remnant out, then it was just a series of larger bits followed by BFH. With the learning curve in place, the second pin went much easier.

Contemplating whether to take the existing door off today. For that job I only need to cut the pins with the Dremel, as the center portion of the hinge stays on the truck and the pins fall out of the center portion. Trying to get motivated to do this after spending quite a bit of time with the new door.

 

[Big T]

Alright, got the door installed:

Here's some shots of the old door showing the rust on the bottom:

Aside from the rust, the old door was cleaner and did not have peeling clear coat. The opener hardware on the replacement door is real worn and I need a screwdriver to open the door at the top. It's as if the rods are stretched and there is no adjustment. So I've removed the opener hardware from the original door and that stuff is good and it's also a different style and adjustable threaded rods. I might have to widen the opening at the top to get the newer stuff in, as it's slightly different up there. The old door had a slightly different opening that was slightly wider in one spot up there. This is all covered by the plastic trim around the window.

The job was a bitch, but I'm glad I got rid of the rusty door. The other existing door does not have rust. This was the only body rust on the vehicle. I bought it in Andover, Illinois a few miles south of Moline. Not bad for a $28 replacement door, $12 plus shipping for some pins and bushings, some dremel cutting wheels and a few broken drill bits.

 

[ABurbAgain]

Thanks for taking the time to post all these pics, very helpful. Thinking of the same project myself. Saw a set of barn doors on Craigslist (mine are rusting out bad on the bottoms) and wondered how difficult to not only get mine off, but the ones from the vehicle getting scrapped as well.