fastED

Are you going to be working in 'glass, or steel? Will you (maybe) cut the hatch in two verticaly, and work the two halves into "doors?" I wonder if Surburban rear door hinges could be made to work for you. Dor latches and other hardware might be useable, too.
Since you are going to do this, you should start a file, both electronic, and hard-copy, so the job can be done again, by someone else. If it works out as good as it's promise, you, or someone else might want to manufacture a "kit" for this mod. Maybe even two- Front, and Rear. GM might even be interested. You certainly have my attention, I assure you. Back to my first question- 'glass, or steel?

jeffs396

These mods are all being done in steel. If you look in the photo gallery under my username, you'll see the pics I have posted so far. More to follow soon. I have taken the difficult route & decided to go with hidden hinges on the barn doors. I think it will be worth it in the long run, but very limited space inside the quarter panel corners even after shaving the lights. Could be done much easier with external hinges, that's how I have the doors mounted now to facilitate fabrication of the hidden mechanisms. I'm trying to use the full articulating hinges from the new body style extended cab GM pickups. Very large HD pieces for this application, but will allow doors to open way past 90 degrees. Will be grafting current GM van door parts to split HHR liftgate to form new doors. As for a kit of any sort, I don't think anyone would want to go to all of this effort for no gain in utility, it's just the old style look I'm going for.

SIRESMERPH

go jeff! go jeff! go jeff!