Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

I am a proud owner of a 1972 Suburban with a now transplanted 502 700R4. It is Blue and White and is currently going under a slight restoration. The one thing I have a problem with is the steel lift door. It is so rotted out that I cannot repair it. It is so full of rust on the bottom that when I shut the door, rust falls out on the floor inside the truck. Even the slide locks on the side have been removed and someone before me welded on a bracket to install a gas charged lift rod as the other bolts are broken in the frame. SAD

I have tried to find a replacement, but LMC, and other places carry everything else except the upper door. I called every place known to google for parts in the hot south to find another one, but they are already gone and have been for 20+ years.

So, I am taking the "leap" and having them made. I have been talking to a fiberglass production company and they have my door. They looked it over and stated it is do-able. The cost to me is about $500 each plus $1800 for the mold they have to make.

So here is the deal.... if you are interested in the upper door for the suburban made in NON RUSTABLE fiberglass, I will place an order for 10 (or more) if people are interested.

The cost will be $600 each since this will also pay for the mold but I still have to pay the other $800 out of my pocket for the mold. A 50% down will be needed to offset this cost and when they are done, the balance to be paid before delivery.

If you are interested, PLEASE let me know. I am a business owner and know it takes money to make something that doesn't exist.

Here is my contact information:

Steve Stabler
GBE Mandrel Bending Inc.
15600 SE For Mor Court
Suite B
Clackamas, Oregon 97015
503.344.4149
gbemandrel@gmail.com
www.gbemandrel.com

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

I would love to jump in on this but there are concerns, obviously strength being number 1. will there be any inserted alloy of any kind? (hinge-plates, window gasket, supports, grab-handle)

Pros:

Lighter

Will not rust

Thank you, seriously, I hope this can come to fruition.

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

This has been done before. And that thread from a few years back might be locked and gone.

I suggest being careful not to hint at selling without a proper account on this site. That's what happened the last time. Prototypes were made, price set and boom. The original fabricator got upset and never made another hatch.

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

I am looking into the finalization of this and my thought was to have metal threaded plates where they are needed so the original factory bolts can be put into the right places and everything bolts up perfectly. I hate buying stuff that you spend more time fixing than actually using....

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

Hey Big Dave, the posted thread you talked about is closed as you thought. I had a guy who was on a Buick forum and he promised a specific manifold. When he took every ones money, he said he got tired of everyone *****ing at him, so he closed his account and kept the money. Now that is WRONG. So I understand where you may be coming from. Some people come on here looking to help out others (90+%) but others are just out to get any one they can find. That is why I left ALL of my contact information. This way people know I am a legit business instead of a guy in his underware sitting in front of a monitor trying to find the guys out there with money to give him.

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

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First off you will have to be at least a premium member to sell or solicit them on the board. If it goes over and you sell them on here as a business you may have to upgrade your membership to a "High Octane" membership. If you click on the word "Subscribe" in the menu bar at the top of the page it will list the different membership options. I will monitor the thread and see what you choose to do. If you choose not to become a "Premium" member you will have to remove the links to your business in your signature and I will have to edit the thread to remove the solicitation. This requirement is also to protect the potential purchasers.

The reason the other thread was taken down was because the poster refused to become a paying member, That simple....

Good luck with your venture.

LockDoc, Moderator

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

I met the guy that was going to make them before, and even took him a donar hatch to make the mold.
He didn't go thru the proper channels to sell the hatches and then got mad when he was told he needed to.
He claims he had the molds made, and offered to sell them to me, but I don't know what finally happened to them.
Its hard for people to trust a group by like this because so many people have ripped of people in the past.
However, I think there is a need for a good replacement hatch and if you make some, you should have no trouble selling them.

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

interested, sending pm..

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

Thanks for the information. So, if i were to make these... then I have to have them made first, then try to sell them? That sounds like the better idea on the people on this site, but of course the price would have to go up since I would have over $7000 invested in 10 of these to sell....

Any better ideas? sounds a little confusing and/or prohibitive on my end...

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

Ahhh - the mythical rust free Lift Gate. Created with an alloy known as Unobtainium.

I'm currently having one good lift made from two decent donors...but if I had had a $6-$700 option vs spending the amount it is going to take to make that one good lift I would have jumped all over it. - With one condition - This sounds great, but I can say I would not have bought one without there being an extensively tested and worked over proof of concept or a final product that had the bugs already worked out of it.

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

No, if you become a premium member then you can continue to gauge interest with this thread and see how many members are serious about wanting one. If you choose not to become a Premium member you will have to delete your contact information from your signature. Not sure if the Administrators would consider this a group buy but if they do group buys are not allowed on the board. That would be their call. I don't know how many people would be interested in placing a deposit before production starts. You would probably need to work this out with the Administrators ahead of time.... If I were you I would PM Josh or Liz and ask them.

LockDoc

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

Or as Leon says, become member and buy a used replacement hatch from another member off this site, like I did for $250 + shipping ... when they come up.

my $.02

Re: Suburban Rear Lift Door Being Made!
 

You got a deal. I haven't seen a decent one come up that cheap. They all seem to be rustier than mine and I have many hours of repair time trying to weld up all the holes and replace metal where I could. There's a lot of curved metal on the inside half that is difficult for me to reproduce with my modest skill and tools.

I don't see a problem with a fiberglass hatch. I seem to remember the hatch on my Jimmy was made of fiberglass. Heck, I am building a Factory 5 Roadster and the doors, hood and boot intentionally don't fit and they expect the builder to trim them to size.

I'd be happy if someone would stamp a inside lower section patch panel. It's about the size of a rocker panel.

Mr Buick, I wouldn't give up the quest but you have to go through the channels.