Hello all,

Here's my situation a friend of mine has a parts truck (same color) as mine with perfect doors. My front doors (I have a cc) are a little banged up and I am going to buy the doors and swap them out for mine. But here's the catch I have power doors (locks an windows) and the donor truck is crank windows and man locks. How hard and involved is it to swap the components of the doors out so I will have the donor door with power windows and locks and the donor truck will have my doors with man locks and windows? ( he wants to possibly sell the donor truck as a whole that's why we would put the doors back on it)

 

I'd also like to swap the key lock so it works with my key

 

It's a fairly "involved process", as you'd have to mount the power and wiring within the new doors.

If you have the time, by all means go for it, But you'd probably be looking at 5-6hours per door to install all of the goodies.

And mind you, that's if you're good at wiring.

 

Would I be able to use the same wiring harness in my door in the donor door?

 

Doors are the EXACT same, everything from your power doors will bolt right into the new doors. Only thing that sucks is the wire for the power lock actuators doesn't have a quick connector, its hard wired in. You'll have to cut the wire and resplice it once its in the new doors.

Diesel Rod

 

when I replaced my door hinge pins and bushings I pulled the harnesses out when I removed the doors. It really is no big deal. I sure would not thing the regulator swap would be much more than an hr or two per door. The benefits of the swap sure sound like they out do the draw backs of a little swapping.

 

Awesome info guys! How hard is it to swap the key lock?

I will also have to buy two door trim moldings ( chrome/ black stripe) unless I can somehow salvage what I've got if that's anyway possible

 

lock cylinders is just one clip.no biggie

 

If the two trucks are close to the same model, makes it easier. I put 93 manual doors on my 97. Changing the window hardware wasnt too bad. I had to enlarge the hole in front where the wire harness comes through, and the hole for the lock cylinder. Also there were no holes to mount the power lock cylinders. Check this out before you begin.

 

Why not just leave the wiring on the actuators and pull it through? That's obviously how it's removed/installed on a replacement.

What years are the two trucks? Unlikely any buyer would notice, but the design of the door changed somewhere around '95, with the introduction of a mild crease near the bottom of the front door. Doesn't affect interchangeability, of course, and if anyone looking to buy your buddy's truck even notices, then they have quite the eye for detail.

 

I have a '96 and my buddy's is a '97

 

I just unplugged the wire from the solenoids. no biggie

 

Well I finally got around to getting the doors and today a buddy of mine and myself put the driver door on. A few tips for someone looking to do the same as I was or a conversion
1. Aside from having to drill holes on the door to get the power window motor bolts out we had to grind off 4 rivets holding in the regulator and replace with bolts in the donor door
2. There is a rivit on the rear of the door under the latch for the power lock actuator that had to be ground off and replaced by a bolt.
3 . It's easiest to plug the lock actuator in before fastening it to the door
4. We were able to snake the whole wiring harness out of the original door and intro the donor door without a problem. Just be careful.
5. When putting in the key lock. Put the retaining clip in first to hold the lock than push the rod into the plastic piece rather than trying to hook the rod up first than install the lock

I hope this helps someone else down the road

 

Osu - thanks for posting the update. I'll be doing some door work during my rebuild and I'll have to check back on this thread.

I'll be:
- putting the power doors from my parts truck on the CC (currently manual everything)
- Replacing a grinding solenoid in said passenger door
- (the big one) converting my rear doors to power (making new front door regulators and lock solenoids work).

Wish me luck and thanks for following up on an old thread!

 

not a problem!

also I lubricated the track, and pivoting points on the grulator with open gear and wire rope lubricant.

one other thing as well, when you take the manual window regulator out you will need to collapse it and jiggle it a little because its a little tighter with that than on the power regulator, so keep the crank handy

I believe there are two or three rivits on the manual doors that need grinding,

lastly I forgot to mention that it is much easier to remove the bolt from the track when putting the power lock actuator in (this will make sense when you see it)

I think I may have taken out the one on the left hand side of the door as well when removing the regulator from the manual doors.


Hope this helps