[Dan in Pasadena]

Thank you guys.

And to Kabwe, I will have to post some pictures of the way the '40 tailgate and the '46 bed side do not work together. Clearly I will have to fab a mod and I'm curious about your opinion of it.

As I said in one of the other THREE(!!) threads now on this board, I recently bought a used Hobart 140 MIG welder and of course I am itching to use it on something beside my fence project at home. I don't know how to weld, but I intend to teach myself on scrap. I welded stick 25 years ago but haven't done any since.

By the weekend I should be able to take some pictures and post them here. Basically, the '40 tailgate has "ears" that the tailgate chains are supposed to go through along with going through the bed side, but they do not align. I either have to add coinciding "ears" onto the bedside, or cut the ears off the tailgate and make slots in the tailgate sheet metal to coincide with the slots on the bedside.

Another option is to do away with the tailgate chains altogether and go with one of the other latch systems I've seen. Mar-K's system coes to mind. Does anyone know of another good (cheap! ha...ha...) system on the market? I will have to get some measurements to see what can be made to work cleanly. I kinda like the idea of keeping the truck MOSTLY stock appearing, but this mod would be done to keep the chains from damaging the (eventual) nice paint job.