1967 GMC tailgate adventure with pics

[arcticman]

The adventure started on Thursday morning. There I was having my morning breakfast and coffee.
A few times a week, if I have time I like to look at several web sites and forums for parts to different vehicles I own and am restoring. One of those vehicles is a very well kept original low milage 67 K1500 wideside short bed. Like many trucks from this era they were put to work doing what they were built for and so the loading and unlaoding of unsecured cargo has taking its toll on the tailgate. My craft over the past 38 years as a body fender man told me I could restore the original tailgate but it would be very time consuming. So over the past 2 year I have been searching (unsuccessfully)for a clean tailgate.
Now I sure dont claim to know everything about the 67-72 GM truck series but what i do know is that 1967 trucks have a lot of 1 year only parts and the 67 GMC small letter tailgate is one of those. Its my understanding this gate is not reproduced aftermarket.So it was much to my suprise and excitement when I found myself staring at a San Diego craigslist add.stating "67-72 fleetside tailgate $350.00 very clean with nice pictures. Could it be ture? Was I actually looking at an original 1967 GMC tailgate taken off and stored shortly after it was purchased. My first thought was this must be a scam or someone did a nice restore and is passing it off as a takeoff gate. As I reviewed and scrutinized the photos it sure appeared to be original paint but come on no one can store a gate for that long and not scratch the paint right? I noticed that the add had been listed a day ago. Well theres no way this thing is still availabe at this price was my next thought along with "its to good to be true must be a scam." Additionally the add stated local pick up only not interested in shipping.
What chance do I have I live in Alaska and we all know what the down side can be when dealing with craigslist for both parties.
Well there was no phone contact listed just an email response thru craigslist so I shot off a quick email and headed off to work not really execpting a response.Much to my suprise I recieved a quick response stating the gate was still for sale, which honestly only made me more skeptical. Ok now the balls back in my court. I need to proceed with questions that will help me determine who Im dealing with all the while not wanting to tip my hand as to how much I want what he is selling. I decide that if this was the real deal I better not screw around to much and loose it so I decided to let it all out.
ME: " Im interested in purchasing this tailgate. I live in Alaska. I know you state that your wanting to sell it locally but I have a friend that lives there and he could pick it up. Will that work?
SELLER: OK I can meet your friend at a local McDonalds but my schedule is not open until Sunday morning or evening.
My problem now? I only know 1 person that lives in San Diego. We knew each other 25 years ago, we dont talk at all but are Facebook freinds and he wouldn't know what he was looking even if he did agree to purchase it with his money and ill pay you back.Not a good plan
OK Im out of options. my response back to the seller was:
ME: Can we exchange cell numbers so that we can talk or text over the phone?
SELLER: yes here is my cell #
So here I am thinking that surely this guy by now has a long list of interested buyers. Heck he's probably got a bidding war going at a sale price of 350.00 When this guy hears my next request he's going to know for sure he's dealing with one of those "Craigslist nut jobs" and disconnect for sure and all will be lost. Oh well here goes.
ME:I live in Alaska. I can fly down tomorrow to look at the gate. If its what you say it is and all is good i will buy it from you and fly back with it under my arm? Oh ya and can you take the add down and promise not to sell it before i get there?
Seller: OK.
Can you say: "ROAD TRIP!" kind of? just short of 5000 air miles and 250 road miles LAX to SanDiego round trip and Im back in Alaska with the gate in under 24 hours.
I must state my wife works for an airline so I can fly on the cheep. Im all in at 600.00 I think I did good and feel blessed on the score. Here are the Pictures. what are your thoughts?

[too much stuff]

Nice gate and great adventure. 67-68 gmc gates looked the same. Congrats!

[arcticman]

Thanks it was fun, my understanding the 67 was a one year only with small letter GMC and raised hump around outer edge on back side.

[chewychevy67]

Originally Posted by arcticman

Thanks it was fun, my understanding the 67 was a one year only with small letter GMC and raised hump around outer edge on back side.

You are correct. 68 had a small fleet spot in the bump on each side. I'm a little jealous... Of the trip and the gate. Nice score.

[KQQL IT]

Great adventure. I found mine nearby and isn't nearly as nice.

[special-K]

That was a great tailgate adventure. I see them go for more than your total cost. The things we'll do for the right parts...

I had to check and see if my new take off light blue '67 tailgate was still here! Mine only has one difference. The small letter design allowed enough room for the tilted frenched-in tag Why are you looking at me like that? Clubs? Really? Seeya!

Originally Posted by too much stuff

Nice gate and great adventure. 67-68 gmc gates looked the same. Congrats!

Originally Posted by arcticman

Thanks it was fun, my understanding the 67 was a one year only with small letter GMC and raised hump around outer edge on back side.

You are both right or both wrong. While there are minor differences between 67 & 68 GMC tailgates, the small letters were not only '67. Both years look the same, but there are minor differences to the informed few. They don't look the same on the inner side of the tailgate.

[WestButteTruck]

I would say that was worth the trip! Hard to find gate!

[notsolo]

I hope you put a couple bucks on the power ball, while your at it....Nice score, great story.

[Fbks_Cruiser]

Nice find! Good for you! I’ve been watching your progress on this build since I saw that truck when it came up on Craig’s. I would have loved to have gotten it but didn’t have the cash at the time. Glad to see it went to a good home.

[bill3rail]

Good deal!

[68bowtie]

You’re the man. Very well done!!

[leddzepp]

Wow, be glad I didn’t go check it out for you, I would have kept it

Glad you got what you needed for your truck!

[Husker]

Wow cool story nice gate.
Ron

[Bob B.]

Nice story! BTW, I was told years ago that the 'small letter' tailgate was only used for the first few months of '67 production, and sometime during the model year the 'large letter' '68-up tailgate was phased in. Anyone know for sure?

[72 tigger]

Great story- glad you got it!

[too much stuff]

Originally Posted by arcticman

Thanks it was fun, my understanding the 67 was a one year only with small letter GMC and raised hump around outer edge on back side.

Other than a minor difference on the inside of the gate, the 67-68 gates looked the same from the outside.

Originally Posted by Bob B.

Nice story! BTW, I was told years ago that the 'small letter' tailgate was only used for the first few months of '67 production, and sometime during the model year the 'large letter' '68-up tailgate was phased in. Anyone know for sure?

67-68 gates looked the same from the outside. 69 went to the large letter gate.

[morepwr]

You rule! That is a fantastic adventure to get what you needed!

[CG]

And now I know when I sold my 67 very nice (not take off nice) gate for a very reasonable price I had a buyer drive a very long ways (another state) to come get it.

[Already Gone]

Just love these kind of stories and this reminds me of me in the 80's when I was restoring my Panther Pink 1970 Dodge Charger R/T and there weren't that many resto parts available so over the course of the 6 year resto I bought 3 other Chargers and swapped parts I need then resold the cars.

[Eric Johnson]

Nice adventure. Nice gate! I looked at my late build 1967 GMCs tailgate. I think it is small too

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Eric Johnson

Nice adventure. Nice gate! I looked at my late build 1967 GMCs tailgate. I think it is small too

Yep, that's the small letters. It looks nice.

[sick472]

I would have converted my Chevy build to a GMC if I had that tailgate. Very Nice!

[chewychevy67]

I wonder if they changed to big letter gates because of the big windows in 68 up? The small letter and small back window just go perfect together.

[arcticman]

Thats a very good observation. From a styling standpoint I could totally see the design team looking at it that way.

[special-K]

If the small letter vs large letter tailgates have anything to do with the size of the window it would be the opposite, like they went to large letters to go better with the large window. There were the optional large windows in '67 to get an idea of what the small letters looked like with them. Then they had all of '68 to view all Widesides with small letters.

Day-1 in '69 they were all large letters, so the designing preceded this change long before. The large letters were probably one of the pre-production proposed designs. It could be that a phase-in was intended all along, same as the big window.