My Love for after market parts

[Richard Dobson]

I installed a new Tri Plus Tail Gate (fleetside) onto my bed. I made bushings from delrin (tough plastic) to fill the gap between the pivot trunion and the stamped recess in the tailgate and put them on the pivot trunions after removing the metal dish like ones that were swaged in. The bushings are 1-5/8" in dia. with a .830 dia x 1/8" high boss that will fit in the hole in the trunion where the metal dish ones were. I drilled and tapped the bushings 3/8-16 unc thru and used button head screws to mount them. This worked great as far as pivoting the tailgate. After all this when I closed the tailgate the darn thing hit at the right top and left a 1/2" gap on the left. I just love this aftermarket tooling. Anyone have a origingal tailgate? Heck I just paid $$$$$$$ for this aftermarket one with Chevrolet stamped in it.