Rear-Ended

[Frizzle Fry]

Stopped at a stop sign in the 64 the other day and all of the sudden WHAM!!! A little Suzuki's front end totally munched in and my tailgate bent in a bit (had no bumper). Everyone is OK, no injuries. She said her brakes went out...

Here's my question: I know the insurance co./body shop is going to try to give me a repop tailgate. Are they as poor for the 60-66 as they are for the 67-72? What are my chances of getting them to pony up for a NOS tailgate if I can find one?

[markeb01]

You also might consider/insist on a Mar-K tailgate (link below). I haven't seen one in real life but they claim it is made in Oklahoma and an exact GM duplicate.

http://www.mar-k.com/catalog/catalog...=19611961CS-80

[Frizzle Fry]

Great advice. Thanks!

[jonzcustomshop]

make sure on the tailgate that the letters are the same.
I have seen one repop that is available and the letters are small like on a stepside..
however mar-k does do good stuff, if thier gate has the right kind of letters, I would go for that.
2 years ago at the portland swap meet I saw 6 different early take off mint tailgates that ranged from 250-650 in price.
I think that is cheaper than any damage she would have done to an other new car on the road..
youre talking at leat 500 to 1000 to repaint a modern plastic bumper and replace some taillights.

I have a friend in santa barbara that might still have a mint early take off that he wanted 500 for(ithink), if you need to let me know , and I will try to get ahold of him.

[ol Curt]

Jason had a sweet tailgate from Mar K that has a hidden latch. If you catch the right adjuster. That is exactly the kind of thing I fear when I get mine done. Even if it is a daily driver, I have spent a lot of time working on it.

What do all of you do for insurance?

[Frizzle Fry]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

make sure on the tailgate that the letters are the same.
I have seen one repop that is available and the letters are small like on a stepside..
however mar-k does do good stuff, if thier gate has the right kind of letters, I would go for that.
2 years ago at the portland swap meet I saw 6 different early take off mint tailgates that ranged from 250-650 in price.
I think that is cheaper than any damage she would have done to an other new car on the road..
youre talking at leat 500 to 1000 to repaint a modern plastic bumper and replace some taillights.

I have a friend in santa barbara that might still have a mint early take off that he wanted 500 for(ithink), if you need to let me know , and I will try to get ahold of him.

The Mar-K ones are either blank or have the small letters according to their site. I thought the stepside letters on a fleet might be kinda unique actually.

Originally Posted by ol Curt

Jason had a sweet tailgate from Mar K that has a hidden latch. If you catch the right adjuster. That is exactly the kind of thing I fear when I get mine done. Even if it is a daily driver, I have spent a lot of time working on it.

What do all of you do for insurance?

I saw those hidden hitch gates. Hopefully I can get one.

I have my Sunbeam and Tahoe insured for specific values. My insurance company will insure a vehicle for whatever value you want, as long as you are willing to pay the premium. The 64 just has liability right now.

[jonzcustomshop]

there was a pic of one once, but I don't think I saved it., since then I found some pics of argentinian gates, and they reminded me of the repop,except I think the leters are more spread out.

[Frizzle Fry]

This is what it looks like:

[Frizzle Fry]

Dropped it off at the body shop today. I gave them print-outs of the Mar-K gates and rear sill. I ask them to give me my old gate if they do replace it (they might fix it). That way I can cut out the correct letters and weld them in to the new one. I'll keep you posted.

On a side note; they gave me a new Malibu loaner and it's really not a bad car. Far nicer than the ones I used to get as rentals.

[MAR-Ktech]

Sorry to hear your nice truck was damaged.

One more thing you probably noticed about our repo tailgate, the back side is smooth except for the letters. Originals had quite a large rectangular form embossed toward the cab, and a smaller rectangular form that just fit in the flat area visible from the rear. Then the original letters were embossed toward the cab. Our repo has the letters only and they are embossed toward the rear, like the stepsides.

GM approved this design for the tailgates and they are official GM restoration parts.

Mar-Ktech

PS, I forgot to mention the instructions are on line http://www.mar-k.com/58-66gmfleettgwhandle.pdf which show several close up pictures. The instruction shows a GMC fleet tailgate, but the procedure is the same.

[Frizzle Fry]

Thanks Mar-Ktech. I have purchased products from Mar-K before and have been nothing but impressed with the quality and service. I'm really hoping the adjuster/shop will go with Mar-K parts.

So was there a licensing issue with the correct fleetside lettering or is it simply a tooling cost barrier?

[MAR-Ktech]

No licensing issues with the original type embossing/letters. We had already built the step tooling and since it is not an original replacement tailgate, we were pleased that GM approved the design. It does not look bad or out of proportion to the tailgate. Recent years original GM tailgates have the trademark a lot smaller than the 58-66 series so this looks similar.

Mar-Ktech