Tailgate panels separating - how do you fix?

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

I’m looking at a rig, and the inner & outer skins of the tailgate have a pretty decent gap in them. The tailgate is dented outward a bit, but not awful.

My other truck, the two panels are separate (not welded) but pretty tight together.

How would one go about closing up this gap, if it’s even possible (or maybe most trucks are like this?)

[Jason Banks]

The spot welds have broken. I'd see if it will clamp back together and either plug weld it back together or if you have access to a spot welder, weld it back together.

[Sheepdip]

See what size the spot welds are and use a slightly over sized bit to drill thru both panels removing the old spot welds.

Clamp it back together completely, not one spot at a time, then each new spot weld clamp a small piece of aluminum flat bar 1/4 " min. to the bottom of the weld area and weld it up. The aluminum will keep your weld from falling thru.
It's actually pretty easy to do.

[RustyPile]

The tailgate on my '71 has the same issue. The previous owner used the truck on his horse farm. he loaded an 1100 lb. round bale of hay into the bed, letting is rest mainly on the open tailgate. This put an outward bow in it.. As there are some nasty kinks in the bottom "roll", l don't think I can save the tailgate so I'm considering the clamp and spot weld process to get the panels back together.

[67swb72klb]

I think clamping this back together is the biggest challenge make sure its cleaned up of any rust and debris that might be in there and a piece of flat stock on the flat part for the clamps.
Slow and easy...

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Thanks for the recommendations everyone. I didn’t look closely to see evidence of spot welds, but will.

I also wondered the feasibility of clamping it hard, and slowly welding down the gap, the grinding it “smooth” for paint.

[Dashman]

Welding straight down the seem has the potential to change the straight edge in two directions, namely the exterior outer flat edge and the thin edge. I'd recommend a closer spacing before welding down the seem.