Aftermarket Tailgate (crappy fit)

[Richard Dobson]

I had the exact opposite happen to my 71 fleetside. I bought a lettered tailgate with about the same fit-up. It returned it to the vendor and got a plain one, I was slightly warped so it mounted it to the bed with only one hinge. I stood on the un-hinged side and and got the tailgate straight with applying my weight by slightly jumping up and down. It fits fine now. I it very strange that I had the same fit-up problem almost exactly, but the non-lettered gate is OK. Splane that.

[SactoJim]

SB406 - believe me, I'm all about fixing it instead of replacing if it makes sense. The picture doesn't show the damage real well and I do have a stud gun to pull dents. The bottom is bowed in and the top is pretty tweaked as well and I could spend hours pulling on it only to get it close enough to then spread a ton of filler on it and do some "sculpting" because of all the different raised and recessed areas. Like I said...I'm all about trading my time for money, but I draw the line!