Frenching Tailgate Mods

[butchp]

Iornworks can we see more pictures of your bed to see what you did on the black truck.

[mr48chev]

That is really coming out slick Hotrod1 I can see a lot of hours in it not only in the actual metal work but in the planning as it looks very well planned out.

[LOW A D]

Originally Posted by Ironworks

I don't mind you can advertise all you want.... HAHA Thanks



We addressed this same issue on the 48 truck we are working on right now. We have gone to crazy efforts to not make a slicked and smoothed mini truck out of the 48 we are doing. We actually put lots of crap and trim and gadgets back on the truck but tried to do it tastefully. Here are some pics of what we did.



We made the tailgate function without any chains of straps. We also built little flip handles to operate the tailgate. We added an edge bead to the stack pocket and rounded the bottoms. We wanted to still look like and old truck but be the slickest old truck possible.

That is a slick looking tailgate setup. I have never liked the stock tailgate/ stake pocket area on the stock AD trucks. Love how you finished off the stake pockets! Hope you don't mind if I steal some of your ideas on my truck.

[hotrod1]

Originally Posted by LOW A D

That is a slick looking tailgate setup. I have never liked the stock tailgate/ stake pocket area on the stock AD trucks. Love how you finished off the stake pockets! Hope you don't mind if I steal some of your ideas on my truck.

Go ahead, take it and make it better!

[LOW A D]

Originally Posted by Speedbumpauto

Hey Hotrod, Here are a few pics of the roll pan/bumpers and brackets. I didn't take lots because I wasn't sure how it would turn out. The bumper halves are made of 2x3 .120 wall tubing with one long side cut off on a bias so it kind of looks like it's frenched. I left only the long outside piece to form the radius at the corner to cover/extend the stake pocket. When I got that where I wanted it, I cut pieces and filled in the top and bottom. You can see where I welded in two pieces of round tubing with threaded ends to serve as mounting brackets. The LED tail lights are very directional so I had to build up the mounting spots to counteract the curve in the pan. I ruined one pan trying to cut and weld a frenched pocket(too much heat/warp) so my solution was to put some 1/4 x 1 1/2 flat stock on an angle plate and mill it to the proper angle and plug weld it to the pan and keep it straight. You can see the result of what I did in one pic and the finished result after my body and paint guy helped countour my fab work. You can also see the oval holes I cut for the bumper brackets to go through the pan. On the frame pic you can see the frame brackets I welded to the frame to mount the bumpers. The oval holes and the use of washers as spacers allow me to adjust the bumpers during install. Then you see the finished product after back from the chrome guy. It's all pretty simple, just took me quite a bit of thinking, cutting, welding and grinding. I'm sorry I didn't take more pics, but when I started I was pretty sure I couldn't duplicate what my minds eye saw and I didn't want to be reminded of it.

Speedbumpauto, what is the gas tank that you are using in your truck? You have some very nice ideas on your build.

[vht]

Ironworks, that AD bed looks terrible. Take it off and send it to me, I'll get rid of it for you. Honestly, that is the slickest thing I ever seen. You didn't really take away from the stock look yet you improved the looks a 100%. That is some awesome work there.

[hotrod1]

Here is another one. A bit more conservative.