Tailgate patch?

[firefighter736]

The bottom of my tailgate was severely rusted. We cut the lower piece off but I've had a hard time finding someone who can bend a piece for it. Does anybody make this piece? I'd really like to keep the original tailgate on the ol' lady.




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[Turkey]

any sheet metal shop should be able to fab that whole bottom piece or any percentage of it.

[mater63]

i repaired mine using 304 stainless steel a local shop fab it for me

[aerotruk63]

Buy a repro tailgate and cut out the section you want. Best of both worlds.

[oem4me]

Better yet, get a used and dented up tailgate for free and cut the section from it.

[Captainfab]

This is what I would do........

Originally Posted by oem4me

Better yet, get a used and dented up tailgate for free and cut the section from it.

[Blue666]

I could also use a patch panel to fill the same area. Put the correct radius bend in the bottom & bring the two sides up high enough to securely spot weld to the old tailgate.

Using a repop as parts could work but would be expensive compared to just a single panel.

Nearly every used tailgate I have seen are rusted in the same way. I don't have any experience with those good parts from the desert.

[firefighter736]

Originally Posted by Blue666

I could also use a patch panel to fill the same area. Put the correct radius bend in the bottom & bring the two sides up high enough to securely spot weld to the old tailgate.

Using a repop as parts could work but would be expensive compared to just a single panel.

Nearly every used tailgate I have seen are rusted in the same way. I don't have any experience with those good parts from the desert.

Yea, it's especially hard to find non-rusty tailgates here in the mountains of SW VA. Mutilating a repop sounds like a waste, too. Wish there was a shop that could bend it around here but there are none that I know of.
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[Clyde65]

Look for a sheet metal shop or a custom rod shop, they should be able to do what you need for the patch out of some scrap metal and be real cheap.

[mbgmike]

give us the dimensions you want. we can fab anything.

[Blue666]

I'll be home @ the end of Sept. If no one else has submitted dimensions, I'll send them.

Thanks for the assistance.

[oem4me]

I say get a new gate or just put a WTB out for the bottom left corner of a tailgate from a Southwest used parts vendor. It would take just a few minute to hack that corner off an otherwise ruined gate and throw it in a box to ship. Cheap, strong, and dead-on accurate.

[Blue666]

Mike,

Attached is a quick rendering of the dimensions of the patch panel for the bottom of a fleetside tailgate. The tail gate is 66" long.

You could also leave off the angled section & make a U piece 66" long also.

Let me know what this peice would cost. Thanks.

Lightly rusted Tailgates are as rare as hen teeth on the East Coast. We don't have the opportunity to hack a corner off a damaged unit to re use. If we were to order a part from the Rust Free West, the cost is about equal to buying a re-pop.

[firefighter736]

Yea, Mike. If you could quote out the piece blue666 jsut rendered I'd be interested in seeing how much it would be to ship out here.

Blue666- thanks for taking the time to do that!!

[mbgmike]

i'll post some pics after we make one. thanks for the dimensions.

[Blue666]

Mike, Thanks for the offer, look forward to seeing your price. I home last week working on adding the MAR-K kits to remove the chains. My tail gate was in worse shape than I remembered. I shook out about two pounds of rust & some old body filler.

Next Job is the trunnions, can't decide if I should go original, new rubberized or try to change out to modern types.

Blue666

[Blue666]

Originally Posted by mbgmike

i'll post some pics after we make one. thanks for the dimensions.

Mike, Any progress at making this tail gate patch? I'm getting ready to take some R & R & was hoping to do this fix on this trip.

Thanks, Looking forward to your response

Blue666

[rbar]

I gave away a tailgate with no rust recently, but that doesn't help. The local body shop just lengthened a newer dodge bed by 3". They had a shop bend the entire 3" from top to bottom to the same shape. I was really impressed with it, it was a great match, so I would think you could find someone to get it bent up. Something to keep in mind is the aftermarket panels and patches are soo flimsly and dent prone. I would hate to have something so weak on a tailgate. I would trust the MAR-K tailgate as being heavy duty though.