Frenching Tailgate Mods

[hotrod1]

How come there are not more people that french the tailgate. That lip, like in the picture (with arrows), has always seemed like an afterthought. How about pushing the tailgate in and get rid of it? What am I missing? Is it just up to the persons taste, would it not look good, or just to much work?

[mr48chev]

That's going to become one of those one step leads to another projects.
you will have to start by shortening the bed floor that much at the back to move the tailgate forward and after you cut the piece off behind the uprights there is a lot of welding that has to be done right.
Plus on that one I believe you are going to have to figure out how to attach the tailgate hinges at the bottom as the bolts now go through that extension. It's not quite a take the sawsall to it and weld it back up and be done with it deal.

[OKGMC4]

I really like the way they did it on the Ironworks Speed and Custom 57 chevy. After awhile it sounds like I'm advertising for them but they do SUCH good work. If you look at it for awhile you'll realize there was a ton of fab work to get this right. Of course there's the custom rear bumper and look how the rear window has been relocated, etc. As much as I'd like to do that I'm close enough to paint and tired enough of my welder that I'm going to leave mine alone...

[hotrod1]

Yeah, those guys really set the bar high on that one. Unbelievable work.

[Atomsplitter]

Just remove and relocate the rear stake pocket so it fills that space and is flush with the back of the bed sides. You'll have to change the way the back of it attaches instead of the spot welds and you'll also need to fill the rear stake pocket holes!

[swizzlestick]

^ same thing I thought right away. looks like moving the stake pocket would be the way to go. did we just start a trend!?

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

That's going to become one of those one step leads to another projects.
you will have to start by shortening the bed floor that much at the back to move the tailgate forward and after you cut the piece off behind the uprights there is a lot of welding that has to be done right.
Plus on that one I believe you are going to have to figure out how to attach the tailgate hinges at the bottom as the bolts now go through that extension. It's not quite a take the sawsall to it and weld it back up and be done with it deal.

If I were going to do it I would get another cross sill and and modify that one for two reasons

1.you can drive your truck until the part is complete. Like mr48 said one thing will lead to another. It may take awhile to figure out the hinges

2. If something goes wrong or you change your mind. you are not pressed to find another part. Just my 2cents.

[mr48chev]

I'm the king of One bright idea leads to three months of extra work and moving the tailgate forward looks to be one of those unending projects even though it sure looks great on the black truck in the photos above.

Are you going to have the tailgate swing down or be solidly mounted? This might be a place where having the tailgate hinged to swing out would work to advantage. Again more work but that would eliminate the need for an apparatus to hold the tailgate up when it was in the down position.

[Ironworks]

Originally Posted by OKGMC4

I really like the way they did it on the Ironworks Speed and Custom 57 chevy. After awhile it sounds like I'm advertising for them but they do SUCH good work. If you look at it for awhile you'll realize there was a ton of fab work to get this right. Of course there's the custom rear bumper and look how the rear window has been relocated, etc. As much as I'd like to do that I'm close enough to paint and tired enough of my welder that I'm going to leave mine alone...

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.

[mknittle]

Nice work Ironworks,
I agree with the slick and smooth I am doing the same with mine trying not to lose the nostalgia aspect.

I like the tailgate latches! did you use a detent or do the latches cam over? I also like the bottoms of the stake pockets did you make them too?

[hotrod1]

ironworks:

You do have a good point. It not always what you can to to improve the idea. Sometimes you have to let it go to nostalgia.

I do like your changes. Still maintains the overall look.

[Ironworks]

Originally Posted by hotrod1

ironworks:

You do have a good point. It not always what you can to to improve the idea. Sometimes you have to let it go to nostalgia.

I do like your changes. Still maintains the overall look.

And there is a style for every person. Some guys like that look and some guys like something totally 100% stock

[hotrod1]

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.

Hey Ironworks (Roger?) :

How did you guys do the black 57 tailgate? It looks different though cant really see too much painted black in pictures. Is the opening seam on the side? Do you have any build pictures of the bed/tailgate?

Appreciate the information.

[msaintg]

Hotrod1, I too thought that lip looked bad and tried to move my stake pockets to get rid of it. Then I realized staying with the original hinge (for the nostalgia of it) required some lip to remain. I also realized I still wanted the ‘gap’ to be only visible from the sides. If you do anything else with the tailgate, it will have the opening gap visible to the rear. I had one other issue, I think the stock tailgate is ugly and traps water where it is spot welded and will rust there. Because my tailgate is now rounded on the outside, I couldn’t bring the sheet metal up close to it along the bottom. The radius of the bumper kind of hides that though. By slanting the tailgate forward 2” at the top, it gives it a little more style and eliminates that ugly lip at the top.
Mike

[Ironworks]

Originally Posted by hotrod1

Hey Ironworks (Roger?) :

How did you guys do the black 57 tailgate? It looks different though cant really see too much painted black in pictures. Is the opening seam on the side? Do you have any build pictures of the bed/tailgate?

Appreciate the information.

The Black 57 was done the same way as the 48. Just the stack pockets were deleted on the 57 so it looks different.

I cannot find any pics of that, Sorry.

Rodger

[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.

[hotrod1]

Speedbump:

Thanks so much for the pictures. They are perfect. I really looks like you did a lot of work to those bumper to match the curve of the roll pan. How much reveal to you think the top of the bumpers have, 1/4 or 1/2 inch?

Thanks again.

[mr48chev]

Please, please let me win the big jackpot so I can just drop ship a new box at Ironworks and have them do their thing on it.

Now I've got to figure out how to make the bedsides I have with the rounded corners on the stake pockets work and not fall crack out where they are attached to the rear sill as that bed in the previous posts looks every bit as good what I had hoped mine would look when I did it in 1981/82. Here goes that bunch more hours of work thing again.

Ironworks I don't know how I missed the photos of that 48 for 16 months but it shows what I have been preaching for years in that a guy should make modifications that are actually improvements to the original design and not just to add to the list of modifications for the show point list. Those little things like the trick with the windows that somehow make a stock truck of the same model parked beside it look like it has something you can't figure out wrong with it. The more I look the more I find to like.

[Speedbumpauto]

The top, including the radius is 3/8" and the bottom is 1 1/2". Those numbers aren't hard numbers but I wanted the top reveal to be pretty small as it pulls off the "frenched" look better, IMO. There was a lot of cut, grind and cardboard involved but remember, I'd already ruined one roll pan and even though I LIKE Mar-K ...........

[OKGMC4]

Speedbump...DANG!! That looks awesome. I wished I had thought of it first. At one time I even considered putting a 56 Furd bumper on mine because I think the square shape fits better than that clunky glued on looking bumper that GM used, but ended up making a roll pan instead.

[LDO]

Msaintg,
How did you set up the cables and which kind did you use?
Posted via Mobile Device

[msaintg]

I made the tailgate with a half inch gap between the tailgate and the bed side. The cable is from an S10 Blazer. You can kinda see it in this pic, the cable justs folds into a loop when closed.

[Speedbumpauto]

OKGMC4, Believe it or not, it was a 56 Ford truck I saw at a car show that gave me the minds eye picture of what I wanted to try. I always thought the rear bumper and tail lights looked like "glue ons" because the designer had a deadline to meet.

[McCoyAZ]

Originally Posted by msaintg

I made the tailgate with a half inch gap between the tailgate and the bed side. The cable is from an S10 Blazer. You can kinda see it in this pic, the cable justs folds into a loop when closed.

What fuel door are you using on this build?

[hotrod1]

Ok, We have been busy, but this is the next step.

We have always felt like the rear of these trucks, mainly the tailgate attachment to the bed, was an after thought from GM. It looks like they had tailgates from another project that were too big, and they figured a way to plaster it on the back of their bed. Well, we just could not take it any longer. When having a discussion with Bam, I mentioned something and he said that this would be a lot of work to french the tailgate. We did not think that it would be too bad and not too much work. Bam was right. It was way more work than we thought, and there were so many things that needed consideration than we ever dreamed of. Anyways, here is the somewhat finished product. One issue was the bumper/roll pan idea. The stock bumper looks rather big and out of proportion (personal taste) and a roll pan looked like it was not right either. We looked at SpeedbumpAutos truck, and really liked it, so we took his idea and made it our own (thanks speedbump). Here are the pics, and I know that most dont like the tailgate, but it fits the style build. By the way, the holes in the crossmember below the bed (one on each side) are for some small back-up lights.