Guys and gals. just let me refresh your memory a little as I show you what we are dealing with here.
The tailgate was the only part of the tub that was salvageable according to the previous owner and that in itself is debatabe as to whether it was worth saving in any case. Well, since I paid through the nose for this truck, I have to salvage some money out of the deal, and from what I can tell I have two options:
Fix it or spend about $1500 on a new tailgate with Ford lettering. (They are much cheaper without the lettering and if this project goes belly up, I might just buy the blank one and be done with it. I think they are around $900)
Still, in anyone's language, that is a lot of money. My friend Rob took the tailgate under his wing to have a crack at repairing it, and he did a sensational job of cleaning it up. However, and meaning no disrespect, he welded in a piece of pipe that followed the contours of the bend in the tailgate.
This is after Rob started cleaning up the old tailgate. Notice at this stage the top of the tailgate is missing its round bar at the top. I can only assume the previous owner had taken it out to try and straighten it before welding up a new bar.
This picture shows where the top latch is going to be mounted. Rob has already cut the area away to make a space for it.
This is the only picture I have of the tailgate before it arrived. I was so disgusted with it, I put it aside ready for tossing in the bin. The front stone guard cowl thing beside it ended up getting tossed as it was total garbage. Dinted and rusted through in many places. I am all for trying to salvage original metal, but not when it costs more time and effort than it is worth.
Rob came over one day and saw the tailgate and asked me what was I gonna do with it, and I just shrugged as I had no idea. Anyway, he offered to take it home and see if he could work some magic on it.
Anyway, when the tub turned up, six month later. I asked Rob to bring the tailgate back for a measure up.
This was the situation when it arrived.
The effort that Rob went to to match the curve of the tailgate is very commendable. However, it's not supposed to have a curve in it. A curse, yes. A curve....um, no.
The only thing left to do was to either fix it or toss it and get a new one. I didn't want to waste Rob's effort. but needed to get this thing straight. Here is what I have done so far:
Cut away the old bent pipe. Whipped down to Bunnings and bought some gal pipe. It's a touch smaller than the previous piece but heavier. Here you can see it is clamped heavily with a piece of rhs above and below using several clamps. The clamps clear the pipe, so I didn't have to resort to my other idea of drilling holes into the rhs and through the tailgate into the bottom piece and using threaded rod to wind the rhs pieces together. I used that wood clamp to lock the pipe into the v shape left when I cut the old pipe out.
Before I weld it up, I will have to take that wood clamp away and clean up that area as it is quite rusty before welding in the new pipe.
Waving the Aussie flag! And why not :)
More to come!
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