Mar-K tailgate latch for the truck

 This Mar-K tailgate latch came with the project when I bought it off Garry. It has been sitting in its box for nearly two years while I got onto other aspects of the project. I have to confess I was a bit chicken about fitting it up and spent a lot of time thinking about it. 

And even though I thought about it for a long time, I still sorta managed to stuff it up. 

This was my experience fitting the latch up.

PS. I think Mar-k may have discontinued this design as their website (correct me if I am wrong) doesn't mention this model at all. They seem to be more focused on the rifle barrel lock and load style that looks a lot neater. Anyway, I have this thing, so I went ahead and fitted it up 

Good friend Rob began the work on the tailgate initially, cutting the big square section out on the tailgate itself in readiness for the latch. 

Here we have the latch basically mounted to the side of the tub. The tub has a  tubular section on it that enables the drilling of this hole without showing through. More on that in a minute

Another angle of the latch. Sits neat. Wondering what is gonna stop that thing from banging around.

Maybe I was doing it wrong. The instructions said put the nut on the bolt about an inch up the thread, then put a washer there and then a piece of scrap steel with the correct size hole drilled and then put that flanged stud thing on the end of the bolt and then hold the whole deal together with an allen key holding the bolt while you hold the scrap metal and wind the nut off with a spanner. It is possible to do, but you really need two people I think. Anyway, I must have done it wrong, because I damned near stripped the thread of the bolt unwinding it. It was hard as hell to do.

The instructions suggest widening the hole with a file. Here I am, nailing it!

According to the instructions, this is how you are supposed to wind the flange nut off, by somehow twisting it and kind of crushing it into the hole.

I did this according to instructions, but was only partly successful. On one side the flange didn't sit well and started. This was not good because it had locked itself into the tub, rendering the tightening of the bolt that eventually goes in there impossible. 

The other one tightened up well, but the flange nut thing somehow twisted inside the channel and I was not able to get the bolt to thread up without stripping it.

A success? Hardly, but the good news is the latches close and I didn't drill in the wrong spot. 

There has to be a better solution than this fit a nut up. Maybe one of those nutsert tools is the go, and the more I think about it, it might be a worthwhile investment.