Time for disecting the wagons tail gate. the outer skin looked fairly decent for 55 year old metal, a couple pin holes showing.... The major issue with these tail gates, due to how they lean forward, any water collecting inside lays in the inner panel.... .......as you can see from the rear.... We laid out the proposed cut lines, used holes in the inside corners to add a radius, and made some sparks... The tailgate has some internal stiffeners to help support the loading and unloading, and they have suffered some damage as well.... Since they're just spot welded in, and it will be easier to weld in newly fabricated ones than attempt repairs of the rusty ones in place...... We'll need to unfold some flanges to remove the rest of the inner skin....
Probably one of the biggest challenges in taking things apart for repairs is doing so without inflicting more damage. I had seen a recent post on pliers used to remove door skins, and thought they would come in handy here on the bottom of the tailgate. This is why you never throw away Vice grips that have the worn off teeth that have just lost their bite. The lower jaw is modified to receive the edge of the door skin... Then a suitable "blade" is found.... Some welding and grinding, and we have a new body tool..... Starting at the corner, a diagonal slice is made in the inner panel so it will remove easier... ....and the tool is used to gently pry up on the flange of the tailgate skin..... Spot welds were removed with a burr grinder, in an attempt to keep the damage (and hole diameter) to the skin flange at a minimum. Continuing: Next we'll work on making replacements for these structural members:
This is where I finished up today, fixing one of the rather "rotted" parts that came out of the tailgate. This actually serves as a bolting plate for the tailgate hinge, so it definitely is in line for replacement. Started with a piece of 16 gauge CRS and using the Wheeling Machine, prestretched the area for the stiffening bead. ...and with bead... The Neil Dunder tooling.... A bend relief cut in the bead, panel bent, and welded... Missed a few in process pictures here, but using a piece of 3 x 3 square tubing as a die, a 2 x 2 as a punch, and a BABPH to apply pressure, a relief for the tailgate rib is formed. Trimming to size....(note 3 x 3 die in lower right corner) Needs holes drilled yet... test fit.... Alignment of hinge hole....
this is a great thread. i have to do the same thing to my 57 tail gate. you do great work. thanks for posting this with all the detail pics
so Ive been pondering what to do with my 54 tail gate in identical condition and you have given added insite. thanks
Thanks for the comments guys. Today I got a bit of woodworking done. Cut out some MDF to use as a hammerform to try and fabricate the bottom of the inner panel..
Very nice work and a lot of good tech stuff. Can be used on many different cars. Good job, lots of talent and patience.
Time for some hammerforming, the MDF is stacked to allow the flange to be folded downward. The first three layers are aligned and screwed down, then the 18 ga CRS and "locking" layer of MDF is screwed down, through the entire pile using 4" long screws. A slight flange is also folded at the bottom to help "lock" the bottom edge of the plate against the MDF and hopefully prevent any pulling. Don't think it is needed on the straight bends, but it may help toward the corners. Flange width marked and trimmed. The corners are cleaned of any burrs that may promote cracks to form by using a 3/4" dia drum sander. Straight bends are worked with a low crown hammer to start the profile........ ........and as the corners tighten, this was the most effective stretching device. Repeated overlapping rows made short work of the stretching.. ....and the door skin hammer was used around the perimeter to "sharpen" the bends... With the first bend complete, the Lancaster shrinker is used along the folded flanges to match the crown of the tailgate skin..... ............here matched to the lower tailpan....
For the continuing saga.... The second bend in shows a bit of a taper, from about 1/8" height thickness at the side, to about 1/4" on the corners, to about 1/2" in the center of the gate. This will require the next set of MDF to taper off on the ends.... ....and folded over as before. Because there is another reverse bend in about another 1/4", there was no need to completely shrink the corners flat. Just enough to provide that bend, and also shown is todays tool of choice for working the corners for this exercise. And if you'll notice the lower section is now in two pieces, that comes from measuring incorrectly (wrong bend). About a 3/8 wide strip will be bent, added afterward and welded in place. And the reverse bend after forming.... Comparison to the original. Needs a bit of clean up work, but should work fine.
Thanks! Today I got the repair parts (the ones made so far...) trimmed and fit up for a better look.. Moving on to the stiffening bead in the tailgate, most were still intact but one did have rust issues, just like the surrounding metal. To make this detail, a suitable "punch" is made by welding some 1/8 thick plate to the end of a 1-1/4" square tube. For the "die", the nicks and welding slag was cleaned off the vice, and it was opened to the correct size. The next repair patch is centered over the tailgate and the approximate position of the stiffener bead is marked. The area is prestretched in the wheeling machine. After some forming with my high tech punch and die, and some fine tuning afterward, the roughly finished product and a test fit against the tailgate...
Here's the hammer form for the final piece of the puzzle. A notch is cut out for the stiffener bead to lay in... I had a nice heavy brass flat bar, so it was put to use with the c-clamps, and the intial bends are formed to mark where the corners will be...... Then the points are trimmed off the corners and over we go to the Lennox with the Thumbnail shrinking die. Tonight I had a nine year old photographer helping for a bit... The initial shrinking.... One thing I had to keep in mind, the dies need to be loosened up as you go, as the corners shrink and the metal thickness increases. Here's where I stopped for dinner... A bit more and we should be ready to tip the reverse bend..
And here's the rest of this evening's work, starting with the hammerform for the corner reverse bend detail.. After quite a bit of hammering.... ...and a trial fit to the tailgate
This evening took time to back up a bit, and fine tune the flange parts. The originals had an offset relief for the hinge bolting plate so it could sandwich between the inner and outer skin. ...and after a bit of hammer work, here is the result.... Next, to form the relief around the center bolt hole. The hole is marked, and a negative formed in a piece of MDF with a 3/4" drum sander..... After using various punches with newly rounded tips, and a 3/4" dia piece of round stock as an anvil...... And the next bend is formed... ....and starting on the next side..
The Jalopy Journal
