Since making a new curved front panel for my 53 Dodge truck, I started working on converting my now un-needed stock front panel into a much needed tailgate. My old gate was welded up, braced, rusted out and generally cruddy. I kept looking at that front panel and the shape was about the same, the recesses were very close, so I thought "what the heck", grabbed my tape measure, die grinder, my angle iron metal brake and put my head down and got busy. I know it won't look completely stock, but neither does my truck.... First pic is the front panel, 2nd is the tailgate (trust me, it is worse than it looks. 3rd pic is cutting the bottom edge off the front panel, 4th pic is cutting off the top round cap so I could make it into a bottom tailgate hinge, 5th pic is cutting off the sides so I could add the "z" pieces that I would need to make. I made the "Z" pieces with angle iron, vice grips and a hammer, I drilled holes for the spot welds and fit the pieces on the sides. I then put the upper round bar down at the bottom to make the new hinge area. Then I cut the original hinge area out because the new one is slightly bigger, but the old one tapped into the new with just a bit of cutting and modification. The rest of the pic are where I stopped at for the night. I have to go and find a new piece of rectangular tubing for the top piece and then figure out where to get rivets to add the tailgate latches to the new tailgate. I will post more when I get back to it. I hope this is of some interest to the group.
went and bought a piece of rectangular tubing for the top of the new tailgate, cut off the old latches and cleaned them up, knocked out the old blind rivets, measured (3 times ) and cut the square tube to length, fit it on the top of the gate and welded it in. I didn't have any blind rivets for the latches, so I used some round headed bolts I had instead. All there is left to do is graft on the DODGE insignia to the new tailgate!! I tried to upload the pics, but for some reason they will not upload to this site. I will try this weekend on a different computer and see if they will go thru then. If not, I can email them to anyone interested......or not......
i love this ! i built a chopped sectioned and custom framed 52 3100 last year and did this ! looks great!
welded in the "DODGE" insignia into the panel today. pics show the process, alot of cut, fit, weld and grind (and patience ). a few spot welds to grind and a little finish work and it will be done. Ya think it will make a reasonable facimile for a stock tailgate?
Bud, Great job on the tailgate. The Dodge script looks like it was orignally stamped in the tailgate.
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