The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Tailgate 1947 3104

I've been stewing over this tailgate for years and I'd like to straighten it up and remove the dents. Many people tell me to leave it alone and like the 'patina', but I'm not so sure. It doesn't have to be perfect, just better.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to approach this project. Let me know your thoughts, thanks!

Mine was and still is bad I had a big dent on the top that I could not beat or heat it out so I ended up welding a piece of metal overtop like a second skin .I wish I would have drilled the spot welds out and bent it back to get access to the back ,I seen someone do that on a video and it worked out good .First you would have to straighten the tailgate so it is flat and before drilling the spot welds out your dents may come out by welding some washers so you can use a slide puller to get them out .

Show us pictures of the rest of the truck so we can make better suggestions.

If the rest of the truck is beat up, leave it alone. If the rest of the truck is really nice, by all means bring the tailgate up to the standard of the rest of the truck.

The beat up nature of Ol' Roy in general means the tailgate is staying the way it is. Notice the square angle iron welded to the bottom to repair rust damage (presumably). On the plus side I paid $10 for that beat up 1950 license plate instead of $100+ for a nice one that I would have had to get if the truck were all frou frou.

KEVINSKI, I have straightened the tailgate since those pictures were taken. It was slightly binding on the rear cross sill and now moves smoothly thru the full range of open/closed. Any chance you could send me a link to that video? That's the approach I had in mind.

Otto Skorzeny, will do. It's a 'twenty footer' and runs like a top. I drove it to the MBA Roundup last month in Independence, MO. Here's some pics for your viewing pleasure....

It's pretty nice but not perfect. Therefore, how would you repair the tailgate? If you do it properly (which is the only way to do anything) it will stand out like a sore thumb. You'll have a nice, shiny, new-looking tailgate on a nice, but worn truck. I see no point in doing a half-arsed job on the gate to bring it up to a mediocre standard.

If you ever repaint the truck, fix the gate at that time.

I kind of agree with Otto on waiting till you paint the whole truck. You might be able to spot paint the tailgate, but it would be tough to match the rest of the truck.

In order to fix the tailgate dents (first pics you posted) it would probably be necessary to drill out the spot welds holding the end piece on the left side so you have access to put something like a pipe inside as an anvil. I did a similar thing on my bedsides (a ball bearing on a slide hammer with marks to get the ball in the right place from the end) but that already had an open end. The tailgate is 16 gauge (or thicker) and would be hard to work without some heat. You might be able to weld puller points in the dents and use heat to pull them back up. Here's some pics of my tool I used as an anvil on the bedside rolls.
BTW, your tailgate looks awesome compared to mine when II got the truck, it became a wall hanger. (more pics)

I found the video it was by Carter auto restyling took some screenshots of how to find it ,it is under buyer beware then there are 26 videos one of is about the tailgate ,hope this helps

Here's the direct link to that video where he reconstructs the tailgate.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7dMY-GobMM
He basically took it completely apart and straightened it piece by piece. He might have been better off rolling new top and bottom pieces from new metal, but that's not where he's at. He's restored many things I would have sent to the junkyard.

I’m still watching this video, very fun to watch and satisfying.
At the same time, I just spotted this GMC with what could be the same tailgate!
Though, probably less rusty.
https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/missoula-1952-gmc-pickup-truck-4-ton/6ZyShAv2qAFbYJvk9Jcjpz
Hope this doesn’t violate the thread rules, but they directly co-relate!

It all depends on how handy you are Andy...
To me, that looks like a miserable task any way you would go about it.
Even if you drill out the one hundred or so spotwelds, Those dents are deep and irregular. That means there is a lot of stretched metal to contend with. Not fun even if one is good at shrinking metal on curved, thick sheet metal.

Well, ask and you shall receive. Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions! I'm looking forward to the video, that should convince me one way or the other. If a guy makes an informed decision to do nothing, that's doing something, isn't it?

Thanks again.....

And if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

If it was mine, the first thing I would do is clamp the tailgate bow side down and the bottom facing you, to a strong steel table, two timbers or steel beams, with the bottom facing you, so you can remove the bend. Position it with a 1x4 plank in the middle (so you can over bend the tailgate) then add clamps to both sides. I would protect the tailgate with some wood under the clamps. Slowly clamp a little on each side while hammering the bowed out sections on the top and bottom (bottom of the tailgate) relieving the stress. Clamp a little more and continue to hammer relieving the stress. Continue this process and clamp until you’re bowed in the other direction. You’ll need your over bend the tailgate, under the clamping force because once you remove the clamp it will relax some, hopefully straight. If not bend some more.

This process should remove the big bows and leave just a little dimple at the very top on the rounded corner. I would then use a stud welder and slide hammer to remove that dimple.

If you don’t have such a tool, I would drill a hole on the backside and use a drift pin to punch that dimple out. That would leave a small hole on the inside of the tailgate to weld.

You could also drill a hole in the deepest part of the dimple and use a slide hammer with a screw attachment to help remove the remaining dent. I personally don’t like this method as it tends to raise the section around the screw more then the dent.

I would also remove the bend at the top (same clamping technique), as you’re going this process, as that will also reduce the overall stress in the tailgate.

On the top roll, I had a pretty good dent that I removed by cutting on both sides, drilled out the spot weld, then pealed back the metal to access it from the back side. Once the dent was removed, I started to bend it back slowly, tacking the seams along the way as they aligned to one another.

You could probably remove most of those dents without repainting, then remove the rest when/if you decide to repaint the entire truck.

If this truck was the last one known to exist, I would remove ALL of the spotwelds on the entire tailgate and work on each piece separately and clamp all of the parts back in place and weld all of the spotwelds back in.

Right. And It's no J Model Duesenberg so good enough is good enough.

I like the way you guys think. The video gave me a good understanding of what I'm in for, should I decide to proceed. Thanks for those good ideas on how to straighten the tailgate and remove the dents. It's definitely the eyesore of the truck. The truck was purchased thirteen years ago and aside from some bed and grill work, there hasn't been any body work done to it by me. As I said, it's a 'twenty footer' and probably will be for a while......

Thanks again fellas!