I am in the process of putting a new bed together. The bedsides and front panel are Mar-K parts, and the tailgate is a GM certified reproduction part from what was Chevy Duty at the time, now Classic Parts of America. I was doing great until the last step, putting on the tailgate. Naturally, neither my Assembly Manual or Shop Manual say anything about beds or tailgates. First problem, the holes in the bottom sides of the tailgate where the hinges go were not deep enough, only about 3/4" instead of the 1 1/4" that my old beat up tailgate has. The tailgate with new hinges was too long to mate up with the mounting holes in the bedsides. I solved that one by cutting off about 1/4" from each of the hinges. My question is this--Does the tailgate fit completely up between the bedsides? My old one had the front side of the tailgate very roughly trimmed off so that the front side was inside the bedsides, but the back side stopped up against the rear edge of the bed side. Also the new tailgate has a heavy tab at the top corners to put the chain hook through, I guess. My old one doesn't have those, the hook just goes through the bedside and the side of the tailgate. Those tabs are on the front of the tailgate so I can't see how it can possibly close up between the bedsides. I can make all this work if I do what someone did to my old tailgate-- trim off the front edges, and take those tabs off. Before I do that, though, I'd like to know if there's something that I'm missing. (I'd post pictures if I could, but when I click on the "Manage Attachments" button below, nothing happens) Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
I think you have the wrong tailgate. If you will put the photos on your desktop then click on the 5th icon from the right above while you are wrting your message, you can browse to your desktop and get the photo. The icon that I am talking about is the square one with a mountain in it with a yellow background. Let us see what you have and we can go from there. Gater
Gater, I tried that and still nothing. I did get a couple of pictures uploaded to the "Photos" at the top of this page. Maybe you could take a look at them there, and stick 'em on your next post, if you don't mind. Maybe someone else will have an idea. Thanks!
Well, after all this, I did what I should have done to start with.....looked in the catalog, and sure enough, it looks like a '54 tailgate, with the tabs. Going back thru my records, I also didn't get it from CP, but at a parts place in Lexington, Ky, which is no longer there. One of those impulse buys 3-4 years ago when I first got my truck and couldn't wait to start buying stuff! Oh well, if anybody needs a good '54 tailgate, I can make you a deal!
WHOOPS ! . Oh well , if you don't sell the tailgate , you can make a nifty folding bench out of it for visitors or kids who come to your garage....
