My 74 f100 just dropped a few tailgate hinge bolts when the tailgate was last opened. Looks like there are three on each side. Now one on each side and probably dangerous. Do any of you know how you get access into the guts of the tailgate? Seems like I may need to put some nuts on the inside of the hinges for the bolts to screw onto. There may have originally been interior fasteners for the bolts but the rust may have done its damage. Thanks...

 

I haven't lost any bolts... But my cup it pivots on and sits in is rusted out, and I'll be attemting to weld a new one in w/o messing up my paint outside.

Other than the handle and i guess whatever the plate around the striker/latch, as Far as I know there is know access.
.idk how much play is there side to side in the tailgate but perhaps you drill out the existing holes, weld nuts to a plate, then put the plate over the existing rusty area. Idk..... Sounds like custom fabrication or a new tailgate

 

Well, where there is a will ,there is a way. Without having the tailgate in my little hands I will make a few suggestions that might work for you. First and simplest (probably any solution won't be "easy")would be the new bolt thru' the hinge into a new NUT like you were thinking. Bend a long strip of metal maybe 1/4" wide to tape a new nut to. That will be your "hand" or "arm" to place the nut in position & thread the bolt into. A lot of bending,curving trial and error to get it to line the nut up but it can be done.Coathangers will work,anything to overcome the access problem. Find a hole whether it is the handle or lower pivot/cup and hopefully line her up. Second method, drill out the existing or missing nuts. Make a hole just large enough for a new nut to just sit in the new hole. 'Gotta be pretty darn close to original spacing but slotting the hinge itself if needed might give you some "play". An actual bolt threaded into the nut as you're are welding the nut in place will allow you to weld it flush(also protects the threads) and not push it in the tailgate to retrieve 8 or 900 times. Thirdly and most involved is cut the whole mess out as a square and now you can do whatever you would like to the back side . Once repaired, back in place, tack it here ,there ,side to side ,taking time to almost cool and you will eliminate warping and IF real careful no paint damage. Gary

 

Here's an exploded diagram of the tailgate from the Ford parts catalog.

 

I had this problem. My solution was kinda stupid, but if it's stupid and it works it isn't stupid right?

I had the tailgate handle and the strikers removed (to clean/grease/lube and fix tailgate handle) when I lost a couple of the nuts. I flipped the tailgate back and forth any number of times until the loose nuts finally tumbled out. I fished a piece of stranded copper wire through the nut hole first, then out of the striker hole, threaded the wire through the hole in the nut and tied a knot in the end of the wire to prevent the nut from sliding off that end of the wire.

Then I pulled the opposite end of the wire back through the original hole where the nut was and lined it back up. The only adhesive that was readily available at the time was a hot glue gun so I used some of that from the outside to hold the nut in place. When I put it back together I gently threaded the bolt back in, then once it was finger tight I was able to get it good and tight with a wrench, the glue held it in place just enough to get the bolt started. Obviously this isn't a great future-proof solution in the event it needs to be taken apart again, but it's a simple enough process to duplicate should I ever need to.

 

Great feedback. Thanks to all. Seems like there should be an easy way, but whenever I think so it seems to go the other way. My opinion is there is no such thing as a stupid approach. The idea of treading wire is very ingenious. I tip my cap....

 

Here is what is looks like, I happen to have a few pics of a patch panel I sold. 1st pic the plate that holds the nut plates is seen from the side and then second pic is easy to figure out.