So, I'm outside today washing and waxing my truck before all this winter salt hits the roads, and I come to my tailgate to wipe down and I had just a right amount of sun glar on the tailgate and see 2 dents in the middle passenger side of the tailgate!! I baby the heck out of this truck and know that I did not do this to my truck! Has anyone noticed this on there trucks?????? Can ford fix this????? Please respond! ~Matt

 

Same thing happend to me only thing we could figure out was that when they did the spray in bed liner the removed the tailgate and dropped it. I took it back to my dealer spoke to the sales manager and the problem was fixed no questions asked within 2 hours. you can only barely see them now and you have to know exactly where to look. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=290781

 

Thanks for the reply! The weird thing about these two dents in my tailgate is that I never once taken the tailgate off or had it taken off by anyone before to have anyone drop it or something. I wonder what is causing these dents to show up for no reason at all??? I'm calling the dealer tomorrow and tell them my problem, so I'm hoping they help fix this problem what ever it is! Even if worse came to worse and I had to pay someone to fix the dents, I don't mind doing that, it's just that how do I know the dents will not come back again??? Theres something happening to these tailgates and it's really getting me mad to see two dents in a truck that I love so much!! I will post later after I talk to my dealer tomorrow about this.

 

I tow a pop up trailer. The first outing I noticed several dings in the gate. Must have bounced off the trailer. I have been hauling some stuff, and the bed is getting banged up now. I am starting to get over any damage as long as it stays in by bed. My work vehicle is (was) a 1971 c-20 3/4 chevy with a 403BB, and turbo 400 hydromatic trans. It is due out of the shop next month, after a restore. I better get used to working my 04 ford. I am not a Chevy guy, nor am I a Ford guy. I like what I like, And I like trucks.

 

Did you have a spray in bedliner done? They do remove the tail gate. The dents you describe are similar to others. It happened to me as well. No question as to where they came from. The bed liner guys did not question it either. They paid to have a paintless dent repair guy fix it. Looks great. But, p****d me off that I had to see 'em later and go back to confront them with what they knew they'd done. On a previous post, I warned many of this. The tailgate is much heavier than one thinks (with the lift assist). When they remove the cablesthat support it, it falls and hits the bumper.

 

Just got back from the dealer about my 2 dents. Guess what, they told that my tailgate got hit by something becuase the dings where "pushed in" and not "pushed out" I just have no idea how the dings got there since I baby the truck so much and watch for anything that comes within 10 feet of it! lol So now I have this dent repair guy coming to my house that ford recomended me to to pull out the two dings, hopfully he will do it where I won't even know where to look to find where it was, and hope to not have the same dents re-appear again! (oh....my tailgate was never taken off any of the time ever since I had my truck...I just have that drop in liner so far, but am curious to how the dings got where they were)

 

Make sure you don't leave anything on the bumper when you open the tailgate or you will get a dent. My son left a can of wax on the bumper then opened the gate and presto, instant dent.

 

The tailgate sheet metal is soooooooo thin!!! just me washing the truck I can see as I wash the tailgate the metel moving in as I wipe across it! Is it just me or do you think the older f150's 97-03 have a stronger tailgate metel????

 

It is not that the sheetmetal is thinner (the 04 is actually the same gage as the 97-03), the issue is the panel is flatter. Remember all the curvature in the old style? That curvature adds stiffness.

 

I backed into a mail box a few months ago. I met this Dent guy at a Lowes. He worked for "Dent Free USA". He had all his tools in his truck and he popped out the dents in the parking lot. Then he went back over it and wet sanded it and polished it and waxed it. Cant tell anything ever happened. We did have to take the tailgate off and remove the panel on the back. Piece of cake and he only charged me $40. Took about 30 mins.