That looks great, nice work.

 

Its looking really good

Thanks for the update

Bobby

 

Looking good, keep the pics coming. How are you going to attach the letters?

 

You are making some great progress on your tailgate...and I imagine you are developing some skills along the way with the plasma too!

I have one suggestion to make...the welds along the perimeter of the panel that you are inserting will warp the metal and the welds will be extremely difficult to smooth out prior to paint. My suggestion is to finish your welding of that flat panel and make the bedside of the tailgate look as good as you can get it. Then cut a new piece of filler metal (18 ga) the size of the tailgate but make it so that it touches each side of the tailgate recess and covers the flanges and your welds. Use structural adhesive to bond this filler panel in place, now you have a perfectly smooth surface all the way across your tailgate on which you can place your lettering. Good luck with your project...it's always nice to have something on your truck that is unique to everyone else's.

 

Heres a coupls more pics for you guys. I will put the letters on like Charlie did with panel adhesive. Charlie, I might have to do as you suggested. I'll just have to see how bad it is once I get completly done...



with all the letters on it, doesn't look to bad so far...



Centering the letters, not to sure about the left over space on the sides but I still like it so far...

 

Let me start of by saying it looks outstanding but I think that "F" needs to come down and to the left slightly. It looks like it is about to swallow the "o". I'm not nay saying your work it is beautiful but personally my eye cant picture it in line with that mark you have under the letters.

 

Wow!! looks awesome!

 

I think it's going to look good, are you hammering on dollie as you go. I know the mig makes hard welds and have found that grinding the welds and hammering as you go help keep the warpage down, Charlie's idea of a second skin sounds like a good idea too and will stiffen things up considerably especially good for a tail gate. Good thread you started, looking forward to the end result. How are you liking the plasma cutter? Sure would like to get one for myself one of these days,lol

 

I have a friend that works at a local tool/equipment rental place. When I visited him, they had a few plasma cutters that were going to be "retired". He was "refurbishing" them for sale. I asked him the price for one and he told me around $150. It will cut through 1/4" thick steel.

I didn't think that the price was bad. You may want to check out a few rental places in your area and ask them if they have any "retired" equipment for sale.

 

Good tip, I'll have to check that out. Thanks.

 

Ok guys, heres another update... I attached the letters finally and started to get it ready for some rattle can primer. I find for me, its alot easier to find the little dips and dings with a coat of primer on it.



The way I attached the letters was, once I got them put where they were going. I traced an outline, then I drilled a 1/8 inch hole every 2 inches and tacked them from behind. I was going to do as Charlie did and use the panel adhesive but since this isn't a new tailgate and I'm not going to get all the factory tack weld marks and dips out I figured it wouldn't matter to much.





I also made a latch for the inside of the tailgate. Again I was going to do as bobbytnm did with his latches but they got screwed up so I made one up.



I took some metal I had laying around, cut a 1 inch piece and drilled a hole in it big enuff for my pin to go through.



To make the pin all I did was bend the round stock, put the spring on it. I marked where the washer needed to go so it would spring closed. I compressed the spring and welded the washer on.



You can see in the picture above how it will work. The picture below shows the 1st step of how I got the pin in the latch.



The 2nd.



And the last step.



These last 2 pictures show how it works.





I will get it all cleaned up and stuff but this gives ya the jist of it all, hope y'all like...

 

WOW you do nice work====LOOKS GREAT--that should turn some heads.

 

Here are a few pics, I'm tossing around some paint coloers and figured I'd try them on the tailgate for fun. I still plan on going with the Dark Red and Gunmetal for the main colors but thought maybe a nice cream color for the script. I'm not sure if this Red is dark enuff for me though...

 

Looks great keep up the good work...

 

Wow! thats really looking good!

Excellent pics and excellent progress

Bobby