Ok,, I have my 79 F250 4x4,, she's a beater, gonna be a wood truck, what year tailgates will fit the ol girl,,, not goin for looks,,, just functionality?!

Thanks

Joe

 

Any tailgate from 67-79 will fit your truck (except stepsides). It would be to your advantage to find an earlier 67-72 gate since they are made of heavier-gauge steel and will take a better beating. The only disadvantage to this is that the body lines won't line up and it'll look a little tacky, especially if you have the anodized trim around your tail-lights.

But since it's a work truck, you might not care

 

i have a bumpside tail gate on my truck and i like the side swivel handle

 

I am on the lookout for one,,, I think a 65-66 will also fit wont they?

 

X2 Myself I like the construction and hardware of the Bumpside tailgates versus the Dents. Just wished the lines matched up a little better.

Josh

 

i started a thread when i first became a member here asking weather or not it would be doable to put the bump handle and hardware on a dent gate but the general responce i got was that it would be easyer to change the bumps body lines to match the dent bed

 

Usually there are a few on "here" that puff their chests and try to point out how "stupid" it is or how retarded the idea is to put a Bump tailgate on a Dent.

Whatever.

I started to do the bodywork on mine to alter the lower bodyline on the tailgate to match the tail light bodyline. But ended up selling the tailgate and the truck and well never finished it.

The top bodyline matches pretty good and the height matched well as well. It was really just a matter of getting that lower line to match.

I also like the FORD lettering better on the 67-72 tailgate as well. With what I said about the Bump versus Dent I might sound like a hater, but I am not. Just don't personally care for the overall design of the 73-79 tailgate.

Josh

 

i agree i think their cheap compaired to the bumps would it be easyer to blend the line on the bed under the light to match the gate or vise versa?

 

Tough to say. I wish I had taken pics, but what I had started to do was make a radius turn on the tailgate to match the Dent lower line.

It didn't look too bad and I think finished with paint it would work ok.

Otherwise one could cut down the length of the gate and put in new metal to match the bed line.

Josh

 

If you have a plasma-cutter and a sheetmetal brake, it's pretty easy to do