Never really paid much attention to this until recently...

My dad has had several OEM gates on his truck assumingly all from 1985. Didn't think much of it.

There's a guy about 4 miles from me rolling around in a 82-86, in what I can call a spitting image of how Dad's rolled off the lot. Bed cap, dog dish (80s ones) wheels, definitely an F250.

I noticed he's got the '80s style gate. Correct dimensions, not a reproduction gate. This truck is not restored, all original.

The letters "FORD" are MASSIVE. They take up all the space top to bottom on the most inside rectangle on the gate where the stamped letters appear. Not only this, but it appears the spacing is also slightly different. His seem closer together.

They appear to be in a late 60s style font of a very early edition of what became the 80s fate style font. I almost thought they were bricknose styled, but the F is shaped differently.

Since I don't have very good pics, I'm going off BOTH our trucks as seen from Google maps from the road.

You can compare them:

His:





Dads:




As you can see his are much larger than ours but in a similar style. I am 99% sure his letters are stamped and that paint is original.

I've never seen this mentioned before, or even noticed. His is the first I've ever seen with them that big.

 

Your neighbor has a repo gate that is smooth with Giant letting on it

 

I have seen the truck in person, the gate is OEM with stamped lettering. Its slightly rusted in a few spots. The paint is also original. Those are not stickers, they are painted stamped letters. I pointed this out in the original post.

 

The truck in the woods has the same lettering as the oem gate I took from an 84. The one in front of the garage is either an aftermarket gate, or someone hand-painted the letters rather sloppily. ~Bill

 

Here's a pic of the gate on my old '85. This picture was taken when the truck was about 5 months old, so it's definitely original. it looks like the truck in the woods from above.

 

And I am telling you that is NOT an original tailgate. IF it has raised letters, someone must have cut it out from an older/newer gate and welded it in

Just like this guy
JB'S 4door build thread (lots of pics) - Page 11 - FSB Forums

 

Definately not a factory tailgate for this year of truck (with the larger letters). Without clearer, closer pics, it is impossible to tell what it really is.
Could be from an 87+ model, as I believe they had much larger stamping in them. I think they have slightly different profiles along the top part of the sides, where it meets the bed above the tail lights.
Could even be a repro tailgate that had a different style stamping, to avoid copyright laws, or even a non-US spec gate.

Without better pics, there's just no way to correctly ID what the gate was intended to fit, only that it is NOT the OEM gate for that truck.......

 

I'm extremely skeptical.


Definitely not an '87+ gate, it's square bodied like ours.


It's possible but that would not explain the original paint. This truck has never been restored or painted, no body part ever replaced, it is OEM down to the wiring best I know.


I can try to get better pics but I can assure you that gate was never replaced.

 

My '81 F-100 stock OEM tailgate. Not sure if this helps or not.

 

Those letters look kinda close but not so tall.

 

Mine is not the original tailgate, originally had the XLT trim piece on this tailgate. But I know it came off of an 85-86 year model due to the style of trim panel. Never seen one like that before. I've seen many 80-86's all with the same lettering as mine, never like that though.

 

What makes you THINK this?The truck is almost 30 years old, a lot can happen in 30 years

 

Paperwork.

Unless it's all gone lol

 

Has the owner showed you this "paperwork" of the all "original" truck?

 

... probably has a file full of every repair made to the truck from new, like I do.

This is an interesting thread, as I finally trashed my tailgate this weekend and only have a tinfoil repop to replace it.
Going to have to live with it for a while.
Factory tailgate is too rich for me right now.

Looking for some stick-on vinyl letters for the smooth gate I have.