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20 years ago I was working on a pair of 1986 F250's, I had intended to restore one and drive the other. They both had XLT tailgates and were missing their aluminum panels. I never liked those panels on these trucks so I hunted down a pair of new old stock tailgates from Ford. I used the one tailgate when I repainted the one truck, but ended up selling the second truck as is not long after. The second brand new tailgate is still in the Ford factory box and is still sitting up in my garage rafters.
I had been keeping it with the thought I'd likely end up with another one of these trucks but as I get older I doubt that'll happen.
Its the style that has the embossed FORD letters, (there are no holes for the aluminum plate).
What are these worth these days? I think I paid a good bit for them new, I'd have to do some digging to see how much Ford charged me back then.
My 1986 had wire cables, the new gates were ordered from the dealer for an '86 truck. If I get a chance tomorrow I'll pull it down from the rafters and see if I can get a part number off the box. It seems to me there were quite a few different part numbers for those trucks when the part guy was looking it up. Right off the bat, there's with or without the rear aluminum panel, but I think there were a bunch of 'old' numbers that all superseded to the one he ordered for me. (One gate was actually in stock back then, they brought the second one from one of their other dealerships). For some reason I seem to recall there being an original 1980 p/n, a newer '82, '83, and '85 part numbers for the raised letter gate, but that was roughly 20 years ago or so when Ford still listed parts for these trucks. (I think my local dealer can only go back to 1992 on some items and 1984 on some other stuff. Nothing beyond that. They don't stock anything, and can't even seem to find parts for my 2005, let alone something 30+ years old.
I did sell the original tailgate I took off my F250 right after doing the repaint to a guy who put it on his 1981 short bed F150.
I didn't see it up close but he collected scrap where I worked with that truck for years after that with my old tailgate still on the truck.
I also see the aftermarket lists the same gate for 80-86? Maybe later gates or just aftermarket gates work for both types of straps or did the strap bolts or brackets fit the same holes?
I never compared any of the various years side by side to see if the gates were different or just the straps.
20 years ago I was working on a pair of 1986 F250's, I had intended to restore one and drive the other. They both had XLT tailgates and were missing their aluminum panels. I never liked those panels on these trucks so I hunted down a pair of new old stock tailgates from Ford. I used the one tailgate when I repainted the one truck, but ended up selling the second truck as is not long after. The second brand new tailgate is still in the Ford factory box and is still sitting up in my garage rafters.
I had been keeping it with the thought I'd likely end up with another one of these trucks but as I get older I doubt that'll happen.
It's the style that has the embossed FORD letters (they all do). There are no holes for the aluminum plate (they're not supposed to be).
What are these worth these days? I think I paid a good bit for them new, I'd have to do some digging to see how much Ford charged me back then.
No such thing as a 1980/86 Styleside tailgate. And...1980/86 F100/350: There were only TWO part numbers for Styleside tailgates, one for 1980/82, the other for 1983/86.
EOTZ-9940700-A = 1980/82 F100/350 Styleside Tailgate - The right & left steel tailgate supports and the latches (EOTZ-99431D76-A / EOTZ-99431D77-A) are a one piece assembly.
E5TZ-9940700-B (replaced E3TZ-9940700-A) = 1983/86 F100/350 Styleside Tailgate = This tailgate uses right & left cables (E3TZ-9943052-A / E3TZ-9943053-A) to support it.
When you bought new tailgates from Ford, there were no holes for mouldings or finish panels, because some trucks didn't have them.
The tailgates were the same for all models, Custom, Ranger (1980/81), XL, XLT, Lariat, whatever. There was no specific tailgate for different models. Basically it's "one type fits all."
Pic: Open your peepers and take a look-see at 40700 .. 83 is a Flareside, 99 is a Styleside, U is a Bronco and R is a Ranger.
I pulled it down from the rafters, the p/n label is blank, it only has the dealer's name on it.
The tailgates I bought were for a 1986, I used one on my truck, I still have the other one. My truck used tailgate cables.
The original gate had ten 5/8" formed holes in the rear face where the FORD letters would be, they weren't drilled holes, they were sort of punched or rolled. The inner edge of each hole extended about 3/16" into the hole and was painted. There were no letters. My 1986 F150, which I bought brand new off the dealer's lot, had this same tailgate. I made the mistake of removing the aluminum to repaint the gate and to let the FORD letters show but it was a smooth gate.
It was never changed, it came with the truck in January of 1986. It was the same gate my F250 had before I changed it.
All of these had cables.
If I go to any of the aftermarket body books, they list one gate from 1980 to 1986. That tells me they somehow came up with one gate that fits all years.
The yellow/white label on the box is the shipping label, has a place for the part number, so it's rare if there no part number printed on it.
Ford also shipped tailgates in plastic bags, used the same shipping label, but the tailgate also had a Ford part number on a white sticker adhered to the backside of the 'gate.
Aftermarket tailgates were "universal fitz-alls" that were made in Taiwan initially. 1979 was the first year that Taiwanese sheet metal, grilles and etc were imported into the US
FoMoCo sued the distributors because their catalogs used Ford part numbers. Ford also began to patent certain parts (especially fenders) which the makers in Taiwan and later China ignored.
The parts were between 20-30% cheaper than Genuine Ford Parts, so to remain competitive, Ford lowered the prices by removing the "spiffs" that they gave dealers when the parts were sold to wholesale accounts.
I found he box from the gate I used, I had flattened it out and used it to keep dust from falling through the trusses from overhead.
The other box was in better shape. They had removed both gates from the box to check them for damage before I went to pick them up. The one box was cut open nicely, this one is basically torn in two on one side. They were packed with three or four foam forms and slid into a cardboard box.
The yellow label has only the dealer's address and dealer ID number. The rest of the decal is blank, only one box still has that label.
This is an OEM Ford tailgate bought from the dealer by me. Looking at the date it was likely in late 2001 around November or so.
I found the box from the gate I used, I had flattened it out and used it to keep dust from falling through the trusses from overhead.
The other box was in better shape. They had removed both gates from the box to check them for damage before I went to pick them up. The one box was cut open nicely, this one is basically torn in two on one side. They were packed with three or four foam forms and slid into a cardboard box.
The yellow label has only the dealer's address and dealer ID number. The rest of the decal is blank, only one box still has that label.
This is an OEM Ford tailgate bought from the dealer by me. Looking at the date it was likely in late 2001 around November or so.
Shipping date on this label: 043001 (April 30, 2001). Tailgate was shipped to the PA dealer from the New York PDC (Parts Depot Center) located in NJ (!).
Part number E5TZ-9940700-B = 1983/86 F100/350 Styleside tailgate.
Interesting dealer name: John Kennedy Ford .. I wonder if this name was a blessing or a curse? JFK assassinated 11/22/1963.
They are a big dealer, with at least four locations around eastern PA. They were about two hours from where I used to live but they were the only dealer that would go get things on request and they seemed to be able to locate things pretty fast. I haven't been there in years though. They had stores in Feasterville, Jenkintown, Phoenixville, and Pottstown that I knew of.
My local dealer at the time was an old dealer still in their original building from the 20's or 30's with no parts department to speak of.
So what is a new old stock E5TZ-B gate worth? The invoice list price was $415 at that time. I think I paid a bit less, what ever jobber was to the local shop my buddy owned.
Quick search shows Great shape(minor dings, missing or faded paint) original ones going for between $400-500. I'd set my cap for $1000 and try and get $600, figure if you let it go for what you've got in it you'd be doing someone a favor.
So what is a new old stock E5TZ-B gate worth? The invoice list price was $415 at that time. I think I paid a bit less, what ever jobber was to the local shop my buddy owned.
Not direct comparisons [different years], but will give you an idea of what is being asked for NOS units on eBay.
I didn't realize they sold for so much. I had a complete gate off of a 1987 here, I had kept it for years after they put a lift gate on one of the trucks at work the first week they had it, They didn't want the tailgate and it matched my father's truck so I brought it home. Its also up in the rafters. Its a complete gate, taken off a brand new truck in black.
Someone told me it would fit up to 1992 so I kept it. I sold my 92 last year and I had listed the 1987 gate on CL for $100 but didn't get any replies. I left it on there for a year and gave up. Maybe its a good thing it didn't sell? I bought a 1997 F350 and was thinking it would work on that truck if I needed it?
I have no use for the E5TZ gate and I suppose I'll list that on CL as well. I'm not doing eBay, too many scammers there these days. If anyone wants it they'll have to come pick it up with cash in hand.
Little by little I intend to go through all the stuff upstairs that I've saved for decades. I've likely got spare parts stills stashed for trucks I owned even farther back then 1986.
They are a big dealer, with at least four locations around eastern PA. They were about two hours from where I used to live but they were the only dealer that would go get things on request and they seemed to be able to locate things pretty fast. I haven't been there in years though. They had stores in Feasterville, Jenkintown, Phoenixville, and Pottstown that I knew of.
My local dealer at the time was an old dealer still in their original building from the 20's or 30's with no parts department to speak of.
So what is a new old stock E5TZ-B gate worth? The invoice list price was $415 at that time. I think I paid a bit less, what ever jobber was to the local shop my buddy owned.
If $415.00 was the MSRP, dealer net cost: $246.00 ... 40% markup, common on all sheet metal parts.
20-25% off MSRP were the usual discounts to wholesale accounts, but some "very good" accounts received 30% off.
I'm not sure what my buddy paid to Ford, but I think he basically just charged me 20% off what ever the sell price was in his computer, so my guess was that's about what he was paying to Ford.
He did a fair amount of business with the dealer there but he was basically a foreign car shop that specialized in Mercedes.
He did have a microfiche machine and the dealer would keep it updated so he could look up his own parts,
I have all of that stuff here somewhere, he gave it to me when he retired. I think its updated into the late 80's or so. I've even got the viewer here somewhere. Not long before he retired, Ford had a computer based, online system to look up and order parts but I think all that changed since back then. If I remember right he retired in '04 or '05.
I did a quick search of CL and FB here and there's quite a few earlier and later t-gates but no 80-86 gates listed anywhere locally.
For some reason CL has died out around here, no matter what you list, there's nearly no replies other than scammers or information miners.
I had a super clean garage kept '95 Bronco for sale with under 50K on it and no rust, It belonged to my uncle who passed away. I put it up for $2500 on CL with 10 good pics and got no serious offers. I finally gave up and it finally sold by word of mouth a year later. I'd have kept it but I wasn't too fond of the 11 mpg it got. (5.8L E4OD).
I figured it would have sold in the summer since it had ice cold air but it got no replies. Now CL charges to list cars and trucks so almost no one goes there anymore. The listing count for cars has dropped to almost nothing but dealer ads.
I'll post the gate in market place but I don't want to deal with shipping. The chances of something like this surviving shipping doesn't seem all that great. They can't manage to ship smaller items without damage lately, something this size is bound to be damaged.
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80-86 new old stock tailgate
around November or so. 
