The hardest working part on a pickup truck that doesn't require petrochemicals to operate has to be the tailgate. In the case of my '72 Ford F-100, the truck left the showroom floor seeing duty as a milk truck in northern California, and then was sold to a mountain-dwelling family who bought the old Ford to drive deep into the forest and haul out firewood. Consulting with a forensic botanist would likely reveal the dents all over the '72 were caused by a combination of throwing heavy logs into it and missing, or accidently crashing into big trees. My favorite dent, which is probably the one that dealt the deathblow to ever being able to salvage the tailgate, was on the driver side. I didn't realize how bad the damage really was until I had a perfect example from Dennis Carpenter Ford Restoration Parts to replace it. Because the damage was compounded between the left rear corner of the bed, and the tailgate it wasn't as obvious how much the stock dimensions had moved. This brings up an interesting point because there's been more than a few times a customer has called a sheetmetal body parts supplier to complain about fit only to discover the problem was on their end. The first thing to determine after the new parts are in hand is to establish the adjoining areas are up to specs. In addition to proper fit, there are a few tricks to installing new sheetmetal that can make a big difference between a person experiencing a bloody nightmare or having a good time. In the case of installing a brand-new replacement tailgate on my '72 Ford I was having a real good time until I ran into a few problems that ultimately turned into the proverbial nightmare, but that's OK because as we have said before, "we make the mistakes so that you guys don't have to."
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