Okay, here goes: I'm getting ready to repaint my beloved truck. I was never too keen on the color.

I pulled off the trim, including the full length tailgate piece. I'm planning on doing bondo over the holes and sanding, etc. I'm wondering though, should I do something underneath to strengthen the outer panel there? Seems a little flexible to me, or am I worrying too much?

Here's a before pic of the truck in general:

 

just curious, how did you remove the panel? ive wondered how to do this.

I dont think the integrity of the actual tailgate should be an issue, as far as im concerned its the same as tailgates without the extra panel but with some holes in it, someone correct me if im wrong. Having holes in it may make it a litte weaker, but nothing significant, escpecially if youre not doing anyting heavy duty or extreme to just the tailgate.

 

Well... honestly? I just pulled it off. I like to tell the kids I'm super strong, and things like that reinforce the idea. To the truth is that it was pretty easy. There was a little space behind the trim, but not quite enough for fingers. So I used a small crowbar to get it started, and basically just pulled!

That being said, the trim piece connects to plastic clips that go through the tailgate (thus the holes) to 6 bolts that are in plain view from the inside of the tailgate. In hindsight, just undoing those bolts would have been better. ...but then I couldn't demonstrate my strength.

 

6 torx bolts on the bed side of the tail gate. You can't miss em! Unless you have a drop in bed liner

 

haha well im glad you could impress some people!

Did you damage the paint when using the crowbar? Im thinking about throwing a panel on my tailgate sometime in the future, just curious how everything is put together on that.

 

There are 6 holes in the tailgate when they have a panel. 3 columns of 2, spaced about 18 inches apart from each other. 1 in the middle, flanked by a column on the left and right. The panel itself has 6 posts, 1 for each hole, that reach through the tail gate, where they are secured by screws.

And that's all there is to it! If you're going to "throw on a panel" it's probably easier to use 3m tape or something and grind down the posts, because I'd hate to put holes in a nice tail gate

 

Thats exactly what i was plannig to do. And if for some reasont that isnt enough and doesnt hold up then i would just drill 4 holes in each corner and run flat rounded bolts (like the ones on our bumpers) all the way through the tailgate and bold them down on the other side where nobody can see the nuts behind my bedliner.

 

I wish you luck in finding a nice panel, they are expensive around here for one without dents. I was looking to replace mine a while ago, but after seeing the prices and my tail gate being a rusting piece of junk with bad latches, I just took it off and said screw it. I roll around with a bamboo pole and 3 cinder blocks as my tail gate

 

if i remember correctly, the chrome/black or red panel on the tailgate is $600+ new i dont know why but after i wrecked my f150 i took the tailgate off and wrapped it in cardboard to protect the panel lol.

 

I do realize the high price of them, but ive found a couple at my local junkyards and i should be able to get one for pretty cheap. Most of them are in decent shape with a couple scratches here and there but nothing significant that a little paint cant fix!