Much to my surprise, I got my left tailgate hinge (E7TZ-99430B39-A; Ford calls it a "roller") at the dealer for $12.91 plus the cost of two six-mile round trips: One trip to show the dealer a picture of the part for positive ID, and the other trip to pick it up the next day. LMC's price, including shipping and Michigan's 6% illegal interstate tariff...er..sales tax, would have been $34.66, with a wait of probably a week or so.

Dealerships are usually a last resort for me, but this case was a happy exception.

 

Sorry for the slow reply, but I just got a pipe the right size, cut off the right length, and welded it on. Poof canned some paint on it, and called it done. It's been done since my post about it, with no issues. Hell I've had motorcycles on it, 3-4 people, and just lifted the body and had no issues with it, and it still looks good.

 

To replace the cheap stamped steel hinge cups with a heavyduty repair per Insaneba, use 1" and 1-1/4" pipe (if you don't have pipe on-hand you can cut pieces for both sides from 4" pipe nipples from your local hardware store but cut off the threads):

Use 1" diameter pipe for the outer (bed side), cut to 3/4" long, bevel the edge to be welded about 45deg roughly half the thickness (because the piece you welding it to is much thinner). You'll also want to file/sand any galvanizing off the weld area (you can weld through galvanized coatings, but it's easier to get a quality weld if you clean off the galvanized and if you breathe too many zinc fumes you'll never weld through galvanized again as it will leave you feeling very nauseous).

Hacksaw/chisel/file the remains of the old sheet metal piece off. Can be done on the truck, but easier if you remove the hinge bracket (I think it's a T40 male Torx bit, if the bracket it screws into comes off - it's much easier to hold back in place if you remove the tail-light assembly via the two 8mm bolts holding the tail-light on). I recommend cleaning up the hinge bracket to clean/bare metal in the weld area (you can see from the ugly section of weld in my picture where I didn't get the metal real clean, but 3/4 of the weld looks nice and I'm confident it's much stronger than the original). Align and C-clamp or magnetic clamp carefully before tack welding it in place in a few spots - then remove the clamps and run a nice bead around it. I used the max setting on my 120V MIG, but you are responsible for the quality/strength of your own welds.

For the tailgate side, use 1-1/4" diameter pipe and the proper length is 7/8" long. Make sure to get the replacements in the original spots so the tailgate lines up nicely.

Maybel's Garage baked on quick spray paint trick: wire brush the area clean, shoot some primer on it while it's still hot from welding, then immediately hit with the color top coat (if your hinge is rusted off - I assume it's an ugly beater like mine and you aren't worried about a show quality finish on the hinges!). By the time the metal cools enough to handle, the paint will be dry and be baked on with a hard durable finish - not a show quality finish but much better adhesion than conventional spray paint on room temperature metal.

Passenger side hinges are the same dimensions as the drivers side, but you will have to cut a notch in the 1-1/4" pipe on the tailgate in the appropriate place (so you can slide the tailgate on/off).

You can wrap the bed hinge pieces in teflon tape if you want a smoother hinge operation, but even metal-on-metal pipe hinges are smoother than the rusty originals. The factory style driver side plastic bushing fits the bed side, but the tailgate side was 0.010" too tight with my particular pipe; you can reuse the original style passenger 'slide-on' bushing if you keep the bed-side post half of the hinge on the passenger side.

These hinge repairs cost a few bucks for the pipe and are much more durable and stronger than the factory cheap stamped sheet metal hinge pieces.

good luck,

- Fred

 

For those who don't want to or can't fabricate a replacement part from pipe - cups that can be bolted onto the tailgate can be purchased from Amazon, search for Dorman 38645 Tailgate Hinge Kit. The kit costs about $10 and comes with a part for each side of the tailgate. I only needed the part for the driver's side of the tailgate myself for now.

Anyway, I just installed it and it fits perfectly. The tailgate even closes I chiseled the old rusty cup off the tailgate using a large metal chisel. This was easy enough and left a smooth surface. I didn't have to do any grinding... which was sort of a bummer because I was planning on using this repair as an excuse to buy an angle grinder I positioned the new hinge where the old one went. Drilled a couple of holes and put some self-tapping bolts in.

 

If you need an excuse....how often would you use one? Harbor Freight carries electric and air grinders relatively inexpensive. Paid $15 10 years ago for my electric grinder-4" with replacement brushes. Only use it 5-6 times a year and still works like new.

Air grinders run about the same +/- depending on brand and quality.

http://m.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=angle+grinder

 

Thanks for the info ! I'd like to get more into welding and stuff so will probably end up buying one soon.

 

I read that the Dorman 38645/38646 Tailgate Hinge Kits (and NeedaPart same #s) fail often and quickly due to cheap spot weld from the cup to the bracket...?

 

Ford sells the replacement kit. It's part number E7TZ-99430B22-A