Tailgate Repair

	There were two main areas of bondo'd rust-through holes. This is close to dead center in the top of the tailgate. I didn't take any pictures before I started, but essentially the bondo was falling out and leaving gaping holes in the top of the tailgate. Here I've sanded down to metal, and have cut out the offending section.
	The other area was the passenger side of the tailgate top. After cutting these two sections out, I could look down the tailgate tear-drop top and see no more bondo. So I hope we're good.
	Another look at the passenger right hand rusted section.
	A view of the center section removed - ready for re-fabrication.
	A view of the passenger side section removed and ready for re-fabrication.
	Again, the center section.
	Again, the passenger side section.
	The overall tailgate with the two rusty sections removed.
	I should go back and take pictures of this process. I picked up a small sheet of 16 gauge steel and pushed a section of 1" EMT conduit into it using my shop press. It turns out the 1" EMT OD was almost exactly what was needed as an ID for the repair. I made a jig using a pair of wood blocks inside a steel "U" channel I had lying around. The blocks were separated just a little more than the EMT OD + twice the thickness of the 16 gauge steel. I used the shop press to push the EMT into the steel sheet. The EMT was not strong enough to take the force, so I ended up using a reasonably heavy piece of angle iron to reinforce it. This was a bit precarious, and did spring out of place a number of times, but eventually I got the rounded sections shown to the far left.
	Some trimming, filing, and fitting was needed, but I got this to fit pretty close.
	The new piece kept slipping out of position (the tailgate itself was apparently less than 16 gauge and was pretty thin. I found out placing a couple pieces of 1" EMT at either end of the cutout worked well to hold the new piece in place. These also gave me a backer to help prevent blowouts during welding. I just left these in place.
	Fitting the center replacement piece.
	Another view of the center piece prior to welding.
	Tack welds started along the inside of the tailgate. I just left the tailgate on the truck during this process, which worked out pretty well.
	Tack welds along the outside of the tailgate.
	Filling in with more tack welds.
	And more on the outside.
	After grinding off the excess, the results looked pretty good. I did have some hairline cracks because the tailgate metal was so thin, and worked to fill them all in - resulting in a number of "blow-holes" that I then had to mig-fill (all welding was done with my Mig welder).
	After getting the metal to a decent smoothness, the Bondo process started. I'm not very good at this to begin with, and working an outside rounded edge required 3 or 4 passes of Bondo.
	A 2" piece of PVC had just about the right ID to match the curvature needed for the top of the tailgate - so I tried laying sandpaper inside a sectioned piece of PVC.
	Working the tailgate with the PVC sanding "block" - this didn't work very well - too hard to slide the sander back and forth.
	I moved to a standard (long) sanding block. While it might not be Ridler quality, it worked fine for me.
	As mentioned previously, I had trouble getting the Bondo to fill all the dips, grooves, etc. on the outside-round shape. Multiple sessions of sand, bondo, sand were needed.
	Work begins on the passenger side section. This had a heavy "strap" section at the very end that mounts the tailgate chain. I had to blend the repair piece into this.
	No intermediate pictures, but the process was the same - form a replacement piece; cut, form, fit the new piece; insert short EMT backer pieces to hold the new piece in place and provide additional welding surface; tack weld all around; grind the welds down smooth (again with hairline cracks); fill with Bondo.
	More Bondo, sand, smoothing of center section.
	More Bondo, sand, smooth, Bondo of the passenger section.
	For painting I removed the tailgate from the truck. Here it is taped off and primered. I did not repaint the whole tailgate. From painting the toneau cover I knew the "Inferno Red Metallic" (BCC0412) from Dupli-Color was a very close match. There was a seam on either side of the tailgate near the rounded top that I used as a border between the original paint and the rattle-can repair.
	Another view of the primer. The red splatter was a bad can of paint - the diffuser was missing. Minor repair and touchup was needed to get rid of the splotches.
	Splotches.
	First coat of paint on the "outside" of the tailgate.
	Inside of tailgate prepped for paint.
	First coat on the inside.
	As much for my reference as anything, here's th Dupli-Color paint used.
	Final coat of paint applied.
	Putting the tailgate back on.
	Tailgate reinstalled.
	After installation and cleanup.
	Finished tailgate. Looking closely the "seam" between the old and new paint can be seen near the chain hangers on the tailgate.
	Another view of the finished product.
	And another.....
	From the inside looking out.
	The original center section cutout piece placed on the repair.
	(Most of) the original passenger side holey section place on its repair.
	The old cut out pieces.

One final note. After using the truck, and toneau cover, for a couple weeks, the "softness" of the Dupli-Color paint became apparent - scratches in the paint of the repaired section were starting to appear. I subsequently bought some heavy peel-and-stick vinyl wrap and placed it over the top edge of the tailgate - I'm not happy that I did such. While it protects the paint, jobs like that are best left to professionals. I did a rather poor job with wrinkles, air pockets, alignment, etc. AND, I can't take it off as it will peel the paint off (ask me how I know). In any event, the tailgate is repaired and protected.