Tailgate Destruction

[Low 89]

So, I figure it's time to tackle something that has been wrong with the truck since I purchased it. It seems that the arm to lower the tailgate on the passenger side is either a little bent or installed incorrectly. You'll see why below.

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So - how should i go about repairing this? new arm and some bondo? what do you suggest?

EDIT: If you see the water in the bed on that second picture, thats the result of leaving the truck out during a heavy rainfall with a static drop only 1/2 complete. At the front of the bed the water is about 2.5" deep.

 

[1badgmc]

Ouch. I feel your pain there. One of my arms took out a chunk of my bed there years ago. It ended up getting repaired during the taillight shaving process.

 

[tattooed4life]

I had a hard time trying to remove mine as it was doing the same thing yours is but not that bad. My dad suggested taking a ratchet strap and hooking it to both arms and slowly pulling them together until they didn't hit. It worked fairly well. Just don't over do it, I went at it like a bat out of hell and my old man slowed me down to fine tuning speed-lol.

 

[Low 89]

Yeah thats when i was considering doing it aswell. Did you just weld a small peice of metal in there and grind er down?