Thread: 1993 RRC's Upper Tailgate And Its Lower Member

Nice thought, I think most people just live with it rotting away or lash out on a new tailgate.

Out of all those drawings, which sections are available?

Pretty well all of them are unavailable. The mistake was to use their web catalogue which differs considerably with their much downsized local catalogue.

May be there are other extruders out there and of course there are window/wardrobe etc. extrusions. I'll keep looking.

The circled profile in the attachment is a good enough fit. And from three standard Capral parts.

Hmmm... now to look for an accommodating machine shop.

Got me to a point where the upeer tailgate now locks.

Very impresssive, - Well done !

I think there may be more than a few members who are....or will eventually be, interested in this.

have you measured the dimensions and profile of the original lower member prior to throwing it on the scrapyard? I'm hunting for these to think over the possibility of building it from ground up of steel. what's the way the lower member is fixed to the side members?

The upper tailgate frame is bolted together. Under the latches there are four screws that bolt into an internal corner frame.

For those tailgate that aren't bad yet. If you take it apart, flood it with rust kill, zinc primer and a good paint like kbh /por15, then flood it with body wax, the rust can be stopped perminantly. Also drilling drain holes in the lower edge helps greatly!

Great job on the profiles though!

Mine had really bad rusted holes on both sides of it and on the bottom member. There was an unsuccessful repair attempt with 'cold welding' epoxy couple of years ago, but I am afraid it won't survive this summer and the glass will drop out at the next bump on the road. The Workalot's approach of using several alu profiles to build the lower member seems to be quite reasonable and successful. It's a pity he didn't post all those dimensions so that I could procure material for this little project. Another question aroused: why did he used two square pipes instead of one rectangular? Did he have to put an alu rod inside the pipes to make it more solid and rigid so that he can fit back the latches?