Custom stepside tailgate

[nucknoel89]

Hey all, a while back I got myself a tailgate skin and license plate box from Mar-K with the intention of making a custom tailgate.  Well it's underway.  I trimmed the plate box down to sit closer to the surface.  I plan on saving the CHEVROLET band from my original gate and either cutting it off in one piece and putting it diagonally (as it's sketched in the pic), or cutting each letter individually and have them ascend diagonally (the letters themseleves would still be vertical though).

[bake74]

     I like the idea of each letter being horizontal, but the whole name ascending.  It would be more unique.

[nucknoel89]

Well it's only partially finished but I wanted a pic with it mockd into place.

[bake74]

     Are you going to put the license plate in the upper top right hand corner of your tailgate ?

[nucknoel89]

You mean top left?  :p. Yeah, the plate is going there cause I have a rollpan going in place of the bumper with no license plate box.

[bake74]

You mean top left?  :p. Yeah, the plate is going there cause I have a rollpan going in place of the bumper with no license plate box.

     My bad, old age is setting in I guess.   

[Skyshadow]

Unique, I like it.

[jaredts]

That is a killer tailgate!  Great idea!

[nucknoel89]

Well it didn't turn out perfectly.  It's a bit warped (the right side lines up perfectly with the latch but the top left corner sticks out a bit).  The surface isn't perfect either as the bondo isn't completely sanded and there's some other rough spots that have to be worked, but I had to slap it back together for hauling some stuff.  Down the road I will try to fix it but for the time being it will do, and from a distance it doesn't look terrible.  Next step is the rollpan, whch will hopefully go better.  It's all a learing experience.

[zieg85]

Great look!

[Skyshadow]

Looks way better painted

[nucknoel89]

With rollpan:

[bake74]

     Looks good for your first attempt.  Now all you need to do is shorten those tailpipes a little bit.

[nucknoel89]

     Looks good for your first attempt.  Now all you need to do is shorten those tailpipes a little bit.

Yeah, and it's hard to tell from then angle of the pic but there's also a large gap between the top of the pipes and the box, due to the height of them bumper when the exhast was fabbed up originally.

[False]

I think it looks good. Have you thought about putting in some type of latching system. I think it would look a lot cleaner without the chains.