harvester60 wrote:I have just fallen in love with a bed. Absolutely amazing, puts my tailgate to shame. How did you attached the half round stainless steel to the bed and tailgate? Also if i may ask what paint did you use? Is it base coat and clear or 2 pac? Luke
Thank you Luke!
The tailgate was pretty complex, as you can imagine, but I wanted a functioning gate even though I lost a few inches in bed depth due to the Dakota chassis. The style was gleaned from a tailgate I saw on a 57 pickup that won the Riddler Award in 2013. It makes mine look amateurish, but I absolutely fell in love with it. I didn't want to recreate it so, my tailgate is some them, some me and some my son who is an artist that also suggested the bead roll shape to match the rear window on the cab and style of the side window surrounds. The IH big truck guys will recognize the center emblem and the lights, 50 Pontiac. I'll add a pic below of the 57 Chevy and you will see what I mean about falling in love.
The stainless is bolted through the metal deck. I drilled the bottom side of the SS with a hole that was slightly smaller than the 1/4 -20 SS bolts. Then used a dremmel with a cut off blade to make a !/8" wide cross cut on the hole that once the bolt was driven in a short depth, I was left with a indentation on both sides of the bolt for a spot weld to fill. Once spot welded, I used the dremmel to cut away the top of the weld so the 1/2 round was flat around the bolt. Then I cut off the bolt head leaving a stud. I hope that is clear. A lot of work but once I got started it went fast.
I wanted my paint to not be super glossy as in 2 stage base/clear, and something I could easily touch up. I used a single stage with hardener and color sanded after. It came from Tri City Paint or TCP Global Championship White and Jet Black. Not being an expert painter, the learning curve was big and I have learned to touch up and blend as well as a pro. lol