tailgate latches

I noticed in some images that some may be making the same rookie error I did when I first got my truck. To save your paint, hook the latches through from the bottom, they won't bounce out that way. - Bob

Yup...

If your tailgate is any good it will be stolen. I use a good quality stainless steel pair of locks, keyed alike.
A nice product to consider for chain wrap is that protective hydraulic hose wrap. It doesn't trap water. One of the local cheap-skates used bicycle inner tube and rain water collected in the tube and the chain nearly rusted through. If you must use inner tube, do yourself a favour and punch a few drain holes in the bottom of the loop.
Here is another interesting idea that one of the guy at work used. He used seatbelt latches and the male end and this held his TG closed. I have seen another nice use of seatbelts where the retractor mechanism wound up the belt when the gat was closed and held the gate level when it was open.
http://weldalloy.com/wp-content/plugins ... s-Tail.jpg

http://image.dieselpowermag.com/f/featu ... _latch.jpg

http://www.persh.org/images/65Pickup/taigate_1.jpg

If your tailgate is any good it will be stolen.

I beg to differ. Most of the folks who'd steal your tailgate aren't going to work hard enough to remove the two large, usually-rusted, countersunk screws to remove the pivot post, the removal of which id required in order to remove a GOOD tailgate from an L/R/S-series International. And if your truck also has the bolted loop in the center of the bottom of the tailgate, most thieves aren't going to spend the time required to remove that, too.

My point is, as Pappy used to say, most people who steal do so because they're too lazy to work. If they were willing to do that kind of work, they'd have already bought one of the few remaining good tailgates. [See disclaimers in my signature...]

I keep Babe locked up now and hope nobody wants to steal anything off her. The worst that happened when I had to leave her out prior to restoration (see gallery - shameless plug) was some kid, I assume, flattened one of the tires. She was out in the open (too tall for my garage) for about 5-6 years and was generally respected in the neighborhood - I was known as the "guy with the old truck". I don't think Babe appreciated the "old" comment because she was in really good shape. Anyway, I did do the bicycle tire inner tubes for the chains, but I poked a couple of holes in the bottom part and ran a zip line through it and the chain to hold it in place (and provide drainage). The goal was to make it look like the truck had just been delivered in 1954, and I hope that's how she looks now. A big part of that was the tailgate latches, which are truly period. The tailgate is perfect, and does have that additional attachment in the middle. Next spring I hope to get an image of Babe with her bed extensions mounted and start taking her to a few nearby shows, but for now I just run her around locally - I did take her on a 500-600 mile trip to show my Dad the results - he sold IHC trucks in east central Illinois when I was a child before he started farming, maybe I inherited the bug, but to me they are still the best looking pickups around. - Bob

He said:I beg to differ
I wouldn't expect anything else.

Used to be that Thieves would be too lazy to do that much work,

but here in Seattle some crackheads stole some big bronze bear statues from a carwash,

when they got caught trying to sell em at a scrap yard the cops said they must of spent days cutting these bears up into little pieces to try to make em not look like cut up bears.

a LOT of hours of hard work, which they wouldn't be willing to do at a regular job.

Used to be you didn't have to worry about people stealing anything off a cornbinder, but my buddy got all 4 of his hubcaps stolen at a show he was at.

if it is worth something someone somewhere will steal it.

Coincidently, just this last week, the Surrey Police arrested several persons who, it would appear were involved in stealing tailgates from all years of trucks. The arrested thieves had hundreds of tailgates, some from trucks in the 1950s. I can see where it is so easy to take the tailgate off of a modern truck because it can be slipped off and no tools are required. What I have done on our Ram 2500, is to place a hose clamp around the pivot point on the right side to restrict the tailgate from being removed, without tools.
On Friday, I was going out for b'fast with a few friends and I noticed that my tailgate was open. There were a bunch of footprints in the snow that I think show some effort was made and failed to take the TG. Sadly, the CCTV was not able to get a clear picture of a face. The balaclava and position of the truck hid the thief. Someone, possible the frustrated thief wrote FYA in the dirt on the canopy hatch.
One of the local Binder owners lost his hubcaps and another Binder guy just bought a replacement tailgate.
This area is probably typical of any other in that copper theft is a big problem. One of the houses about a block away has had all of the copper removed by thieves. It too the several days of hard work and even after they were arrested and charged, the same guys came back and tied to finish the job and they were arrested once again.
Every s often there is a "heart warming story" of something finally going so right. A known to the Police copper thief was discovered in a fenced and locked Hydro power distribution and transformer station facility. His body was burned past well done and the Police reported that the thief discovered in the last microsecond of his life why Hydro call it POWER. I am reminded of the Debbie Boon song of the 60's, You Light up my life. A flash dance is something else.

A few years ago some thieves in nebraska stole all the copper including the "live" LP line, homeown came home and hit a light switch and "thats all she wrote". They have a felony murder charge waiting if they can ever catch who did it.
I heard the same story, about a thief who tried to steal the grounding cables from hi tension towers, which go "hot" if not proerly grounded. He never made it far! So called Darwin awards!