The Daily BatterRam

Finally getting my ass in gear and started on the tailgate.



Figures when I actually try and get something done someone else comes along to mess things up.

I paid a welding shop to weld in the filler plate and they warped it all up.



Didn't even try to tac weld, just went all the way around with a solid bead, no wonder it warped.





They said they are not liable for the damages.

I sat around trying to think of a solution, since I didn't want to spend any more money on my tailgate, odds are it'll get smashed up later anyway.

So here is my attempt to make it into most hacked rides thread.



I drilled 1/4th holes and tightened 4'' long carraige bolts through the holes until they hit the internal bracing and there was a pop and the bottom half snapped back into shape. Lucky me. I'm going to cut the bolts down so they atleast sit 'flush.'



I still have a lot of warpage around the filler plate. This tailgate is garbage.

Since I wont replace it I kept messing with it until I got all the warpage to be about 1/8th of difference so I'm going to be a Hack and use body filler over it. If you want a nice looking truck, don't do this.







Next step is to get all the rust out, got a little in the hinge as you can see, and a little along the bottom lip, nothing serious. Just surface rust.

Getting the rust on the inside is going to be a PITA

Thanks, I still love hearing that even though the truck has been beaten up pretty good.

I hope using body filler over the warp isn't going to come back to haunt me. I took the bolts out of the back that popped the warp out, and the tailgate actually held it's shape fine, even when pushing on it. I'm still going to put those bolts back in, to keep the tailgate skin from flexing and to keep the holes in the back filled.


I'm going into a metal fabrication shop on tuesday to see what they say about my bumpers.
This is the rear bumper, it'll fit between the bedsides. I was thinking to use 3'' channel iron to be like bump stops and mount the License plate lights on those. Then use some sheet metal to make a top.

I decided the only lift I'd ever put on this truck is the solid front axle swap, I don't have the skill or money for that now, so I'm going to get 32'' tires in the mean time.

I really need new tires, my old 2wd truck had better tires than my ZR2.

looks like I'll be making my own for this gate then.

After 3 years I found all the pieces to my tailgate (Took 45 minutes to see the driverside rod hanging from the bandsaw.) and put it all back together. The torx bolts were a pain, I had to drill 2 of them out 3 years ago to get the tailgate apart, so I went down and bought new hardware from Lowes.

First thing I did was close the tailgate then I tried to open it again and couldn't find the handle on the outside.

so, for the first time in 3 years I have a tailgate again.







Still need to de-rust the thing.






I really like the stance and body lines, but still far from looking nice. Needs a lot more TLC


might need to grind this down a little bit more.





The truck still looks like SHIT, but now at least it's all there and mechanically it works. I'm hopeing friday I can get the truck into the dealership to put the new tailgate cables on. Then I'll be disassembling the gate again to finish the body work.

I was called into work on tuesday so I wasn't able to head to the metal shop to see about getting new bumpers welded up. Shootin for monday to get that done. I want to get rid of these OEM bumpers ASAP.

Still to do for the gate:
Grind down the rust
Take the paint off the back of the tailgate, and also the bed
get the body filler on the gate
use chassis saver on the backside, inside and bed covered by the gate

GM dealership told me they don't have the parts in to fix the tailgate cables, wish they told me that before I waited 40 minutes...

So took the tailgate back off and started using Evercoat's rage body filler.



Made a 'long board' thanks guys.



That's probably good enough, I don't want to grind holes through it... the warp damage is deeper anyway...



Here you can see how bad the warp damage is, compared to the first post not bad at all. Just lots of ripple under and above the handle.



I hate sanding



Looks like a monster shooting fireballs.

That is just the first layer, I need to go back with 36 grit to scuff up the body filler and spread another layer down. I don't recomend it, but since this tailgate is warped this bad it's going to need it to look straight, it'll probably be around 1/4'' deep when I'm done with it.
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I took the time to fix a door rattle too.





Nothing inside the door was loose, I greased everything up really good and then looked at the panel.



It was these white door clips, they were letting the panel bang against the A pillars. I used some rubber sealent around them and AWESOME the door rattle went away for good.

Tried that dumb throttle body mod too, it doesn't feel any different.

Got the LS Grille, turns out I'm still missing the bumper filler, but since I plan on changing bumpers soon I'm not going to worry about.







Then I got the tailgate ready for Chassis saver.

I'm surprised I was able to get those hinges off.





It was a pain getting all of this out.



The top was easy.



Next step was to take those 3 carriage bolts out and grind the last of the paint on the backside of the tailgate and those little tight spots along the top.

The other side of the tailgate is still holding it's shape even with those carriage bolts not holding the brace work. Lucky me. I Still don't have much faith in this tailgate.

Got the chassis saver on, I used "Jet black"







Then worked some more on the front, need to continue sanding with 320 grit.



Looks like a two headed monster now

Late

Did get it to primer in my parents messy garage.

Really surprised how straight it looks! It was a wavy tsunami in the pictures above



I was hoping the primer would be good enough to last the winter, but it wasn't.

Got a small rust spot coming through, going to sand it all back down this summer and get it painted.





Had the dealership do the tailgate cable recall replacement



Winter interior shot- love the stick-shift ZR2.







Also got new tires, Goodyear Duratracs 31"





old tires