2007 Ram 1500.
Spent it's life in Ontario Canada.
In winters, Ontario uses massive amount's of salt and brine to melt ice + snow on the roads.
Well this has taken a toll on my poor Ram andthe rust is rearing it's ugly head in my tailgate and rear quarter panels.

I'm going to try and repair the rust and repaint myself.
I thought I'd show you how I'm doing it.
I'm a hobbyist, not a pro.
I will be posting my progress as I do things. So this may take a while to complete.

This is what I'm starting with.






First I removed the tailgate handle. You have to take off the access panel on the inside of the tailgate first.
Remove the 8 Torx screws and the panel comes right off.
You can then access the nuts that retain the handle and latch mechanism.






Yellow arrows show the 2 nuts that need to be removed. Unclip the latch rods as well.






Once the 2 nuts are unscrewed, you can remove the tailgate handle.






Tailgate handle area is badly rusted.
There is "supposed" to be a metal tab the goes from the bottom edge of the outer skin of this opening and spot welded to the inside bracket. It's totally rusted away.






I then removed the tailgate straps.
Lift this clip just enough so that the cable head can slide over the bolt. Then the strap can be removed off the bolt.











To remove the tailgate, open the tailgate about 1/3 of the way...






Then pull up towards yourself and the Pass. side of the hinge will slide off it's pivot.

pull the tailgate out enough to clear the tail light...

Slide the tailgate towards the passenger side of the truck and the drivers side tailgate hinge will slide off it's pivot.

Then the tailgate is free to be removed.

There are rubber bushings in each side of the hinges. The drivers side was worn. This caused my tailgate to sag slightly which made the tailgate skin rub on the bumper when the tailgate was open. I'll be replacing the rubber bushings.










To remove the outer skin you need to grind down the pinch weld.
I used my 4" DeWalt grinder with an 80grit flapper disc.

Remove just enough of the pinch weld until you see a "pencil line" form.
In my case, once I saw the "Pencil line" the seam separated by itself.
The seam will "pop" open.

There are about 16 spot welds across the inside top of the tailgate that need to be drilled out. I don't have a spot weld cutter, I just used a 1/2" drill bit.
My tailgate is Rhino Lined which made finding the spot welds a little harder.

A close-up of one of the drilled out spot welds.

The outer skin has been removed and you can see the rusty bottom edge of the inside half of the tailgate.

Here's the rusty inside of the tailgate skin.






To be Continued...

 

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Here's the replacement tailgate skin. It's fiberglass. $125.00 plus $85 freight charges. Got it from E-Glass Industries. They're located in South Dakota. https://www.eglassindustries.com







I know there will be some fitment issue's, the fiberglass skin is about 1/4" thick. I know this tab will interfere with the bracket that is inside the tailgate.

I did a quick fitment check...not bad,,,I'm sure either the fiberglass, steel or both will need to be trimmed, shaved or sanded somewhere in this repair.















The inside top area is quite a bit thicker than the orig. steel panel. It's going to take some time to make this fit right.






That thick edge on the fiberglass panel won't allow the access panel to sit flat.






I plan on sandblasting all the rusted area's inside the tailgate. The bottom edge will need to be cut out and new metal welded in. I'll apply some "rust convert", prime and paint the inside before I adhere the outer skin.








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Any particular reason you choose fiberglass over a steel panel?

 

I didn't want it to rust again.
I never "rust protected" or "oil sprayed" my truck.
Might do that after this repair to help the metal parts last a little longer.

I also just wanted to see if I could do it.
I know you can get a color matched, repopped tailgate for about $300-$350 U.S.
I actually saw one seller on E-Bay that sells a "value line" tailgate, in my paint code, for $280
Also, I like trying to learn new stuff.

 

It's an ADVENTURE!

Yup. Familiar with that reasoning.

Having it all open though, would have made rustproofing easy. Problem with that is, my truck WAS rustproofed,,,, and the rockers and door bottoms STILL rusted out. You know, all the usual places dodge trucks rust. Living in michigan doesn't help.

 

Just a quick update.

I decided on my cut for the rusted bottom edge.

drilled out the hinge bracket spot welds

finished cutting the spot welds with my 4" grinder and metal cutting blade

Used some tape to help guide my cut

used the 4" grinder with a 1/8" metal cutting blade to cut out the rusted area

I'm not sure how I'm going to recreate the "stepped" part of the area I cut out. I may go with some thicker metal, for stiffness, or maybe hammer in some beads. Just worried about warping things if I start hammering the metal.
I don't have a metal break.
I could use my vise, but I think it would end up looking like crap if I did that.

Suggestions?



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What's the cross section look like?

 

UPDATE
Finally a day off.
Got a little more done today.

Only sheet metal I had on hand was some 1/8" plate. A little thick, I know, but it's what I have on hand so I'm going with it.

I used my Hypertherm plasma cutter to cut the 1/8" steel.










The surface rust will be sand blasted and then 2K primed.






Tack welded the new metal in






Then filled in those tacks, I'll dress the weld beads a little then sandblast this whole area.






That was it for today.
Hoping to get the outside edge welded and fully ground down tomorrow.





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Myself, I'd just get a used, rust free, tail gate and paint it. Then again, I'm right on the edge of the rust belt. 100 miles north, cars dissolve. 50 miles south, you get surface rust and that's about it. The 3rd Gen Dodges ALL rust over the rear wheels though. Even here.

 

Ya, the pocket that's created when they spot weld the outer fender lip to the wheel well lets moister,salt,sand, dirt, etc just sit there and slowly rot those area's away.

If I needed the truck for a daily commuter I'd prob go the route you'd go. But the Pandemic has my wife working from home so I use her small Hyundai Veloster.

Anyway, I enjoy doing this kind of stuff.