Tailgate re-finish project complete (pictures)! With new decals from Socmonkey

So today I finally completed my re-finish of my tailgate. It was a frustrating process, in all honesty I should have just paid a shop to do it. The clear coat came out with some flaws that you can see when the light shines on it, but whatever it is better than it was.

I started this project because I had some deep scratches in my tailgate and the vinyl decals were wearing off. I was just going to try to fill the scratches and replace the decals, but of course I ended up re-doing the whole thing.

The new black decals came from Socmonkey, very happy with the job he did on them and they were a breeze to install. I went with black rather than staying with the original silver colored decals. The TOYOTA decal and the TACOMA LX decal were matched to what was originally on the tailgate. In the left corner there was originally a "V6" decal, however I decided to replace it with the old-school "4 WHEEL DRIVE" logo that was used on the 79-83 Toyota 4x4's.

Here's pictures thru the whole process for anyone that's interested:


After scraping off the worn-out decals



Sanded down



Sanding



Basecoat/clearcoat



Decals on



I went with the old-school "4 wheel drive" logo rather than the original "V6" logo that was on the tailgate



Finally back on the truck

 

lookin good
like the old school decals.

 

I'm likin' it a lot!

 

Very nice!

 

Looks good! Agreed on the old school decals!

 

Great work! The decals look great!

 

Good Job!!!!!!!

 

looks smooth, good job man

 

wow great job!

 

love the oldschool 4 wheel drive decal added on.

 

Ya man, great job on that!

 

the old school 4 wheel drive decal looks awesome! really sets it apart from other tacos.

 

Thanks guys for all the compliments!

 

Looks good!

 

looks sharp, good job