05+ Tacoma Tail gate reinforcement group buy

Clearly powder coating was a waste of money. Got another dent in the front edge.

 

Come to think about it, I didn't get a sticker either…

 

I bought 2 bumpers from another fab co. and no sticker. I'm cool with it. But not cool to see yall get bent parts.
Is there a solution?

 

A hammer, a block of wood and a pair of really big Chanel Locs appear to have gotten things pretty straight. I tried to protect the coating but the bend was too bad on the corners.

 

I got dp and no pc. I was going to paint it myself because I know I'm going to tear it up.

 

Still a bummer.

 

Dam that definitely blows. Any word from Relentless?

 

All quiet from RF. PM'd him too.

 

Doesn't look like Relentless has posted since yesterday

 

FWIW his communication is spotty at best. Phone, TW, email. He's hard to pin down.

 

It is a holiday week.

 

Is it possible to still get in on this? Or is it past the group buy date? Here is what I need to fix... Definitely would have to say that the tailgate DOES NOT support the weight of the four wheeler if it was to happen to roll out the back of the truck.. lol

 

Ouch man and yeah it's too late. I'm very glad I got this before I loaded my quad for the first time

 

I have loaded it many many many times, the one time I didn't put the strap on it just to run up to put air in the tires it decided to roll backwards and get hung up on the tailgate. I wish it would have just rolled out completely, maybe that way it wouldn't have pinched the tailgate like it did. I am off today to see about how much a new tailgate would be.

 

Any updates?

 

Got a PM. See what happens. Hate to screw with shipping it back.

 

Yeah I can't blame ya. Sucks that it happen. Keep us updated

 

Okay, I got my plate on yesterday, and came across something odd that I don't recall anyone else mentioning before. I decided to forgo putting the plastic cover back on over the reinforcement plate because I remembered someone else mentioning that they had to get longer bolts to do that.

My problem is that 7 out of the, what, 16 or 18 bolts are different from the rest of them, and have a built in "bushing" that raises it off the surface of the damn plate, so they won't screw down flush. I took a couple of pictures of the plastic clips that I removed from my old tailgate before I popped them into the new one, and cropped out a section so you can see my problem. I ended up putting these PITA bolts on the upper part of the plate near one of the bends until I can get replacements. They stick out enough that I'd be afraid of hurting my dogs' feet or whatever else I try to load in there. It's about a 1/8" or more rise. Anyone else encounter this? I imagine it has something to do with the plastic cover that this plate is replacing, but I'll be damned if I can figure out why they did it.





Also, these plastic clips are not all that terribly stout. After I stripped the first one out replacing the bolts, I was more than a little nervous about the rest of them. Be careful not to bear down very hard.



I didn't have this "star" type pattern handy anywhere, but a 4mm allen wrench worked great. Maybe that's what it was meant to take. What the hell do I know.


I didn't end up having to take off those two screws on the top edge of the tailgate after all. Nearly all of the screw holes lined up when I put the plate on, and so I just left those two, that gave others so much trouble, alone.

It's been raining all day today, so I'll share finished plate pix another time.

Also, to Quadsix, I also had to purchase a new tailgate before I installed this reinforcement plate (I posted pictures a few pages back in this thread), and ended up getting one pre-painted from a seller on ebay for about $400. They had a ridiculously high feedback rating and so was relatively confident about a flawless transaction. *sigh.* They painted it the wrong color. They paid to have someone repaint it, and it was more than a little aggravating and time consuming (several hours on the phone trying to find a painter that would do it within the reimbursement range of the ebay seller) for something I didn't F-up personally.

At any rate, I did find several unpainted gates in various locations online for $225-$270 or so. (Shipping for free over a certain $$ is popular these days also, so you might get lucky.) It might be easier to get the raw and then have someone paint it for you locally, which is what I ended up having to do.

PM if I can be of any further help.

 

This install write- up talks about the screw problem (not sitting flush). The OP here drilled out the top holes bigger while others, like myself bought 7 of the other type screws at the dealer.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/352334-relentless-tailgate-reinforcement-diy.html

 

Same here. BTW you never want to screw down the screw with those plastic clips. They are not designed for that much torque. I just hand tighten them down til its tight.