Cracked metal on tailgate. How to fix?

My tailgate has a big chip and cracks in the metal revealing rust. I'm guessing the previous owner dropped something heavy when loading the bed. Is there any way to fix this? It's just cosmetic but the look has always bugged me.

 

That does not look like metal. It looks like bondo/filler that rust has gotten under and started to pop off. The only fix is to remove all of the cracked filler, sand and treat the rust, refill the dent and re-paint.

 

Damn, so does this mean somebody tried to fix it in the past and it's broken all over again?

 

Looks like it had a dent there before and was filled with bondo and painted. Which is fine. However, when someone dropped something on the top of the tailgate it cracked the bondo and allowed water in. This creates rust on the underlying metal which eventually pops to bondo out because it's between the metal and the bondo. The rusted metal underneath looks pretty severe and will probably rust through at some point.

 

I agree.
Best action is probably to just find a used tailgate in good shape

 

Thanks everyone, I didn't think it'd be such an involved fix. I'll leave it alone for now and keep an eye out for a better tailgate.

 

Yes, cracked filler from a prior repair. You can still fix it, but re-fixing someone else's work is harder than fixing it the first time.

Now I'll sit back and wait for the folks who reply "PDR" to every body repair question.

 

You can get an aftermarket new one for ~$150. Or genuine Toyota for $400. Add paint to that... good luck ~

 

First take your tailgate liner completely off to inspect to see the extent of the damage, then grind out all of the rust. If you really hate it, you could stick around to see if someone is selling a tailgate. They aren't common, but if you stick around for some time an opportunity should pop up.

 

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