Relentless Fab's tailgate reinforcement fixed my bent tailgate!

First of all... I'm just a customer of Relentless Fabrication, no financial interest.

I bought their powder coated aluminum tailgate reinforcement from a link I found on TW. I hoped it would not just reinforce, but also do a bit of straightening on my very bent tailgate.

The results exceeded my expectations, as you can see!

1. I bent my tailgate while loading a dual sport bike. The ramp slipped out when the bike was almost loaded, and the rear wheel dropped so the skid plate/engine part of the bike hit the tailgate and bent it.



2. I took off the plastic tailgate cover to survey the damage:



3. Ouch! Much worse than I thought:



4. Most of the glued on internal braces were broken off. Who's idea was GLUING ON BRACES anyway??



5. I put tape on the tailgate to protect the paint, and then slid the reinforcement over it. It took a lot of pressure to force the bent gate into the channel on the reinforcement:



6. Unfortunately the holes in the protector did not line up. Partly this was because the bend pulled the tailgate internals away from the top of the gate. I first tried to get tools to bend the internals back towards the top, but finally just yanked on it... what a cheap thin piece of metal! You can easily bend the tailgate internals with your hands.



7. Once the internals were straightened out, the holes still didn't completely line up. I removed the two screws located on the top edge of the tailgate, and then the protector was flush on the top of the gate:



8. Time to replace the plastic cover and fasten the screws. NOTE: the screws thread into nylon nuts mounted in the tailgate. On a Makita screw gun, setting the clutch tighter than #3 will strip the nuts. Don't ask me how I know...



9. That's it! The results look amazing:



10. The aluminum tailgate reinforcement is so much stronger than the tailgate that it forces the tailgate back into shape:



11. I figured that the top part of the reinforcement would be straight, but I thought the rest of the tailgate surface would still be bent. There is the tiniest of wave right where the bend was the worst, but it's barely noticeable:



Thanks to the Relentless Fabrication guys for creating such a great solution. The tailgate feels much more robust now. As a side bonus, it closes very tightly to the bed which eliminated a rattling noise I was getting over bumps.

Now to load up some more heavy dual sports and test...

 

Looks clean!

 

Glad to see it greatly helped your tailgate situation!

 

Quote "There is the tiniest of wave right where the bend was the worst, but it's barely noticeable: "

It'll buff out

 

I have a similar problem. I am trying to decide whether or not a simple tailgate cap or a fully integrated system like this one would be best to fix the bent tailgate. This one looks like it did a pretty good job!

 

I know this is old, but I have to say it was very relieving to find. Dropped a quad on my tail gate yesterday. Didn't bend it this much, but still plan to buy the tail gate mod to try to fix it. Taught me something, dont put it off when you know you need it.

 

Can anyone send me measurements for these reinforcements for the 1st gen tailgates? I would buy one but they don't ship to the Canada, but I have a local metal guy that can make me one.