Tailgate caps,who makes em?

I had a little bit of a mishap yesterday and bashed my tailgate in. It was pouring rain, my RTT was blocking my rear view mirror, and my backup camera was fogged up. The large stationary object took zero damage and my tailgate no longer latches.

The body shop says they’re just going to replace the tailgate and all the plastics. The estimate reveals that the OE plastic cap is more expensive than some of the steel ones, so I talked the body shop into going with an aftermarket steel one.

I need to get them a link to what to order today. I’ve found three possible options, but am open to others. Does anyone else make one?

KBVoodoo - probably my favorite design, but I hear he may still have powder coat issues.

Mobtown - I wish it wrapped over the edge.

Relentless Fabrication - the added skin is nice, and the aluminum option, but they’re on back order and I want instant gratification.

 

I have this KBVoodoo tailgate cap. It is a great design; I am glad I bought it and would again. The powder coat issue is real. I bought mine after the first powder coater was canned and the new [best in the business] was hired. The coating is very weak. I am going to Linex or try a roll on of my own, it definitely needs something much tougher. Mine bubbled, peeled and even moderate ordinary use has scraped through to bare metal all of which is now rusting. But, the strength and design of it has saved my tailgate over several rather heavy awkward loads.

I recommend it, knowing that you are going to have to re-do the coating with something far tougher.

 

I'm happy with my Mobtown skin and cap.

Got a sweet deal on a group buy last year.

 

Mobtown are top of the line especially aluminum

 

i cant speak to the tailgate cap specifically, but my bumper and sliders are from relentless and are awesome! I'm glad i went with them. If i were looking for a cap, theirs is the one id buy

 

I'm pretty sure @RelentlessFab has some tailgate skins in stock. You should call or PM them.

 

Since Relentless was tagged, maybe @KB Voodoo and @Mobtown Offroad should be tagged also for their input.

 

They're all really nice, just looking to see if anyone else is aware of other shops that make similar products. I ripped the tailgate off last night and bought one of those tailgate nets to keep my crap from sliding out, so I'm not in a huge rush until the bodyshop gets the rest of the parts in and painted.

 

I recently bought the aluminum one from Relentless. As mentioned above, CALL them and have them check stock. I bought it bare, spent about 1/2 hour prepping all the sharp edges, and then gave it to my powder coating guy. I just got it back yesterday. It's a really nice piece.

 

I really like the design of the KB voodoo cap and it works perfectly with my ST. But yes, it does seem he is still having trouble finding a reliable PCer.

 

For gen 2 Tacoma here is my input:

Strongest Design: @RelentlessFab Theyre the OG of this idea. The full one piece and bent over the top is the strongest way to make these. I’d call them because I bet they’re in stock. Really tough to keep website quantities current. They offer both steel and aluminum, with or without powder coat.

Cap only that wraps over the edge: @KB Voodoo I can’t speak for their powder coat. Ive seen post with complaints but how many are there without complaints?

Cap only that doesn’t wrap over the edge: Us. We did this because we didn’t like the gaps on the end where it bends down the outside of the tailgate. The gaps are from the tailgate being curved. It was purely aesthetics. Extremely rare for us to have a powder issue and if it happens within 1 year we will replace it. Proper powder application is not cheap. All our parts get sand blast, zinc prime and bake, then powder and bake. Then is the most effective and durable process.

 

It’s not easy, trust me. We’ve cycled through literally every company within 60 mile radius. You have quality, price and lead times and you can only pick two. We use a place for quality and price, lead times suffer.

 

We have steel and aluminum in stock currently, just got some back from the powder coater too.

 

We've done the same, it is really tough to find a good coater. And the ones that are good are the ones that every one else knows are good so they get ridiculously busy too which in turn makes lead times suffer even more. At the shop that does our parts now we're one of their top 3 customers so when things start taking a while we sometimes do have a little leverage to push a few select parts out quicker, but it's tough regardless. Customers never like hearing powder coat adds 2-3 weeks to their orders.

 

Exactly. We are in the same boat. For a long while we were having great success and doing weekly delivery/pickups from them but they get surges, like now and we are told 2 to 3 weeks again. Often we wonder when it’ll be time to do in house powder coating. That’ll be years though.

 

Is the whole skin needed or does the cap do the trick. Would like to be able to load up 600lb atv

 

At that weight I’d go Relentless full one piece. You figure you have the quad weight and your weight driving it. So 750+. That’s a lot. Also, if the back end of the quad will sit on the tailgate while being transported, that’s a lot of weight being applied against the tailgate when the truck is bouncing Down the road.

 

That’s all great info! I totally like the aesthetics of your cap and it really does look well made , but I might lead myself to damage on the new tailgate without a “lip.” I had things on the ground and rested them against the tailgate (skis, snowboards, yard tools”) and a lip would offer nice protection.

My tailgate is also never down, so I don’t know if I need the full skin. Does anyone make just an aluminum cap for the second gen?

 

I never understood how a flat piece of metal, like the Mobtown design, strengthens the tailgate. Flat sheet even if it was pretty thick, even with ribs, has shit bending strength and will flex way before the tailgate ever would. So how is it adding rigidity?

 

Keep doing what you are doing fellas - people want everything done in a day or less, but when push comes to shove, they’ll understand quality work takes time, and they’ll hate crappy work even more. No way they are getting metal measured, cut, bent, prepped, coated (and then shipped) in a few days. Not from anyone who gives a damn about the quality of the work they do.

OP, for what it’s worth, I installed the full relentless aluminum skin back in 2015; it’s been great - I load my mower up using ramps regularly (600 lbs with me on it). No issues, holds a lot of weight, and the coating was done properly and has held up fine - the skin was well worth the money and is worth waiting for.