I had to learn to do it myself with just basic tooling, but you might want to get someone to do it for you if you are not confident. There are a few tricks though, as follows. No special tools are required except a spot welder, though you can get by with just a MIG if you have to. Don't forget to use proper safety equipment at all times.
To get it right you just need to do everything in the right sequence. Most people don't realise that the back body takes quite a pounding (Carryalls are easy to turn over) and the rear aperture tends to go off square. They take the tailgate off, fix it, and go to re-fit it, and it wont fit, or close, or stay shut, or the gaps are terrible. Step one is to open both the liftgate and tailgate, then check the corner to corner dimension of the liftgate / tailgate aperture with a long stick to see that it is square. My 'out-of-square' record is 2" difference in the diagonal measurement of my WC 36, which I had to fix by jacking the body 4" in the other direction and letting it spring back. As a working figure you want less than 1" difference in the aperture diagonals, or the best work ever on the tailgate won't look right.
Take tailgate off truck and remove handle, you may have to drill out the hinge screws, try and leave the hinges on the truck by drilling out the six that attach the hinges to the tailgate. New handle can be bought from Vintage Power Wagons if required as they are generally well stuck in position, don't waste time on it unless it is a nice original and you think it will remove in one bit.
Take the tailgate and run right round the edge with a grinder so you can get the skin off, use the grinder to cut round the hinge area if required.
Clean up and reinforce the inside of the tailgate frame. Most tend to be distorted down the centreline where they have been broken open, so bash it back to shape and weld it up internally as required. Clean and oil the latch / retractor mechanisms, drill out the remains of the hinge screws and re-tap to size. If you have drilled them out too big just weld them up and drill them again.
Re-fit the bare tailgate frame to the truck, and then alter the sides (with a hammer if required) and bottom edge so that the flange the skin sits on is in the correct positon all round, note that the tailgate aperture may not be square so the panel can be made to match, within the 1" limit mentioned above.
Close the tailgate frame and liftgate, check that the top edge of the tailgate skin flange is a reasonable fit - this is where they get most distorted by being broken open - be prepared to cut and re-weld to get the mating faces aligned here.
Once you have the frame in place, and fitting all the surrounding panels, latches, etc, take it off again and paint it inside - leave a small drain hole in the bottom edge so it can't fill with water. Leave the skin edge bare all the way round for welding puposes.
Tailgates are quite chunky pieces of material, I generally use 1mm sheet metal when skinning them, which is thicker than 1/32" and less than 1/16", probably about 3/64" or whatever that is in the guage size of your particular country. Cut a sheet of metal that is 3" wider than the tailgate frame and 3" higher, you will have to trim most of it anyway. Turn a 1/2" edge along the top to 90o, this will eventually be the face that mates underneath the tailgate / liftgate closure.
Now we come to the only tricky part, the compound curve on the top edge. The way to form this curve is to hold the edge you have just formed close to the edge of a steel bench or bar (tack welding is fine) so that the rest of the sheet is sticking vertically up. Then put a full length of 1/2" pipe or rod hard up against the 'underside,' trap it in position, and just pull the panel towards you and down until you have a tight(ish) curve running the full width of the panel . The curve should be slightly tighter than the finished panel, as it will tend to unroll as you fit the skin.
All right, so this is not a compound curve, but the way you fit it to the frame will shape it. You can now fit the centre of the top edge of your new panel to the centre of the top edge of the tailgate frame. Clamp it in position, then do the same with the two bottom corners so it is retained in a triangle. Pull out the spot welder you borrowed and spot weld the panel to the frame across the whole bottom edge, then work half way up each side of the panel till the distortion gets noticable.
Turn the assembly round so that the top edge is towards you, then spot weld the centre of the top edge in place. You can then work slowly outwards along the top edge and upwards along the same side, pulling the skin to the frame in 1" bites and spot welding it as you go. In this way the distortion will spread itself along the joint and the curve will distort to a good approximation of the original panel. Using 1mm sheet for the skin pays off here, as the thicker metal is easier to distort evenly - thin stuff will just kink once in the wrong place.
When you have the whole skin spot welded in place, trim off the excess sheet metal all round, leaving 5/8" to turn over behind the frame edge, then trial fit your new panel to the vehicle again.
With the new tailgate held in place drill pilot holes for the lower hinge holes, open them out and get the hinge screws in place.
Close the tailgate and note the gaps all round, move it round to equalise them as far as possible.
Shut the tailgate and liftgate, note how the edges do not quite match, with the tailgate either being too curved or, more likely, too flat. Pull the tailgate off again and hit it with a hammer until the edges match. If necessary cut through the extreme top edge with a grinder next to the little cover panel, which will allow you to flex the top edge about 1".
When the panels match drill outwards through the tailgate to fit the handle and turning mechanism. If you have used 1mm material you don't have to replace the little reinforcement that is inside the tailgate round the handle.
Remove the tailgate (hopefully for the last time) and spray paint inside, flood the bare edges you left with sealant, and glue some new panel sealing strip from Vintage Power Wagons in place.
Stick it back on, fit the reflectors, and put the kettle on.
It will probably have taken you a day to pull off the old panel and strip it, with a lot of that time spent on the hinge screws. Making and fitting a new skin can be done in as little as an hour once the frame is ready, trying the panel in place regularly throughout the process to make sure the finished panel fits your individual vehicle.
Now then, what's next to do to it ?
Copyright. Gordon W.I. McMillan, 2000.
See anything wrong with the above? Know anything to the contrary that should be added or corrected ? Email me and I'll get it done.