Tailgate Question(s)

[MS Injection]

Input gratefully received

Whomever sprayed my tailgate back whenever did so in a moist environment and so it will need painting eventually. It's also a bit ripply below the spoiler thanks to somebody filling a bit of accident damage. Unfortunately when they straightened it out they did not rust proof the small area affected and the inner edge has rusted in that place.

It can be put right, I am not worried about that. But will take some bodywork so I thought (having spoken to the guy doing some of the finer bodywork on mine and painting it) that I would look for a replacement in case I can find one better than mine so needing less work.

I found a tailgate today and bought it. A 10 minute walk from my house. It has a dent just above where the spoiler would be but looking at the thing, it will need less work than my own. If not, I can always sell it on.

However, the tailgate is clearly off an early mk 3. The decal says 1.6 LS. There is no spoiler and never has been. There are no holes for spoiler and having checked there is no way it's a later one with holes filled. My questions are:

1. I thought that non-spoiler cars were fairly rare and it feels like it could be wrong to drill holes and put a spoiler on a tailgate that did not have one before rather than sell it to somebody wanting an original spoilerless tailgate. Any thoughts?

2. Do they have more value as a panel if unmolested non-spoiler type?

[340truck]

In my experience, tailgates are ten a penny. You can't give them away. There was a chap on here a while back (can't remember exactly who) trying to sell the 4 or 5 he had for a tenner each, no-one wanted them.

Doubt one without a spoiler fitted has any more value than one with.

However, if these are now selling for hundreds of pounds (gen u win ford stylee) then I'll stand corrected!

[MS Injection]

...if these are now selling for hundreds of pounds (gen u win ford stylee) then I'll stand corrected!

There's a NOS never fitted one for £275 on evil bay but I don't think NOS counts.

You may well be right about tailgates. There aren't many for sale (I only found 5 or so across usual places) so that's either because there aren't many or there's no real demand. I am more than happy what I paid for it - around what seems to be the going rate for a rust free one. Probably being very anal as mine is not bad. But the guy was going to scrap it otherwise and was too good for that; really annoying I only heard about him last week, he had bits for a whole car that nobody bought so he junked the whole lot apart from the tailgate and it was just too good to scrap.

I'll sell whichever one doesn't end up on the car, just didn't want to defile something if it was worth more to somebody else without a bunch of holes drilled in it.

[pbar]

...it feels like it could be wrong to drill holes and put a spoiler on a tailgate that did not have one before...

Agreed, I'm with you on that one Mike. It's up to you of course, but I think that I'd sell it on to someone who will hopefully use it as it is. Especially if tailgates in general are as cheap and common as has been suggested anyway.

[nigecapri]

Do they make new tailgates - Express Panels etc? If not then they will eventually become difficult to find in good condition.
Obviously, most damage is done to car fronts, hence the price of bonnets, wings & front panels but tailgates do rust through with time & time's ticking.
I still have two in storage from two of mine that went beyond economical repair, along with the rusty one I replaced on the black car with a tailgate off a similar car that someone was cutting up. Already used the wiper motor off it when the replacement went u/s & it's got good glass & spoiler.

If you can then keep the LS item in storage as with no holes it might be clean inside the lower void. Have your original pro-painted.

[Jayman]

I bought a tailgate with holes in to leave my std one nice and undrilled, and I'm pretty sure it was cause of advice on this forum.

[MS Injection]

Do they make new tailgates - Express Panels etc? If not then they will eventually become difficult to find in good condition.
Obviously, most damage is done to car fronts, hence the price of bonnets, wings & front panels but tailgates do rust through with time & time's ticking.
I still have two in storage from two of mine that went beyond economical repair, along with the rusty one I replaced on the black car with a tailgate off a similar car that someone was cutting up. Already used the wiper motor off it when the replacement went u/s & it's got good glass & spoiler.

If you can then keep the LS item in storage as with no holes it might be clean inside the lower void. Have your original pro-painted.

Expressed do outer skin, not the whole thing. My outer skin is fine, just some idiot did not rust proof a small section on the inner frame when he should have done. It would be pro painted, but it's the work needed to put right. The one I bought is rust free and in excellent condition in and out.

It might be just a slow time, but there don't seem to be many around. The ones I have seen were not really any good. Either expensive and rusty, or expensive and said to be perfect but only one photo taken from a distance - call me cynical but...

Will compare the 2 and whichever is better and cheaper to use will be the winner