Shaved tailgate, without buying a relocation kit


My new handle


mount the bracket on the bottom of the bed side.


Basically drill a hole up through the tailgate inner supports.



flip handle over 180* Will take a little bit of work to resync the pull rods to the handle mechanism


secure the cable to the hole in the handle

since the original handle mechanism mounts to the backside of exterior handle, i used shortened 10mm bolts and J nuts to secure it to the tailgate frame





You will need to always leave it in the unlocked position, unless you also setup for the electronic lock actuator on the black lock lever




Oh and the "handle" is a "carb choke cable kit" from Advanced Auto, i had to shorten it some, but leave a little extra on the cable in case you break it when you are twisting it to the tailgate handle.

 

Neat Pat!

 

No more pull string (wire)!

Glad to see you finally got it fixed up good.

 

Im going to try an eletric door popper on mine with a push button somewhere on the inside of the bed. If that dont work this should!

 

This seems like a pain in the *** if anything. Personally i'd be worried about someone finding it and stealing your tailgate. I'd use the relocator kit. There only like $75 and comes with the right bracket and a weld plate plus you can use the factory handle so you can lock it still! Cool idea but I dont trust people enough to do that.

 

well any tailgate locked or not can be stolen by taking off the interior panel and opening the lock and handle from the inside.....

Actually this makes it harder to steal because most people can't find the handle, and if they did, they would have to unbolt the bracket from the bottom of the bed to take the tailgate

 

So how high do you have to jack the truck up to open your tailgate.

Nice mod, Patrick! As usual you're thinking ahead of the game.

 

nice.

 

Do think you'll still like it in a couple months seeing as you have to bend down and reach under to open it? But i guess it makes up for that in Bad A**ness!

 

its actually been on for a year like this

just had a request to do a write up on it, on another forum, so i copied it here as well :o

 

Dont have to jack it up, just have to remember to open the tailgate before i back over a curb

 

Nice work Pat!

 

That is pretty awesome! I was thinking about getting the truck tailgate shaved as well, but then I'd have to get the doors shaved to match.

 

flush push button also works good too.

 

Excuse me for being confused here but is this eliminating the handle on the outside of the truck and adding some sort of pull handle underneath?? If so why? What are the advantages?