|
This tailgate trim does not reflect well on V's engineering ability, or their dedication to fixing their mistakes! How many years did they keep putting these into new models 1987-1994? Nice work!
I was just about to buy a new one, when I realized that would be buying into this piece of crap/planned obselesence part. $180 for a new piece of crap.
MSRP $240 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now, that's a joke.
Not redesigned, but made the same sh-tty way for 20 years! You'd think plastic was $100 a gram that thing is built so lightweight!
Mine was already repaired once with the kit, but the plastic pylons are crumbling. There is a 16" crack along the top, below the brake light.
I glued the whole goddamn thing back together with JB Weld. And got a new kit. You can even "weld" the little steel tabs onto the plastic pylons.
Find the "high points" of the inner sheet metal of the gate. Drill straight thru the carpet panel, use 2" sheet metal screws to anchor straight into the tailgate. You can paint the heads w/ brush on paint to match carpet before installing.
I Easily put 4 -5 screws in this way, takes the stress off the bottom eyelets too. You can reinforce the areas around the holes from the back side w/ JB Weld. This helped, but the repaired upper tabs broke again, then that crack started forming.
Missing eyelets at the bottom? Drill straight upward thru the semi circular recesses into the bottom of the tailgate. Short sheetmetal screw. Reinforce from the outer surface w/ JB, can also "weld" in a washer there.
OK these ideas aren't road tested yet, but I'm officially out of the "cult of plastic body clips and overly fragile moldings." Phooey.
|
