[s55mercury66]

Here are the facts as I know them; the truck that most of this will be about is a 1970 GMC, and all of the parts came from LMC. I am also installing rockers on a '72 Chevy shortbed, and will post what I had to to with those to make them fit like I wanted. Today, I messed with the tailgate on the GMC, and found some things I will share, and hopefully the pictures will makes sense. First, the bedsides at the ends where everything meets, are in too far in relation to the tailgate, and the tail light moldings. Unfortunately, I would have to destroy the paint in that area to make it all really fit correctly, so this is just a warning to check the fit of all of the parts BEFORE painting. The flange, or edge, needed to be flattened out a little, to avoid hitting the tailgate. The stake pockets at the rear need to be cut loose at the spot welds, and flattened out a little before rewelding, so they do not sit higher than the tailgateThe tailgate itself needed the alignment tabs at the top bent in a little, and to get it up high enough in relation to the bed, I had to open up the trunnion bolt holes. The trunnions themselves also hit the little flange, and the previous folks cut that away with a mini belt sander, I believe. Since the tailgate did not fit properly due to the trunnion interference, they also used that belt sander open up the latch holes on the strap assembly. The bolts that were used on the strap assembly had washers that were too large, causing issues when trying to adjust them. I had to stop for the day at that point, so I will post more as soon as I get back on it.