Tonights repair was to duplicate one of these mounting blocks for the lift gate's gas strut.
The good one...
...not so good...
Used a hole saw to provide some radiused ends and the 3" cutoff wheel to cut out all the torn and ragged metal..
A piece of 19ga is tacked and welded....note the original color....
Cut out a piece from a steel angle, drilled and tapped the three 10-24 holes. This was bolted in place using anti-seize on the screw threads to prevent galling during the weld process.. then plug weld holes drilled and welded from the outside..
Plug welds cleaned up, checking the threads for burrs...
And for next time, we have one more piece to add while the bottom is still open, the floating nut plate for the tailgate latch....
