Club 80-90 Forums

Hi there,

I've searched for something already on this but didn't find anything.

The bottom lip of my T25 (1981) tailgate is a big piece of crumbling rust and is beyond saving/ welding/ patching and is letting rain into the back. I'm weighing up the options of buying a second hand one for around £60 which has less rust but will need attention (and will never be perfect) and buying a fibreglass replacement for around £300 which may be a permanent solution. I've seen some high quality ones that look good on other vans that have had a complete spray job afterwards.

Has anyone had any experience of fibreglass tailgates? (Obviously, I'll need to change the struts). Are they any good? A reasonable alternative? Problems with them? Or things to think about?

I'm a bit new to T25s and to this forum so your patience and comments will be much appreciated.

KC

One thing to take into account,you can't hang a bikerack from them.

plus the quality is not too good

If it is an Ebay one from Stockport,
they do advise that due to a significant reduction in weight, you must use weak or old gas struts.

It would be nice if you could get a lower skin for the hatch.
I think our kitchen colander has fewer holes in it than our tail gate.

As you describe the entire width of the bottom 2".

For the same money you can have a rust-free dry state US import tailgate.

Does anyone import rust free US tailgates? Seems to be loads of imported bits for Bays but wondered which companies do 'our' tailgates?

vanagonvanagon (frank) on here does.

Realise it's an old thread, but is it still possible to get imported tailgates?? On the look out for one

Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

Don't forget, takes 2 minutes for a thief to hack into a plastic tail gate.

what2do wrote:Don't forget, takes 2 minutes for a thief to hack into a plastic tail gate.

How would a thief know it wasn’t metal ?

what2do wrote:Don't forget, takes 2 minutes for a thief to hack into a plastic tail gate.

How long does it take to smash or with a stanley knife remove the rear window then.