after the grinding was done, i started in on the roll pan. It was a pain in the but to get lined up properly with only two hands, but after some creating thinking (aka remembering a thread i saw the other night) i got a couple small jack stands out and used them to help. I also used some painters tape as well. this really helped. so i got the sides tacked in with a couple tacks on each side.
then i went to remove the tailgate...
when i went to pull the gate, i soon found out that these gates don't come out at an angle like i assumed. so i started in on the bolts for the pivot point. however, thanks to my newly installed roll pan, i couldn't get to the bottom bolt. sooooo.... i had to cut the tacks (thank god i only tacked it) to get at the pivot bracket.
after cutting the tacks, getting the tail gate out, i realigned the roll pan and tacked it back in, this time committing to the "never removing it again" and putting a bunch of tack across the top.
i had decided that easy removal of the gate was important, so i came up with a plan. It's simple really. i notched the pivot point so it wasn't as wide at a certain angle, then i cut the gate so it would slide over it. It actually turned out really well.
Here are the pics:
and here are the pics of the roll pan installed:
