With the bedsides gone still and still waiting on the chassis and engine, I decided to try and "clean-up" the tailgate. It has the most "patina" on it so I figured it would give me the best idea of what the truck was going to look like when finished.
Here is the tailgate when I started. It has some pretty rough teture along the bottom but still felt very sturdy when I pushed on it. They must have been pretty thick from the factory back then!
I did some research and the main consensus was the CLR bath. Here is a picture of the right side done with the CLR.
Quite a big difference from the left side. (amazing what came off)
Here is the whole thing after the CLR bath
I then put some satin white vinyl in the recessed letters... I thought that it gave it an older painted look because the texture of the metal behind it showed through the vinyl. you can also see that the metal was starting to dry after the CLR bath. I was hoping it would stay that darker color...
Then one of the board members on here (Hart_Rod) messaged me via Instagram and told me about a product called "penetrol" and to try a coat of it on top to bring out the color I wanted. So I ran down to the hardware store and picked up a can and tried it...It worked perfectly... here is a "dry" picture of the tailgate. It still looks like this currently.
I also did the front header as well. Didn't take any after pics but here is the before...
