I recently purchased a tailgate for a 78-79 bronco and noticed that the latch openings are different. The tailgate on my bronco currently, the openings are larger then the one I just purchased. I'm being told by Jeff's Bronco graveyard and Dennis Carpenter that the latch openings will need to be modified. Has anyone delt with this and is there an easy way to modify them ? Or will the newer smaller latches work with the bolt that the latches connect to. I don't want to modify it if I don't have to so any insight on this would be appreciated.
78-79 Bronco tailgate
- Thread starter Cayd16
- Start date
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I don't remember the breakdown of years and changes, but I do remember modifying a older tailgate to put on a 1994 bronco.
Seems like it was fairly easy but it is never fun cutting into a good tailgate.
Seems like it was fairly easy but it is never fun cutting into a good tailgate.
So I figured out what I have going on. The tailgate on my 78 seems to actually be for a 86 roughly. It has the larger latch openings on the sides. The tailgate I bought is for a 78 and has the smaller latch openings. So in order to make it work with my bronco I have to find the smaller latches which apparently are not made anymore. I saw a set on ebay for 400.00. I guess I should have bought the newer style gate to work with the latches I have.
L\Bronco
Well-known member
Well, that sucks.
Cheers
