1985 F250 tailgate question

[Rickman Metisse]

Good Evening Forum, after doing some searching I finally found a serviceable original tailgate for my '85 Styleside F250 albeit not the color of my truck.  The tailgate came off I believe was a 1982 truck having support arms versus the support cables which are on my truck.  

Also included were the support arm anchors for the 1982 pickup bed along with a couple of small bumpers which I believe attach to the bed via an included single small screw.  My questions is concerning these small bumpers as it would appear there is no place to attach these on my '85.  The LMC truck parts page shows these as a part used on the 80-85 "tailgate bumper-lower" #17 and 18 but I know this is not necessarily the most accurate source since it also shows there is a "tailgate bumper-upper" #16 and there it seems is no provision for this part either on my truck.  There is however markings on the tailgate to indicate these upper bumpers were present on its original 1982 truck.  Am I correct in assuming the '82 Ford pickup used additional rubber bumpers with its tailgate versus what was used with the 1985 tailgates?

I can provide photos of the bumpers in question along with whats currently on my truck with regards to the tailgate.  Thanks

[BigBrother-84]

Yep, some pictures of what you get would be helpful.
I remember that these bumpers questions were confusing, when I restored Big Bro.
I bought some that I never found where to install .
There were two kinds that found their way to the bed sides, the mysterious others were useless.

[Gary Lewis]

Go to our page on Documentation/Exterior/BEDS, TAILGATES, & COMPONENTS and then to the Tailgates tab and the Illustrations tab.  There you'll see all the bits for the 1980 - 82 tailgate and then the 1983 - 86 tailgate, including the bumpers.

Then go to the Changing Tailgates tab and it'll show you the difference between the two support systems and explain how to put a later tailgate on an earlier bed.  But it says "So, while it would be possible to install the later latch on an earlier gate or vice versa, I don't think that is a good approach due to the different clearances cut on the 'gate to clear the cable as well as the differences in bolt holes."

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I'd look into what it is going to take before drilling and/or cutting.  And please let us know if you do it so we can update that page with how you did it.

[Rickman Metisse]

Thank you very much for pointing me in the direction of the illustrations on your website.  This was very helpful.  I believe I have everything correct for mounting the tailgate which is actually is from a 1981 not a 1982 as I mistakenly stated.  It was a matter of removing the latch & related components from the '81 tailgate and replacing them with the same from my beat up aftermarket tailgate on my '85 F250.

The other thing the illustration provided was being a helpful tutorial in figuring out how the use the parts book I have on flash drive covering Ford trucks from 1980-89.  At approximately 5000 pages it was a challenge at first when attempting navigation to find a part number.

[Gary Lewis]

Looks great!  Glad you got the tailgate figured out.

And I'm glad you got the parts catalog figured out as well.  It is very helpful, but can be very confusing as well.