Tailgate

The wagon's tailgate consists of a single flat board, hinged to the wagon bed with three strap hinges.  There is a strip of "specialty" steel channel on the top edge, and it latches shut with a spring steel latch on each side.

It is a small piece, suitable for painting with the seat parts, if I don't get to the wagon box this winter.

As with everything else on this wagon, rust is very bad on the tailgate metal.  Two of the three hinge pins were rusted solidly to the part of the hinges attached to the wagon.  The nuts on the strap hinges were solidly rusted to the bolts, so the nut splitter was employed to temporarily free the tailgate from two of its hinges.

  Today I managed to wrestle the pins out of the hinges, so here are all three straps, along with the upper rail.  They have been cleaned of scale, dirt and paint with a wire wheel and are now in the electrolyte bath for de-rusting.

I want to get the metal work finished first as just like the lazyback on the seat, the tailgate board began to twist immediately when freed of its ironwork.  While I'm not working on it, the plank is clamped to the workbench.

Later...

The ironwork has been pulled from the derusting bath and is in the process of being surfaced and primed.

The tailgate itself is a single plank with many cracks in the surface of the paint.  There are no through-going cracks in the board, except near some of the bolt holes.  What's odd about the board is that the grain is peeling up at the edges, kind of like an onion.  This is what has cracked the paint.

And here's the tired old board, in want of a lot of surfacing before it's fit to take a coat of paint!    The board wants to twist, so is currently bolted to a piece of heavy plywood for repairs.

Once again, it's Abatron to the rescue.  In this case, there's no actual damage to the board, except for one bug hole and a small chip out of the bottom edge.  I mainly just want to arrest the peeling grain on the board, so I drizzled Liquid Wood along the grain.

After curing overnight, the Liquid Wood was sanded flush, then the board was surfaced with grain filler, sanded again, and sealed.

In the meantime, the three hinge straps and the top rail have all been cleaned, derusted, resurfaced and primed, and are drying in front of the shop stove.  The tailgate will be reassembled tomorrow!






And Finally...

Well almost...

The tailgate panel and its hardware are reattached.  I have to acquire some slot headed machine bolts for the hinges and "tighten up" the screw holes in the cap rail, but otherwise, repairs to the tailgate are finished, and it can go into storage along with the seat.

The only remaining thing on the wagon in need of repair and paint preparation is the box itself.  No bringing THAT in the house!