The rear of my elco has been smacked before and not repaired well. It appears the tailgate is some what arched on the inside of the bed. Where the bed floor meets the tailgate(when Closed) the gap between the two grows towards the center, and shrinks as you move towards either side. Can anyone else confirm a similar situation?

Pic would be super helpful. Thanks !

anyone? Maybe I should put up my pic.

My tailgate does the same, it appears that either something in the bed ran into the tailgate and bowed it out some or something heavy was set on the it. I didn't notice it before dissassembly, only after I painted and reassembled the car. It looks pretty difficult to fix it, probably easier to replace it, if you can find a good one.

It is basically a result of heavy use over the years. I've seen it in pick-ups too. A good shell and a new skin would make it easier to make straight than trying to straighten the assembly.

yup, mine's like that too. Mine was a gardener or farmer's truck in it's first life.

Mine's definitely seen heavy use and abuse, every panel in the bed, including the wheelwells were dented or pushed in, some by quite a bit. It probably was used like a work truck for a good part of its life. None of the outer body panels were straight, all had dents of some kind.

So, the general consensus here is that the interior side of the tail gate should be straight, not concave...?

Thanks for the replies!

It should parallel the rear edge of the bed floor with a consistent gap across the full width. Like I mentioned earlier. - it will be difficult to straighten the entire assembly - but if you can remove the outer skin and then work on the bare inner shell, then reinstall a new outer skin it should work out to your satisfaction. Not an easy, quick job. Iluncked out and found a nice 66 for the 65. 64-67 are all interchangeable. I have the original one off the 65, but it had outer skin damage and when I found the 66 one, I retired the old one.