Tailgate misaligned?

darkfox1 · October 18, 2014

The top on that side is aligned right. I can't find anything that looks wrong or out of spec though.. bed to bumper gap looks the same.. Frame's not bent.. I put a GM towing package on recently and it lined right up. (ignore my pants.. they're "around the house" pants. )

The damage is already done on the tailgate and bedside. I've only opened the tailgate maybe 5 times since I've had the truck.

jay15892 · October 18, 2014

On my 2011 silverado I had a similar problem. Turns out someone hit my rear bumper right on the corner which pushed it into the tailgate.

pm26 · October 18, 2014

I'm thinking they just assembled the bed wrong it's off its position when they welded it together and now the gate is to tight.

What you mean "assembled it wrong"? The GM tailgate alignment standard has apparently been met. It got out of the plant after quality inspected the truck, right? So it must be within spec.

Edited October 18, 2014 by pm26

darkfox1 · October 19, 2014

I spoke to my salesman today, he has agreed to give me a loaner while they look at it, I just have to let him know before I drop it off so that they can do so. My next week or so is gonna be really weird but I may be able to let them have it Monday afternoon, depending.. I have something else I need to do with it first.

this has been a fairly low priority to me since I'm not CONSTANTLY dropping the tailgate, but I do need my bed from time to time. and I'd use it a lot more if I had a bed cover, so this needs to be addressed. I dont know whats wrong and frankly at this point I'm not sure I care, so long as the dealer doesn't try to say its not something they should have to fix. The vehicle was damaged before it went onto the lot and the salesman saw it, we discussed it before I even bought it (I bought it anyway.) so I hope they don't give me any flack.

I'll update once I know something more.

darkfox1 · October 20, 2014

OK fellas, so I managed to fix this myself.

I made a few rounds today for the truck, DMV, body shop to fix one of my chrome moldings that he had installed upside down. () and the dealership.

Body shop guy looked at my issue and said that any body shop would jhust bend the bedside out at the bottom, that it'd been pushed in from some kind of impact or pressure applied to it.

I went down to the dealer who had agreed to provide a loaner TRUCK, but it was a FORD.. so.. I kinda.. didn't feel comfortable leaving it.

At any rate, the dealership directed me to their body shop in the back, who had a guy come out and look at it and sure enough, tried to pry/push the beside outward below the taillight.

If you look at my pics you'll see that the bedside sticks out below the taillight a good bit, maybe 1/8" inch.

So with 2 body shops saying they're just gonna hammer it out, and seeing their attempts, before giving up and saying "you need to leave it with us for a few days" I decided to give it a try myself. I just didn't feel comfortable leaving it, nor did I trust a ford to get me around town. (sorry, I trust Fords about as far as I can spit, and no further. I've owned 1, first and last..)

So I took the truck back home, and got some "tools" of my own. A rubber hammer, and a long thin piece of wood used for deck railing. I took the taillight out on this side so that I wouldn't break it, took the tailgate off on this side and pulled it back, then lined the piece of wood up and beat the mess out of it.

'

As you can see, no more issue! It's still a bit close, but it's not touching. Best of all, I have use of my bed now, and my tailgate, and I didn't have to give the truck up.

The body shop guys at the dealership said they see this behavior on GMT-900s ALL THE TIME. He said the beds are so flimsy you can bend them by hand if this happens, but this one was "surprisingly resilient" in its wrong shape. They were trying to use custom body shop tools and all that, but their method was the same as what I just did.. so.. I think we're good!

If anyone else encounters this, please let us know as I'm not aware if this is a manufacturing issue, or if the truck was hit or pushed in somehow. There was no visible damage to the truck, so I have no idea how this could happen on it's own. More than likely this truck was a fleet purchase and the purchaser never even inspected it. It could have been like this from the factory and no one who would care would have noticed until I purchased it as an individual owner.

Panik · October 21, 2014

If anyone else encounters this, please let us know as I'm not aware if this is a manufacturing issue, or if the truck was hit or pushed in somehow.

On my '14 sierra the top right hand side of the tailgate is far enough out of alignment with the plane of the brake lights that it is blatantly obvious if you compare it to the left side. I haven't bothered with mine because its not causing any issues. Mine was bought new and I figure its possible that quality control is such that your truck may have squeaked through QA/QC without being caught.

Out of curiosity which dealership are you using? I'm out of Cave Spring and bought from Heritage. I stopped by Riverside Chevy a couple of times but really didn't like the sales folks I dealt with. Not saying they are all like this but the one I spoke with were either too pushy or weren't all that knowledgeable.

pm26 · October 21, 2014

Maybe they will start using aluminum foil in a few years so you can bend everything back by hand.

Edited October 21, 2014 by pm26

darkfox1 · October 21, 2014

On my '14 sierra the top right hand side of the tailgate is far enough out of alignment with the plane of the brake lights that it is blatantly obvious if you compare it to the left side. I haven't bothered with mine because its not causing any issues. Mine was bought new and I figure its possible that quality control is such that your truck may have squeaked through QA/QC without being caught.

Out of curiosity which dealership are you using? I'm out of Cave Spring and bought from Heritage. I stopped by Riverside Chevy a couple of times but really didn't like the sales folks I dealt with. Not saying they are all like this but the one I spoke with were either too pushy or weren't all that knowledgeable.

I bought the truck from Days Chevrolet in Acworth.

This is the 2nd used truck I've bought from them, had a positive experience both times. They have a great friendly staff in every department that I've worked with. (which as of today has been 3. )

I'm really thinking this was off from the factory. My truck was part of some kinda fleet when it was purchased. (the carfax says rental but.. who rents out a crew cab short bed 4wd? I've never seen one!) It has some dents and scratches here and there but overall its in very good shape. Nothing leads me to believe this truck was wrecked or hit in any way that could have caused this, it just seems like the bed was assembled sloppy and QC missed it. Fleet company probably didn't even notice/care, and whoever it was assigned to, or rented out.. or.. whatever.. obviously wouldn't have said anything about this so.. that's my theory.

the good news is that although the bed was fairly resilient, it can be "encouraged" into place.

Panik · October 21, 2014

Solid theory I'd stick with it. If you haven't already I'd get some paint onto the areas that rubbed pretty quickly. I know with how thin the paint is on mine I already I have a couple of chips on the door edges that I'll need to get taken care of when I get my hands on some touch up paint. I've got the first oil change coming up here in about a week so I figure I'll grab some then.

Glad to hear you had a good experience at Days. I can say the same for Heritage sales - very very low key folks in terms of pushing customers into sales. I'm hoping their service department matches their counterparts.

pm26 · October 22, 2014

Solid theory I'd stick with it. If you haven't already I'd get some paint onto the areas that rubbed pretty quickly. I know with how thin the paint is on mine I already I have a couple of chips on the door edges that I'll need to get taken care of when I get my hands on some touch up paint. I've got the first oil change coming up here in about a week so I figure I'll grab some then.

Glad to hear you had a good experience at Days. I can say the same for Heritage sales - very very low key folks in terms of pushing customers into sales. I'm hoping their service department matches their counterparts.

Very good advice, I second that.

darkfox1 · October 22, 2014

Yup, certainly on my todo list! Any idea how much that runs? I assume parts dept. keeps it in stock? Summit white has been around for 100000 years so it should be pretty common.

00Silverado4x4 · October 22, 2014

To the OP, I'm glad you got your truck fixed up. It's great when you're able to take care of business yourself isn't it?

darkfox1 · October 22, 2014

MUCH better than leaving my truck with the dealer for days on end and having to drive a ford loaner. I just wouldn't have been able to trust it!

I really do appreciate the dealership offering to provide me the vehicle I need (and really only need it because of my driveway, we had a storm about 2 weeks ago, washed all my gravel out. I know if I had bought the truck new with this issue they would have given me a new loaner truck to drive, being that it was used and they were still able to find a loaner truck is just great.

Being able to do it myself in ~20 minutes is even better.

spectaculous · October 23, 2014

OK fellas, so I managed to fix this myself.

I made a few rounds today for the truck, DMV, body shop to fix one of my chrome moldings that he had installed upside down. () and the dealership.

Body shop guy looked at my issue and said that any body shop would jhust bend the bedside out at the bottom, that it'd been pushed in from some kind of impact or pressure applied to it.

I went down to the dealer who had agreed to provide a loaner TRUCK, but it was a FORD.. so.. I kinda.. didn't feel comfortable leaving it.

At any rate, the dealership directed me to their body shop in the back, who had a guy come out and look at it and sure enough, tried to pry/push the beside outward below the taillight.

If you look at my pics you'll see that the bedside sticks out below the taillight a good bit, maybe 1/8" inch.

So with 2 body shops saying they're just gonna hammer it out, and seeing their attempts, before giving up and saying "you need to leave it with us for a few days" I decided to give it a try myself. I just didn't feel comfortable leaving it, nor did I trust a ford to get me around town. (sorry, I trust Fords about as far as I can spit, and no further. I've owned 1, first and last..)

So I took the truck back home, and got some "tools" of my own. A rubber hammer, and a long thin piece of wood used for deck railing. I took the taillight out on this side so that I wouldn't break it, took the tailgate off on this side and pulled it back, then lined the piece of wood up and beat the mess out of it.

'

As you can see, no more issue! It's still a bit close, but it's not touching. Best of all, I have use of my bed now, and my tailgate, and I didn't have to give the truck up.

The body shop guys at the dealership said they see this behavior on GMT-900s ALL THE TIME. He said the beds are so flimsy you can bend them by hand if this happens, but this one was "surprisingly resilient" in its wrong shape. They were trying to use custom body shop tools and all that, but their method was the same as what I just did.. so.. I think we're good!

If anyone else encounters this, please let us know as I'm not aware if this is a manufacturing issue, or if the truck was hit or pushed in somehow. There was no visible damage to the truck, so I have no idea how this could happen on it's own. More than likely this truck was a fleet purchase and the purchaser never even inspected it. It could have been like this from the factory and no one who would care would have noticed until I purchased it as an individual owner.

I backed into someone last weekend and have essentially the same issue, except it's on my drivers side.

I see the tools you used for this, but can you explain better where you applied the force to get things back closer to where they are supposed to go?

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 · October 23, 2014

I backed into someone last weekend and have essentially the same issue, except it's on my drivers side.

I see the tools you used for this, but can you explain better where you applied the force to get things back closer to where they are supposed to go?

I don't even want to think about getting into even a fender bender with my '14 lol. Also I'm sure yours also has the rear camera, are you still not used to using that? I can see getting too used to it and not also look at the mirrors and hitting something with the truck. I myself once I got my CDL I got where I never used the rearview mirror on the windshield and used just my side mirrors. I've scared a couple people while backing up making them think I'm going to back into them while I'm looking at the camera lol.