Home > 1974 Plymouth Trailduster 4x4 - Budget Buster II > 1974 Plymouth Trailduster Tailgate Handle Shave And Flip 1974 Plymouth Trailduster Tailgate Handle Shave And FlipI decided I wanted to shave my tailgate handle. Taking the handle out and filling the hole is the easy part. Turning the lever around, mouting it, and getting it to work turned around is the hard part... Or at least I thought it would be! This is the Budget Buster II so funds are at $0 for this project. The only things needed to get the job done are three nuts (used as spacers to lower the handle once flipped see picture below), a small peice of sheet metal for a filler panel (more sheet metal if you make your new cover out of metal, I used fiberglass), and fiberglass materials (if you make your cover out of fiberglass). Total cost of project materials and parts... a big fat $0. Even if you don't have everything you need, you could get the job done for $10 - $20 including longer bolts if you feel the need for them. The stock bolts are long enough to reach and hold the handle in place but longer ones wouldn't be a bad idea. So lets get started!
First you need to remove the handle, this involves removing three srews on the inside of the tailgate and removing the retaining clips on the rods. For more details and pictures of how to remove the handle click here to see a great how-to on RamchargerCentral that shows how to repair a broken handle. Oh and don't worry about spending the big bucks :-) on those new clips if yours are missing or brittle and break when trying to remove them like mine did. I just drilled very small holes in the rods and used cotter pins (see picture below). Here is a picture of the filler plate I made for the old handle location. I just measured the hole and then drew it out on cardboard, then trimmed the rounded corners out. Traced it out on some sheet metal and then cut it out. The filler panel will also need a small curve to it at the bottom. I just kind of guessed, stuck it in the vise and gave it a few gentle taps with a rubber mallet.
The next step is cutting a hole on the inside of the tailgate. This part is very important because if you make the hole to big your handle will go to far down inside the tailgate and you wont be able to get your fingers under it to lift it open. Unless you make other modifications to the tailgate or handle. Here's a picture of the shape of the hole you need to cut.
Once you have your hole cut you can now put you handle back in but this time you will put it in from the inside. You will also need some spacers to lower the lever into the tailgate. I used three nuts (see picture below). Then bolt it back up using the stock screws, or longer ones if you feel the need for them. Here's a picture with everything flipped, lowered, bolted up, and also you can see how I used cotter pins to replace my broken retaining clips.
And here is a shot of the spacers (nuts). Shot taken from the outside up through the old handle hole.
Well, congratulations that's it as far as it being flipped and functional! Now it's time to make it look good too! To cover up the hole and smooth things out I made a template out of cardboard and then I will fiberglass it. Could also be made out of sheet metal or aluminum depending on what you have around or prefer to work with. Here's a picture of the base. I guessed where that third screw was... I guess I was a little off ;-).
And here's a couple of shots of the rest of the cover.
Well that's it for now I'll show the finished results after I have finished fiberglassing the cover and the filler panel is welded in. Overall it was a fairly easy mod with an extemely low cost, if any! I'll do a more detailed (more pictures and measurments) how-to for the RamchargerCentral website when I finish everything up.
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