Wagon tail gate question,unknown holes in lower structure ?

[djfordmanjack]

G'morning Jay, thx for the pics, but it is the upper edge of the tailgate showing unfortunately. I have some time left for this decision, since I have many other things to work on and I will have the tailgate parts sandblasted only after the snow is gone, probably March, to avoid moisture before primer. I can still weld up the holes then, if we find out they shouldn't be there. I am sure some of our wagon owners will be able to come up with the answer.
That old wgn of yours sure was cool, but it had the same rain gutter rust as 50% of them have (mine too), what a terrible panel to replace properly 

[Ford Blue blood]

Just dawned on me....a torsion bar is clamped in place on the bottom of the gate?

[canadian_ranchero]

here are some pictures of the bottom of my tail gate.hope this helps

these pictures are from my county sedan station wagon.

[djfordmanjack]

oops I missed that, thanx. And now I am totally puzzled. yours has 4 screws that mine doesn't have at all, and I have those two holes in totally different postition than your screws. yours doesn't have holes in the areas mine does. Is it Canadian buildt ?
here's an actual pic from the outside

[canadian_ranchero]

my wagon was built in canada

[djfordmanjack]

ok, my old Courier Delivery also was Canadian built and it was different in several areas than US 57s. it seems as if those twin screws in the middle of your gate could be for a lower lock as used in the Sedan Delivery rear gate.

[electricalan]

my ranchero has the holes on both sides,but my ranchwagon gate only has it on drivers side with a rubber plug in it.

[djfordmanjack]

Thanx for the info, that is crazy. how many hole patterns do we have ? I am starting to think, that with the huge number of wagons produced in dozens of plants, they must have had several suppliers for stamped panels. maybe they had different designs ?
My car is Dearborn built.
I never thought this to be such widespread topic !

[Limey57]

Just checked my Ranchero & it has none.

[Mavaholic]

I have both a 2 door wagon and a 4 door wagon. The 2 door has no small holes like those and the 4 door wagon has 2 holes. One just to the outside of each hinge.

[Limey57]

Although I said my Ranchero hadn't got any, I'm wrong! I welded them up a while ago (and forgot!). The reason I didn't leave them is that I thought a previous owner had done them as they weren't evenly spaced.

[djfordmanjack]

Thanx guys for the information. I have found pics of at least two other wagon gates that have the holes. I have no idea what they are for, maybe a production detail, specific to production date or factory. my wagon is August 57 Dearborn built. Anyways I will keep the holes, I think this is enough proof that they came that way from the factory.

[Zapato]

Gunther, those holes were probably there for die alignment, and as long as they weren't in a critical area wouldn't really matter where they were placed. And who knows how many different shops provided those panels.
All these type of variances are what drive restorers and judges crazy. And with our cars there are probably few things that can be 100% certain that every plant put them together the same way.

Zap-

[djfordmanjack]

holes were probably there for die alignment

Zap, that is very well possible, it makes sense !! I know all the concours/Judging trouble with the mid 1930s Fords also, with so many different details and varying from plant to plant. I am not looking for these details because of show points (since I am going to mildly customize the car anyways). I am just interested in the little details and learning how they built it back then. I might be a bit fussy about that but I want to look the car as if it was customized when brandnew or just a few yrs old, in the 1957- ca. 1963 style. Back then nobody would have welded up such stuff or cleaned the firewall, because they were daily drivers getting a shave and paint.

[Zapato]

True, a lot of 50s cars got nothing much more than a shave and often a set of ''midnight auto parts'' hubcaps. And then there were cars like My Blue Heaven that went straight from the Ford dealer to the body shop for a 4 inch section. I had heard mention of this car for years and a good friend grew up just up the street from where it was cut and he would ride his bike over almost daily to see what was going on. Saw it after a complete restoration few [maybe 10+] years back at the Unfinished Nats. According to my friend that shop did a steady daily business cutting coils and mounting lowering blocks. So both extremes were the norm of the day. MBH was gold chainer material in its day and the others were more the norm of one mod at a time as the cash became available.

Do a Google image search   My Blue Heaven/1959 Ford   for a great example of a late 50s full Kustom from the Pacific Northwest.

Zap-