bc1
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2025
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- Location
- McPherson, KS
- Vehicles
- 2025 Ford f150 Lightning Flash
I went down to the metal supply, the Yard in Wichita, and got a piece of approx 3/16" or so aluminum 4x4 square tubing about 13" long for around 15 bux. Cut off a couple inches which was enough to make 4 of those tail gate latch covers. Hand to cut and grind to fit and the sides against the bed are narrower due to bump outs. I spray painted mine with a few coats of black automotive type spray paint for aluminum and then a few coats of spray clear coat. Put the tailgate on manual opening and closing on the vehicle settings.
Had to mark a line on the bed with a straight edge across the tailgate to locate where it ends so I could measure where to drill the roughly 1/2" or less hole. Take a magic marker and mark around where the current latch pin is located. Measure from the pin to the front of the bed edge and from some mark you make above the pin for future reference. Measure how far the pin sticks out from the bed. Remove the latch pin with with a torx socket as they are tight. Once loose the inside receiving thread piece can move around for adjustment which is why it is marked first.
Remove the washer on the pin and the plastic spacer. Cut off enough of the spacer to allow for the thickness of the aluminum. Then I had to grind off enough of the shoulder on the pin to match so the washer will slide on to the spacer. If you don't do this then the pin will stick out to far and catch the edge of the tailgate and jam up or else hit the tailgate past the opening. Check the previous distance that you measured how far the pin stuck out from the bed to make sure you ground off enough.
The tighten it pin back up just snug enough you can move it by hand according to your measurements so when you close the tailgate manually it can move if needed. Check to see if the pin is vertically in the latch area like it was before. Check to see that the tailgate part of the bracket is vertical. Then tighten down. Test back on automatic close to make sure it works ok or if you need more adjustment. If the back of the bracket is too tight you can give a few taps with a hammer to bend it back a little or the other way if too loose.
Will the brackets stop a thief with a chisel and hammer, I don't know but it will help the ones assuming they only needed a flat screwdriver and hex driver.
The remaining piece of square tubing would make about 4 screw covers for the tail light screws. Need about 9 to 10" long and 2" or so on one side for the bed and then around a quarter to half inch on the other side (I forget exactly). The 2" side has to be ground out in places where the bed has bumpouts. The short side fits in the gap between the bed and the tail light. Because of the tail light curve down below more of the short side had to ground off down there to fit flat. Then measure and drill a roughly 1/2" hole of less for the stationary pin that holds the tailgate cable end. It uses a different size torx bit. This pin doesn't require any grinding modification for the thickness of the plate. It was painted like the other brackets.
I had already installed some round head anti theft screws found on Amazon. Main thing is to cover the screw heads so someone can't come along with a hammer and chisel and just knock the heads off with the chisel in the gap between the tailgate and bed.
I'm a DIYer cheapskate. You can buy the one brackets for the roughly 150 bux and these other plates were available for a few hundred bux. I saw some of those latch pin brackets for sale that were made to screw in with security screws but I'm not sure a hammer and chisel won't defeat those.
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