Tailgate Embossed Letters. Couple things

[Angelo Voltura]

Here is an interesting topic.

What years had painted embossed letters and what year did they go to decals? I thought from 80 in they were decals. Dads 85 has always had decals. Factory decals are pretty thick compared to current aftermarket.

I was just scrolling Facebook and saw a truck that had faded painted letters. Very interesting.

Here is another topic of discussion that has raised interest in groups. I have only ever seen one other tailgate like this, they are out there.

The raised letters as factory were actually /recessed/ on this gate. This is a Ford OEM tailgate supplied by the local dealer, summer 1993 and I do beleive I have the invoice somewhere.

Now you could say oh, its paint dust and shadows.

Take a closer look at the shadowing. Light is being angled from the left hand side. Those are definitely recessed letters.

 

[Rembrant]

What years had painted embossed letters and what year did they go to decals? I thought from 80 in they were decals. Dads 85 has always had decals. Factory decals are pretty thick compared to current aftermarket.

I know you're probably only asking about Styleside gates, but my 1984 Flareside had decals for the gate letters, which I replaced with aftermarket 3M decals when I had the truck painted last year. The originals did seem like they were a little bit thicker, but I would argue that they probably didn't need to be, not by current standards at least. A lot of things have improved in 40 years, and Vinyl and adhesives would be included in that.

My originals were still intact when I bought the truck, but when you looked at them up close, they had a lot of little cracks in them.

 

[FuzzFace2]

What years had painted embossed letters and what year did they go to decals? I thought from 80 in they were decals. Dads 85 has always had decals. Factory decals are pretty thick compared to current aftermarket.

I know you're probably only asking about Styleside gates, but my 1984 Flareside had decals for the gate letters, which I replaced with aftermarket 3M decals when I had the truck painted last year. The originals did seem like they were a little bit thicker, but I would argue that they probably didn't need to be, not by current standards at least. A lot of things have improved in 40 years, and Vinyl and adhesives would be included in that.

My originals were still intact when I bought the truck, but when you looked at them up close, they had a lot of little cracks in them.

Also for a flare side:

My truck did not come with a gate. My brother found one in CA. and sent it to me.

I don't know what year it was from but the letters were painted on.

Being Cory's is a 84 it must of been before that I guess?

I did look into repainting them back on but after painting the gate and then need to paint letters the way the factory did (roller) I did not have the balls if it did not go right and messed up the painted gate.

So I folded and went with decal letters but went white reflective.

Dave ----