[GB SISSON]

Bill, I know, I know... you feel a one piece lift gate with gas shocks might seal better, and there's a good chance it would. To me the only reason a person owns, builds, drives a woodie (or any antique vehicle for that matter) is the romance of the whole experience. Let's face it. Modern cars work much better and are more comfortable and require far less maintenance. The more we make our old vehicles 'better', more of the original feel is lost. I do feel that with modern rubber weatherstripping and seals I can get a tight seal at the gates. We build a lot of custom entry door sets and double french doors on waterfront homes. Very important they don't leak any driving rain and salt spray as the owners are usually in Arizona or Hawaii for the winter and the wood floors will be ruined. My vision of this truck is the tailgate down, rear windows up, our old aluminum cooler on the tailgate
and it's a pita to reach in and load and unload everything across what looks like will be a huge tailgate. I'm hoping to address the exhaust fume issue, but I know already that the tailgate will be pretty horrible to use, but I won't have to look at the black, mini-van sourced gas shocks when I'm gazing upon my creation. We all adjust for what is important to us. Juice brakes on a model A.... Holy crap I'm starting to sound like some of the rants I see on forums. Really Bill, you have been a big supporter and this thing will never be anything original, but I just gotta have an old fashioned tailgate.