Rear gate issues - tailgate metal is buckling / dented / deformed ???

[Mr. Nice]

Note to self. Leave a hitch in the receiver to protect the tire from being bumped. Preferable a large one that leave a mark on whoever tags it.

Folks are going to love it when you hit them because of your parking.

One of those hitch tube steps with and extender to get it past the tire.

Yah that’s really going to help you park. I got it, only the other folks will it hamper.

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[JHawk]

Folks are going to love it when you hit them because of your parking.
Yah that’s really going to help you park. I got it, only the other folks will it hamper.

No worries, I don't back into parking spots and I am not an inconsiderate driver. Last time I checked the Bronco has a lot of bells and whistles including a backup camera. I have found backup cameras to be very useful especially on vehicles where it is difficult to see like F350's.

 

[Tacnav#1]

My neighbor picked up her Badlands earlier this week and drove it off the lot about 2 miles and noticed a loud popping sound coming from the rear of her Bronco. I rode in the back and heard the popping sound when we hit a bump in the parking lot. Upon further inspection we determined the right side of the tailgate metal is malformed. She took it back to the dealership and sure enough it appears to be a manufacturing issue. Ford will be sending the dealer a replacement tailgate. In the mean time they removed the spare tire so no more popping sound while driving. The robot at the factory must have had a bad day! Hers was built the 2nd week of January and had been setting at snow mountain until it arrived this past Monday.

Mine was built January 7th and arrived at my dealership 13 days later...knock on wood no issues. I love my Badlands.

 

[Syphon]

So how has this whole story ended? Did they fix it under warranty or no luck? I am afraid I have an identical dent which I've just noticed. The only issue I had before was cracking metallic noise from the tailgate from the very beginning. Hmm not sure what can we do about it.

Well, it ended not the way I wanted for sure. We looked through all photos of the bronco when it arrived, when we went to pick it up. Of course we didn't take a picture of the correct angle to see the damage. Damage I only noticed maybe a week into owning it. It was something I didn't notice when we picked it up. We left thinking someone must have hit us in a parking lot somewhere ya know. Well, we came across a photo months later that show a bit of the damage to the gate that the sales guy posted of the emblem the day it arrived at the dealership. You can definitely see some damage. At this point, almost 6 months later, I brought this up to the dealership and they said they would work with me. One problem, they would replace the whole gate and it could take up to six months to get a replacement. I thought about it and decided that I want to keep my bronco as original as possible like it was delivered to me. Sounds strange but after the time I have spent with it, some dents, to me.. make it my own and a cool story about my bronco that goes with it. At some point, if I find the right person who knows how to work with aluminum can do something without having to replace the whole gate then maybe I'll give that a shot! There is no other damage to my bronco and it has been great up to this point. With the way Ford had had this roll out, to the other stories of people getting non matching interiors and just strange happening with the Bronco, Im satisfied. My dealership was more then happy to help me, but I think I'm going to keep it as I got it. Dents and all.

 

[Ragusranch]

So I picked up my Black diamond bronco on Saturday! Almost a week and I can't be more excited! I love it! That being said, I noticed this, the rear gate looks as if the metal is buckling... I don't know what it could be, nothing has hit it or it's not been hit by anything and you can tell that by these pictures, I'm wondering if just the outdoor elements are causing the metal to react in such a manner that it's buckling or stretching or shrinking I'm not sure, is this normal???

Update
Well it looks as though someone or something... Has nailed my bronco in the back. Lower/ lower left of the spare tire. At the bottom where the spare tire hangs, apparently the two rubber stoppers or spacers are not suppose to be crushed like mine are. I didn't even look at that. We compared it to the demo and yup, someone hit the bronco. Please be careful in parking lots. We left it alone one time for a total of maybe an hour at the emptiest part of the lot and this happens.
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