The Ford

The Ford Bench was made from an old Ford pick-up truck tailgate and a cedar wood frame. The tailgate and the wood are both reclaimed. The tailgate has been lightly sanded to remove loose rust and then sealed to help prevent further rusting. The frame is all cedar that was reclaimed from a wall that was paneled sometime in the 1960s.

 
 

The Silver Dodge

This is a bench made from an old Dodge puck-up truck tailgate with a metal angle frame and pine wood seat and arms. The tailgate and the wood are both reclaimed; the tailgate obviously reclaimed from an old Dodge pickup, the metal from was part of an old garage door setup and the wood was reclaimed from large containers used to ship glass sheets.

 
 

The White Chevrolet

This was another luck of the find projects. I came across this Chevrolet pickup tailgate at the local salvage yard and couldn't resist getting it just to make it into a bench. It seats 4 and has a lot of character. Combined with some salvaged wood, it turned into the perfect county-chic bench. The wood was sanded just enough to remove rough edges and that was it. Original weathering and paint were left on and since we are using it indoors I left it unsealed.

 
 

The White Chevrolet 2

This is a bench made from an old Chevrolet pick-up truck tailgate and an oak wood frame. The tailgate and the wood are both reclaimed. The wood portion is from an old round table top that I pickup off the side of the road. The central leg and other rails were removed then I traced the bench sides on each half of the table top. The rest of the frame was cut from the table leafs, rails and the cut offs from the table tops.

 
 

The Black Dodge

This is a bench made from an old Dodge tailgate and wood from an old piano and some reclaimed barn wood. The piano was an upright from the early 1900's and the back frame used to support the piano harp was used to make the bench sides. The bench seat was made from the portion of the frame that supported the keyboard. The center of the frame empty originally so I filled it with pieces of old barn wood. The frame and seat were lightly sanded to smooth them out and given a coat of stain. The black visible on the edge of the seat and the leg sides is the original piano black paint.

I don't usually alter the original appearance of the gates, however, this tailgate was originally a forest green color that was severely chipped and held little appeal too. I repainted the gate black and sanded the paint off of the raised Dodge letters some. The entire piece was then clear coated.

 
 

The Blue Chevy

The best pieces have a story to tell and some history to them. This one has three stories and three histories. It is a bench made from a Chevrolet tailgate (late 80's or early 90's?), wood from an old piano and an old solid wood front door. The piano was from the early 1900's and the back frame used to support the piano harp was used to make the bench sides. The bench seat was made from a solid wood front door dated from May 1980. The frame and door were lightly sanded to smooth them out and given a coat of stain. The tailgate was cleaned with lime away and a lot of degreaser to remove weathering, dirt and road grime. The entire piece was then clear coated.