Dorman 38646 Tailgate Hinge Kit,Black

On the GMT400 platform, GM used a single bolt for these hing components, and then welded the bottom. Why GM, why?? This isn't Dorman's fault, but you should know this before getting into it. Because of this, I gave 'easy to install' one star. Again, not Dorman's fault.Value for the money I give four stars. I'm sorry, but I think something so simple to make should be a little cheaper. Still, the price is not sky high.Sturdiness I give four stars. They appear to be well made, but time will tell.On my tailgate hinges ('95 Chevrolet), the port side failed completely. On the starboard side, the bed mounted hing was on the way out, but the tailgate mounted half of the hing still appears solid, so I'm leaving it.To remove the original failed hinge, I removed the one bolt, and used a 7" angle grinder with a cutting blade to cut through the weld. Take your time as one side of the hing is close to the sheet metal.To install this hinge, I drilled a 5/8" hole through the center of the cup, bolted it on snugly, aligned the bottom of the hinge with the tailgate's mount, and made a nice, thick plug weld. IMO this is a much better option than grinding and drilling out the factory weld from the tailgate mount and welding from that side. Sprayed a little primer and top coat on the weld while it was still warm to 'bake' it on. Tailgate-to-bed alignment was a bit of a concern as there is no good way to check alignment before final welding. I'm happy to say that aligning the bottom of the hinge with the tailgate mount worked well and that the tailgate lines up perfectly with the bed.My tailgate has not opened/closed this well in a very long time. Slow derogation of the hinges over many years resulted in a stubborn tailgate that I thought was 'just an old tailgate'. Had I realized how bad the hinges were, I would had replaced them years ago.

So obviously only one bolt holds it on, it’s not the hinges fault it’s GMs fault for a bad design, so you will have to give the other side of the hinge a couple spot welds to hold it on properly

They shipped it fast. No problem with installing.

bolted right on no problem

Could have been ship in smaller box Northern mail boxes are small but will hold a few packs of these parts the box it came in was big enough to hold 10 packs and had no rapping so parts just bounced around in the box. Parts were OK and it was ship in a expected Pandemic time limits. So all is Good.