How to prep a brand new tailgate for paint?

[71BroncoSport]

I went with the brand new galvanized steel tailgate.

Looks like it needs a lot of grinding of welds and the edges are sharp.

And will paint fill the gap on the front sides?

Any experience with this? Thanks!

 

[sp71eb]

Mine didn't have the surface rust of yours but it was covered in grease. What I did was sprayed the gate with grease and wax remover (PPG DX 330) then In your case I would knock the surface rust down. I would start with something like 240 or 320 and see if it will knock down to good bare steel with no pits. If that doesn't get rid of the rust I would hit it with a rust buster. I just made sure there was no rust in the spot welds and there were no sharp splatter from the weld and primed over them. I wanted them to be slightly visible like they are from the factory and they are on my truck. I etch primed my gate and then hit it with 3 coats of primer surfacer. After sanding down the surfacer I seam sealed the gaps on the front of the gate to make it nice and smooth in the corners. No paint will not fill the gaps. After it was all painted I used cavity wax(3M rustfighter I) to keep the gate from rusting on the inside. Hope this helps.

 

[71BroncoSport]

Very much helps! Great advice, thank you.