My rusty tailgate.What would you do?

Use heavy duty cup brush on a 4,41/2, angle grinder' heavy duty brush is twisted rope style cup brush. MOST Gain least damage.

 

We media blast car bodies almost weekly, and I have 2 full time employees who do nothing but blast, this is what I suggest
definitly have it media blasted
use Al. oxide only, anything else will leave a residue, and/or not remove rust.
also most anything else will cause to much heat to form in the panel and cause warping

 

i say run it i am

 

I would take a 55 gallon garbage can, dump in 2 gallons of muriatic acid and 40 gallons of water. Soak the tail gate for about a day. Then pull out with rubber gloves and pressure wash the unit with about 1500-2000 psi and a turbo nozzle. Repeat if required. When the rust is off, rinse with soda ash and water mixture to neutralize the acid, rinse again and then use POR15 metal ready followed by POR15 followed by primer followed by paint.

To dispose, simply spray the acid mixture on your lawn, it will thank you for that by greening up.

 

i would make it into a bench so you can sit on it like in your garage/shop or outside

 

take some 2x4's and plywood and make a shallow fixture to hold the tailgate, lay some thing plastic in it, fill it with vinegar and drop the tailgate in, 2 weeks or so and the thing will be clean, rinse it and brush it with a wire brush to remove the remaining rust and paint, primer it really quickly once it drys, Done!!

 

I am going to try the mol***as trick!

 

mol***es and vinegar takes too long

 

Besides the mol***es trick there's also the battery charger method.

 

If you decide to try muriatic acid be careful of your lungs and your eye's. That's some Nasty stuff. I've removed a lot of rust with it and every time wondered how many day's I had just taken off my life.