Coming together ... But still some issues

So I started the day attempting to cut the metal for the cross piece the tailgate hinges connect to. First I tried a metal cutting wheel on my circular saw. Even with the guide clamped to the work area, my line was all over the place no matter how hard I tried to keep it on track. I also kept breaking the cutting wheels from using so much pressure trying to straighten the lines out So I remeasured a different area and set up the guides again. This time I used my jig saw with a metal cutting blade. This started out with a nice line but was extremely slow. Also once I got down about half way I had not noticed the metal that was cut had dropped slightly down throwing the cutting blade at an angle which in turn took the line off track and towards the guide. by the time I noticed it was too late. when I straightened up the jigsaw the blade was severely bowed and would have broke if I continued.

So I went to Lowe's and picked up some metal ... no cutting required!

I marked off the bottom hinges and welded them on. I was going to bolt them on but saw no need to spend the extra time drilling those holes when I a weld will work and look fine. I am just thinking this out and building it as I go. In the end it should all come together.

I did bolt the cross piece to the stake pockets rather than weld in case I needed to take everything apart again down the road. I did not get time to take a bunch of pictures today so I will try and get better ones tomorrow.