Hump in the rear cargo area of FJ62. Thoughts? (1 Viewer)

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Hey everyone!

Question from a newbie looking at buying a 60 series.


I am looking at purchasing a 60 series and I have found a really good, completely rust free example very close to where I live. The truck has 226k miles and the engine, transfer case, and transmission were rebuilt around 125k miles. There are small defects/problems, but all stuff you'd expect when looking at a 30+ year old car, mostly with trim pieces and interior stuff. The price is good and I've test driven and inspected the car pretty throughly and everything looked great.... except for one thing. When the owner popped open the rear door, I noticed a strange hump in the floor of the rear cargo area. I assumed it was something under the carpet, but when I pulled up the carpeting the hump was in the metal floor piece. The owner was very transparent about it and said he did not know what caused it and that it had been there when he purchased the car about a year and a half ago. The Carfax says that the car has not been in an accident(I know that isn't 100% reliable information), and the title of the car is clean. The owner isn't trying to hide anything from me and says I can take it to anyone I'd like to have take a look at it. I wanted to ask the users on here for any thoughts before I proceed with taking it to someone and paying for a pre-purchase inspection.

Attached are some photos of the rear cargo area. Sorry if they come across sideways or formatted strangely.

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Someone jacked up on that s*** from underneath, or pogo'd the truck on a loose spare tire. Take out the spare tire and assess what it looks like, because it's not supposed to look like that.
 
Isn't the fuel tank between the spare tire and the cargo floor? It does seem like someone used the floor as a jack point, but then the fuel tank had to be removed? I guess if you want a long range tank but need to keep the spare tire, the only place to go is up 😆
 
If the rear door closes without funny gaps or scratch marks it should be no problem?

Maybe use a forklift to push it back, better to remove tank and stuff to be sure what is happening.



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It should look like this:
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No idea how to get a bump there, remove wheel, cross bar, tank?

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Isn't the fuel tank between the spare tire and the cargo floor? It does seem like someone used the floor as a jack point, but then the fuel tank had to be removed? I guess if you want a long range tank but need to keep the spare tire, the only place to go is up 😆
I’m amending my post so as to not send misinformation. I was thinking the gas tank was further forward but it’s directly over the spare carrier. So unless someone had the fuel tank and spare out it’s unlikely they were able to Jack the floor up. But not knowing the past anything is possible.
 
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The tank is over the spare tire, it's cutout for it. The tank would definitely need to be dropped to get a jack under that part of the floor.
Guess I have to look under there again. I always think the tank is further forward for some reason 😉
 
Just to say it again, the tank is above the spare tire.

No way to get a hump in the floor like that unless someone ****ed it up from underneath. It's supposed to be dead flat.
 
Just get the kids to jump around in the back. It should settle back down....
 
If the price was right, I wouldn't let that be the reason I didn't buy it.
 
On second thought… maybe the gas tank is deformed from some sort of freakish over pressurization which bent up the floor…
 
To the OP, If you have not already, you should pull back the carpet farther, at least to expose the access panel. This looks like maybe an FJ62 and there is a fuel pump in the gas tank about the same location as the access panel for the sending unit. Maybe there was some monkey business trying to get to the fuel pump without removing the fuel tank.
 
Maybey the original gas tank blew up/bloated up in an extreme temp environment?
There was/is a recall for the fuel tanks isn’t there?
Just thinking at it.
 
Maybey the original gas tank blew up/bloated up in an extreme temp environment?
There was/is a recall for the fuel tanks isn’t there?
Just thinking at it.
Could be, but you’d expect other massive problems to present themselves if the tank bloats or explodes with enough force to move a corrugated steel floor that’s, what, 1/16” thick? That energy is going to travel to the path of least resistance which would be out the bottom and sides of the truck. But, it is the universe. Stranger things have happened.
 
Was thinking about this thread last night as I was working on the rear body mounts of my 62. I'm thinking that it's probably not that the cargo floor was pushed up, but that the body is sinking, likely due to crumbling body mounts in the rear. Over time, the sinking body could the cause the floor it to bow up as it bends over the frame.

Just a theory. But if the OP is still considering this truck, maybe take a close look at the body mounts.
 

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