Helping deal with rear corners

[workingdog]

My '66 FJ 60 has always had really beat up rear corners that I tried hard just to ignore. They are beat at the bottom and all the up to lip where the top attaches like it was rolled with no top on a few times. There's a long range tank in the back, which is great, but the fill was put in way to low to work. So in attempting to move it up to a suitable height so I can actually put gas in it (and not have the gas slosh back out) we've kind of open Pandora's box. In an attempt to fill the old hole, we didn't want to try to fix the old hole, so I ordered some diamond plate corners hoping to hide the entire thing. But now they won't go on because the corners are straight in any direction.

So, I'm looking for input. I know there's no good solution. One option is to blast all the bondo off, get the corners straight enough to get the diamond plate to mount, and stop. That would cover the problem rather than fix it, but I'm okay with that. The other option is to go ahead an buy the back of the tub. I have no idea how complicated that is to do. But it fixed the bent lip for the top as well as straightening out the corners. I'm not doing this, a friend of mine that does vineyard tractor and equipment repair is doing it while things are quiet for him.

 

[TractorDoc]

I am a relatively new member to the forum so my opinion may hold little weight, but when I see an FJ40 with the diamond plate corners/rockers its kind of a turnoff. Kind of like a really attractive lady in all aspects except that she has a unibrow. . . so much is so right but you cannot help but look at the part that is wrong. I am sure the society for the advancement of women with eyebrow hair will be sending me a bunch of hate mail but its just a metaphor. . . I think you get the idea.

In the end I can see why a cover would be a quick fix to get you back on the road, but if you have the time and someone that can do the work to replace the rear metal you will sleep better at night doing what is right vs. what is easy.