Tailgate va amb-door fitting (1 Viewer)

[SteadiCruiser]

Can anyone please explain the fitting differences of the rear doors and sills between a soft top and hardtop fj40? Specifically, I’ve got a hard-top 74 fj40 in pieces ready for body work and have both the original Split doors and a factory tailgate door available to me. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around what, if any, bodywork (besides latch and hinges) might be involved to switch from one to the other. Was the factory tailgate tub different and intended to be a flush fit?

 

[Living in the Past]

What year is your cruiser and how was is setup at the factory? Only the full ambulance door were made to fit flush. Adding a tailgate or barn doors to a tub made for ambulance doors would be easier than trying to fit ambulance doors on a tub made for either barn doors or a tailgate. Few years back I test fitted a tailgate on a 76 with ambulance doors. It fit inside the notch in the tub that is there some the ambulance doors fit flush. Could use a spacer the tailgate side of the hinges and catch for the latch. This way all the hardware for the tailgate could be used. Weatherstripping I did not look into since I didn't plan on doing it. Did it because of someone was looking at running a tailgate on an ambulance door model when the top was off. At the the the to have a few loose tailgates around my 76. Should add if doing on a 1/79+ will need to round the outer corners to fit flush.

 

[SteadiCruiser]

Thanks for the response. First, apologies for my atrocious phone typing skills that led to the typo in the title. Second, I didn't realize there was so much of a distinction between the barn doors and the ambulance door models. I had always (mistakenly) assumed that they were interchangeable depending on whether you were running topless or not.

To clarify, I have a 1974 fj40 with barn doors and wondering to what degree (opening and fitting) the tub will fit a factory tailgate with the correct hardware.

 

[brian]

Yes it will.
Will need to drill holes for hinges and latches ect.

 

[SteadiCruiser]

Great thanks. It looked like the tailgate overlapped, but just barely ( 1/4inch?). is this correct and would weather stripping be needed or does it fit good once the hinges and latches are in place?