The hatch glass on my 86 z28 was replaced with a crappy, wavy aftermarket piece a few years ago. I will soon have a complete OEM hatch off of an 86 car (already has that stupid 3rd brake light dome, yay!) waiting for me to install and I am looking for any pointers/wisdom that can be offered by somebody who has done this job solo. I will need to transfer my deck piece/spoiler to the replacement window. My hatch is the motorized closing kind, as is the replacement if that matters at all. I looked over the existing installation and it all looks pretty straight forward.
Is it?

Common sense tells me that none of the nuts/bolts should be overtightened. Any known torque specs?
What kind of sealant do I apply b/t the deck piece and the glass to ensure a watertight seal?

When the existing glass was installed a lot of unknown clear sealant was used, no doubt because of the wavy nature of the glass they used.

THANK YOU

 

Needed tools and people:

3 people
a wrench
silcon glue (i think, if not i can't think of the name right now)

When you're moving the spoiler and the back metal piece that's attached to the glass, do it while the glass is off the car. Do not put it on and seal it then try and put it on the hatch struts right away. It is a pain and you will screw it up. (i've done it before) Then when the sealant dries put the glass all the way up, further then what the struts go, and bolt the glass to the metal body but not overly tight. Then attach the struts and let the struts hold it open. Tighten the bolts down until you need quite a bit of pressure to keep turning it. Then close the hatch and see if it lines up, if not losen the bolts on the top of the glass and lift up, then slide it accordingly. Hope this helped.

 

These bolts you're talking about tightening, then re-adjusting to line up the fit...you're talking about the four bolts that hold the hatch hinges down to the steel up at the top? Not the hatch fasteners that secure the hinge to the glass, I hope, 'cuz once the glass is attached to the car with the hinges, there ain't no reaching those suckers. I thought those hinge bolts just go in one way...it doesn't appear like there is wiggle room with those hinges with regard to fine tuning...I was fearful that all the fine tuning and adjustments had to be done at the bottom, between the deck lid, the glass, and the bottom metal bracket. If what you're saying is correct, I just need to seal and bolt up the bottom end straight up, let it dry, and attach and adjust from the top end, correct? That would make things a lot more manageable, I hope.

 

yes i was talking about tightening the bolts that go onto the sheet metal, NOT the glass. Some messing around does have to be done at the bottom with the spoiler and such, but for the most part when i did mine, i just shoved the spoiler and metal piece forward and then when we set it in there the four bolts on the sheet metal were some what lose. They have maybe a 1/16 or 1/8 or so play in them that would make it latch down right so it would actually "latch". It took 3 of us and about 2 hours of messing around to get it right and we still ended up taking the spoiler off and re-gluing it. Hope this helps.

 

Great. Thanks for the reply. Time to call a couple of my boys and buy some beer. If anybody knows what that sealant is that you use between the glass and the decking, please post.

 

Can anyone be specific about were to apply the silicone.

Would a single bead around the perimeter of the deck be fine or should I go crazy with it?

Should there be silicone on the metal piece on the bottom that the struts are attached to?

How about the hinges at the top of the glass. Should I silicone the nuts that attach to the glass?

 

Why not just swap hatches and put your spoiler on the new hatch?

 

My hatch shattered when I crashed the car. I bought a used piece of glass and need to move my stuff over to it. I am unsure about were to silicone and how much torque to put on the bolts.

 

bump

need some help, dont want to screw it up and break the new glass

 

Call someone that installs glass professionally. That way you can get a guarantee with it.

 

Check this link out, maybe this will help.

https://www.thirdgen.org/hatchalign

 

It's exactly really simple to do