i have put 3 hatches on my camaro and they all seem to have a common problem. The passenger side corner sticks up and it sounds like the hatch is hitting the weather stripping The hatch pull down it messed up so i thought this could be causeing it but it doesn't seem to be. The 3 piece spoiler wont line up if the hatch is off alignment.... The rear interior plastic and the spare tire cover dont fit right ether... They stick up about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch over the correct spot. Also the shocks just make it worse. What could be causeing all of the issues i have with that area? I really need some help everyone. Im so frusterated that i have almost considered to just get another thind gen and give up. ALL help is wanted.

 

Has there been any body work done to the car on that particular side? Look inside the spare tire area and see if there are signs of wrinkling in the body panel. It sounds like it may have been hit at one time and the body panels may be tweaked. I'd be curious to see what you find.
Good Luck!

 

the inside sheet metal looks fine. its the stock maroon color and everything... i posted pics to help

 

Man, it looks like it really dips down on that right side. Was the car originally maroon? I'm wondering if they welded in a new quarter panel. But the shot of the tailight and looking at the panels, it looks like it drops dramatically on the right side. Are both tailights sitting in the same locations as far as mounting holes? Is the right side light up high in the holes to make the alignment look right? One other thing to check would be the rubber snubbers. Are they hanging up on the body allowing it to hang the hatch up on that right side?
Let me know what you find.
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Also, can you post a pic of the entire rear end? Would like to see the whole backside.

 

hey man, well the car was maroon and i got some shots to show you man. here... also when i bought the car the hatch was WAY off... but its gotten better just not right, the rubber stoppers dont seem to be hitting anything.

 

my car does the same thing it looks like its been hit or its your latch motor

 

as far as i can tell its never been hit but the motor is SHOT... does yours have issues with the interior plastics?

 

well i took the latch off and it still sits weird and i tried to shim it.... wasn't the best shim but still i dont think it helped... now what...

 

well i have the latch, weather stripping, interior plastics everything but the shocks removed and i still cant get it to fit correctly.... when you push on it you can see the hatch twist as you push it where it needs to be. Guys i dont know what to do.... this is worrying me.

 

I'm not a gambling man but I am pretty sure your car has been hit and is out of alignment somewhere.

Get out the tape measure and start measuring......I'm not sure on a third gen, but on a vehicle with an actual frame you measure four points diagonal to see if it's out of square.....then go from there.

But you have some damage somewhere......it may not be the right rear corner....it could have been hit somewhere else and trickled down to where your problem is at now.

Good luck....

 

Mine's the same way. Not quite as bad, but the interior plastics don't line up right (the ones on my driver side sit too low) and it's the driver's side that sticks up a half inch or so. From what I can tell, it looks like GM did a none-too-good job of attaching these things and making it look good. The weatherstrip, latch motor, and even how they glued the decklid on are all varying degrees of shoddy.

I dunno about anyone else, but if I would have received a brand new car off the lot with the hatch misaligned as much as I've seen some of them, the dealership would be doing some body work on warranty. >.>

My rubber adjuster on my driver's side doesn't hit anything either, yet it still sticks up. Can't tell where it's getting hung up either. If I find anything out, I'll let you know.

 

That quarter and rear body panel looks tweaked to me. If I saw it in person I could tell you for sure. What's that blue patch on the lower area of the spare tire mount?

 

haha ya thats rustoleum that i had put there for the only rust that was on the quater panel that was sanded off. the metal looks perfect and with everything but the rubber stoppers out it sits fine but with weather stripping in its messed up again... so its somthing weird i dont know

 

yea found that it had been hit in the right back side... so thats the issue but the damage was fixed rather well but imma fix a few lil areas and then continue on. Thanks everyone. -Matt

 

Holy old post resurection, but I have the same issue on my 1988 TA. It was factory CA clearcoat. In my mind, (never been hit).

To my passenger side quarter sits about a 1/2 lower (maybe less). If you follow the line at the top of the bumper cover it is straight. The taillight sections are parallell to bumber. Rear decklid is close to perfect on driver side but drifts upward as you follow the top edge of the tailights (rightward) to the passenger side. It's a head scratcher, since OEM paint was intact. The overhang (lid/hatch adjustment) is pretty minimal based on other cars I've been. I just need to raise up the top of the pass-saide quarter. I am not sure how to to this.

I have played with the rubbers, and it makes no difference. The motor adjustment will only raise or lower center pivot point.

I doubt a hatch or decklid could get twisted enough to cause this.

How do you raise the quarter? I thought about cutting the spare tire supports, and stretching the panel up with a porta-power, and rewelding them. Any advise?

 

Hey man. Knowing what i do about body work i could tell you that car was badly hurt back in the day and fixed poorly. As far as the quarter panel. You wont stretch it without making it warp and buckle. Say you had the problem as the yellow Z28 or red IROC-Z had where a quarter panel was replaced but not correctly. The Z28 you can easily see. The IROC-Z the gap was just closer but that was it. Only way to fix it would be to cut and reinstall the quarter. Thats about the only way i can think to raise the quarter panel a half inch. Check for any seams or welds that are out of place to see if its ever been replaced. Good Luck

 

Well. All of the seams are factory. All the vin stickers are present. The entire car still had the same crappy water base red from the Van Nuys plant (it all discolored, faded, altered shades of red, etc. evenly) I resently sanded through it. So it wasn't patched.

The outer corner needs to come up. I'm betting this can be done without chopping the sheet metal. Cutting braces I'm open to. . It would seem maybe even the bumper support metal on pass side as well.