I am thinking about welding the rear hatch so it is like a normal hatch and not a POS. I already have the motor and the slide and lock mechanism off. I think i am going to latch the inside part to the hatch and shut it and have someone push down a little on the hatch then i am going to tack it to the rails that mount to the car. If it works then i will weld it up solid. Any suggestions or ideals? Anything will help. Thanks!

 

why? thats a terrible idea, seriously.

you cant weld to the sides of the hatch glass, the trim is too thin and you will probably shatter the glass. So you are just welding the decklid? again why? it serves no purpose and you will loose access ot the back of the car for the spare tire and storage.

If you are trying to simply eliminate the electric hatch pulldown motor setup, you can pickup a manual one instead. Or if you really have to, use pins, similar to hood pins to hole the deck closed.

Just leave it alone.

***edit***

 

Or you simply weld the slider part of the motor tight. Some fool did that to mine, I removed it and bought a NOS unit to get it working again.

 

NO NO NO! I guess i didn't explain it will enough! MY BAD! The hatch pull down motor assembly. Where it slides up and down as it opens and closes. Usually there are nylon guides in there but mine turned to dust when i touched them. My gears are bad too. I would fix it but would rather weld it up to where it opens and closes like a normal trunk or hatch should. No motor and up and down crap to worry about breaking later.

 

Same happened to me last year. Plactic sliders shattered and shorted the motor. I just made a bracket and bolted down the latch. It took a while to adjust it properly so it lined up with the quarters. Make sure it closes properly before you weld it.

 

i did that as a quick fix to one of my cheaper 3rdgens. and it actualy works very very well. i had my girlfriend sit on the deck lid, and i was stuffed in the hatch with my welder propped in there and welded her solid.

i wouldnt do that to my nicer 3rdgens of course lol. i only payd $300 for this one, and the rear hatch was just hangin open and annoyin the **** outta me

 

welded mine. its flush on the sides but if i have the rubber bumpers on the corners in at all i can't get the latch to catch so i left them off. now when i drive the hatch wiggles and rattles. but it's alot easier than the pulldown being broken and having to manually wind it down before closing the hatch which was my problem. my plasic guides broke last time i took it apart too. i wish the parts were cheaper or i'd fix it.

 

Or you could just get the manual assembly from an earlier non-pulldown motor car and call it a day.

 

ouch

 

eh, im lanky enough lol. the real problem was having my face stuffed so close to where i was welding

 

I drilled holes through the mechanism into slide rails and just bolted it in place.. That way if i decide to fix the motor i can just undo the bolts and go. Simple enough..

 

Before anyone tries this it won't work. The mount for the latch is different and even the striker on the hatch is different. It was on my 88 anyway, 84 manual latch wouldn't work. Maybe if you change the brace in the rear body panel and the striker.

 

Exactally. To do this mod, you need to drill the spot welds from the bracket that holds the manual latch, from a donor car. I've done this to a customer's car, and it's a pain. Had more money in this fix than fixing the pull down unit would have been. But that's what he wanted.Look here for hatch pull down parts. http://www.top-downsolutions.com/index.php?cPath=22

 

They're not THAT expensive... no wonder us third gen owners get labeled as cheapskates. We will gladly buy fancy wheels and expensive hoods, but won't spend a little money to fix the hatch motor.

V6F1R3BRD's holes and bolts method is not a bad alternative though.

 

Does anyone have pictures of how they bolted theirs down??? I am having a hard time visualizing that one and how to make it sturdy?????