Anyone else have this happen to them? The hatch seems to back away form the glass more and more as the years pass. It looks like there is no ajustment?
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Mine came from the factory that way,I think it's supposed to be that way.

 

You can adjust it, its not hard just takes some patience. Theres even a tech article on it.

https://www.thirdgen.org/hatchalign

 

Thanks.

 

If you do this make sure you use LOTS of sealant. I just did this Saturday and tested on Sunday and it leaked. I laid a 1/2" bead and that was not even close to enough. I will be doing it again this coming weekend and this time I will lay two 1/2" beads beside each other and then another 1/2" bead on top of those.

 

The factory service manual has the proper sealant placement. You dont really need "lots" of it. Its has a certain place it needs to be and if your removing the factory sealant pay attention to its placement.

The hatch struts push on the metal support thats bolted to the lower hatch. They push the rear hatch decklid rearward and out of alinment 24-7.
There is a little adjustment in the rear glass/decklid an the upper hinge glass bolt holes also.

 

It was very easy to see where the factory sealant was and I followed that line. The outer sides and edges were fine, but dead center on the hatch seems to have never even contacted the sealant. It's a bit of a job doing this, so next time I'm going to make sure I have plenty of sealant. But that's just me, I really don't want to do this a third time.

I am also going to leave the struts off till it dries just to make sure.

 

My car had a thin piece of weather stripping(along with the factory black sealant) across the deck lid where deck lid seals against the glass. The weather stripping was not very thick but it did help fill the void. Upon removal of the old sealant the original weather stripping was distroyed. I made the mistake the first time of not putting down a big enough bead of sealant and not replaceing the weather striping, made for a messy clean up because I had to redo it. There was no way it would ever seal. I was also using the sealant made for sealing windows on cars, it expensive too around $20 a tube.

The 2nd time I did it I put a new piece of weather stripping across the deck lid and a nice thick bead of clear silicone. It sealed nicely with no more issues(tested it with a water hose). Silcone isn't technically the correct sealant to use but it worked well for me.

 

My car had that too. It was a very narrow strip and brittle and seemed to be attached with clear tape. Where did you get the replacement weatherstrip? I used clear silicone as well but was planning to use RTV clear sealant this time.

 

I'm not sure where I got the weather stripping, I had some left over from a previous project that had been in my cabinet for a few years. Most automotive stores have some type of generic weather stripping, just be sure to get something that is a similar size.

 

Thanks, J. I will do that.

 

The 1st part of the upper row of sealant is like a adhesive backed foam.

 

I needed to adjust my deck lid, too:
It looks like it may have been out since day one, since it was covered by the spoiler and you really couldn't see it unless you looked for it.

The adjustment described by the tech article moves the metal part of the lid forward in relation to the glass. I didn't see any evidence that the glass had slid in relation to the metal part of the lid on my car.

The GM service manual says to loosen the bolts that hold the hinges to the body, and adjust the lid via these oversize holes. They are NOT oversize. As you can see, the hinge bolt has a square boss that exactly fits in the square hole in the body:



Definitely did not want to make oversize hinge holes that hold the glass and give it the opportunity to move under pressure from the stabilizers. So I removed the hinges and bent them forward about 30 degrees. I made a little animated gif to show how it works:


The hatch now lines up perfectly at the tail lights, AND I have a much nicer, smaller gap at the body line up front.

 

The holes in the glass at the hinge and decklid area will let the glass adjust a little bit.
Also if you remove the hinge to body bolts you will need to reseal those or they WILL leak!

 

You wouldn't happen to know the dimensions of the weatherstrip? That adhesive strip I removed couldn't have been more than 1/8" wide. I had to get generic stuff at AZ which is 5/8" x 3/4". I plan to cut it down and was wondering how tall I should make it.

 

That looks pretty cool. Unfortunately I have louvers and can't move the hatch any closer to the roof or they make contact. BTW, my hatch didn't appear like it slid until I disassembled it. There are plastic spacers between the metal piece that holds the glass and the glass. Two of the four of mine were oval shaped screw holes while 2 were still round. Unless they came from the factory that way, the decklid must have moved over time.

 

Very Nice Fyrebrd my camaro is also out of wack...I origionally tried to adjust by removing the deck lid...that was a mistake, I ended up having top do that twice because I didnt seal it right the first time and my trunk flooded and the was zero noticable change in the space.

 

I had my passenger side adjusted all the way forward and the lid was still over 1/2" too long. The driver side was minor, however the deck lid was almost touching the side of the hatch frame on that side. Maybe it came from the factory that way.

 

Exactly why I was trying to warn Lowbird. Better more than not enough.

 

For sure. Avoid unnecesseary headaches at all costs

 

I went out and measured the weatherstrip that I used, it was about .20in thick and .35 wide...which is a little bigger than the original but it worked well.

 

Mine is also out of adjustement, this is the best I could get it





It really annoys me but at some point I'll do smth more like you guys.

 

Thanks a bunch, J! I'll cut mine down to those specs.

 

That is exactly how mine looked. I messed with adjusting it several times and that was the best it would get.

 

Sorry guys but I really want to get this right this time. I don't have an assembly manual.

1. Anyone know the torque specs for the 4 nuts that hold the glass?

2. Is the hatch glass supposed to line up with the top of the quarter?

I noticed on mine that the rear of the hatch panel lines up perfectly with the top of the fender but where the glass meets the panel it is low. And if you look at the weather stripping it is also indented quite a bit where they meet. (See pics)

Any help would be appreciated.

 

It can be aligned if your has not been wrecked from behind.

I dug this out of the archives at GTASourcepage for you. It is worth registering there to see the pics,,
http://www.gtasourcepage.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=53646

 

According to the gtasourcepage.com this a design flaw,it states you should just leave it alone,because of future concerns.Like I said,mine came from the factory that way,so I'm leaving it alone.

 

The decklid was design flawed along w the quarter panel and was built w the car to work together. The upper right rear quarter has a bit of a inward tweek to it above the tail light, some are waaay worse than others. It can be made to fit veeery close, not perfect but darn close.

The real problem is with the notchback cars. The notch hatch was made to fit a perfect car but the car isn't perfect at all. Plus there isnt much adjustment to it unless you can work w fiberglass.

Here is my hatch, adjusted 15yrs ago but it has moved back a lil bit.


You can kind of see how the qurter panel is really tweeked on my car in this pic. I picked the angle to really show the gap in a very big way.

 

Thanks red88. So you moved the plate with the studs rather than the glass. Interesting. However, I have already moved the glass and need to reseal it so I still need the torque specs. Anyone?

Edit: Nevermind, found them. 11 foot pounds.

 

GM made thousands of them, I'm just working with one. If I can make it look any better I intend to try. I'm sure they advise against it due to leaks, lol, been there done that.

 

Yeah you can. I have to look at mine. It does seem the passenger side is always worse than the driver's side in the pictures people post.

 

What about the rubber bushings that go from the hinge to the body? Mine hatch hangs back even farther than some of these. I removed the headliner to recover it and I can see the rubber bushings are deteriorated pretty well on the hinges. I'm wondering if replacing them will help?

 

Rubber bushings???? That maybe the sealing caulk???

 

I know my lid has slid back some but it also seems I have a huge space between the hatch glass and the body at the top. Before I do anything I would like to have some approximate idea how far away from the body the glass should be at the top near the center. Anybody have a thought there?
I would much prefer to adjust this up but if mine is about where it should be then I will leave it alone and just do the lid.

 

Unless the car has been crashed or the hinges have been bent you cant put the glass to close to the body.
Get a helper
remove the hatch struts to the deck lid
loosen the glass to hinge nuts
slide glass forward until it stops
make sure the black strip is tight around the glass
tighten the nuts
put everything back and thats done.

You can also slide the glass side to side a bit if its off a lil.

 

I appreciate what you have said here. I agree with all you wrote and have tried it all. My concern is that the hinges may have gotten bent. I have more than 1 1/2 inches from body to glass.
No leaks but that gap just seems huge. I was guessing closer to 1 1/4 inches would be normal.
The car had been in a very minor wreck in the front. Apparently slid sideways into a post and had minor damage to front fender and a bent brace. (Both replaced) Radiator support still perfect and bumper still good and no hood damage.

 

Yowza..
I just measured mine.
Its,9/16ths across the whole back glass to upper body by the hinges.
I'd bet your hinges are bent..

 

Well it looks like rubber bushings around the hinge bolts? I'm talking the ones in the ceiling under the headliner, not on the glass. I suppose that could be a round ring of black sealant around the bolt holes though. I was thinking of taking your advise and loosening those bolts and trying to shove the batch forward and then retighten them before I put my new headliner in. There has been a lot of talk about the bolts on the glass, scraping and beads of sealant and such and I really have no clue what the other guys are doing. A picture tutorial on YouTube would be wonderful. Anyone know why, when I pop my hatch from the release button inside the car, the pull down motor tries to pull it closed? I have to be Speedy Gonzalez and haul *** to the back of the car to lift the hatch before the motor pulls it down again......and no I don't have a key! Lol

 

Sounds like your struts aren't strong enough to pop the hatch.Are your struts holding the hatch up when you lift it open??

 

Yes, thats just a sealant GM used.
Those nuts inside the car wont do anything for adjustment. Its the nuts under the glass when the hatch is open.
Are your hatch struts old and not holding the hatch up? and you also have the stock heavy aero wing? Thats Y its closing, if the struts are old it wont lift the hatch up off the reversing switch.

 

That is much closer than mine. I would have never dreamed it would be that close. I will look at everything ultra close to see what I can do. Maybe a combination of hinge and adjustment just to get somewhat closer to 3/4 inch to 1 inch (allows for a fair amount of variation between cars and still closes mine up alot). I just need to be careful or it may not seal. Might need new seals afterwards anyways.
I do appreciate the time you took to get me a good starting point measurement.

 

Mine measures about 1/2" now, but that's AFTER I bent the hinges. Before, it was about 7/8".

 

With the huge gap I have I would consider 7/8 small. Either way it does show that to an extent the gaps do vary and mine is definitely off. I did see what you did and may be doing the same. I will be trying to get an idea of the proper hinge bend etc before I start. I do have a spare set of the glass hinges.

 

My struts are brand new and hold the hatch up. It was the first thing I replaced on this car in January when I bought it. If they are supposed to pop the hatch all the way to the upward position then I would say NaPA sold me the wrong set as I have to lift the hatch, but it stays up on its own

 

Not enough to lift it up all the way open,but enough to clear the pull down mechanism.maybe some friction(dirty) in the mechanism that's preventing it to operate, loosen it up and try to adjust it side to side,lube it.

 

I'll try that. I would think once the hatch is popped the pull down motor should stay up until you close it, but mine is always working to pull it back down. I have been stuck trying to close the hatch with that darn motor down too and have to jimmy it with a flathead screwdriver to get it to come up so I can latch it. Not sure just what is out of adjustment

 

Well I pulled the panel off the hatch again this morning. You can see the spots where the silicone never made contact with the panel.

 

Put it back together and it looks much better. It was off almost an inch on the passenger side before. Not perfect but that is as far forward as it would go. The side-to-side is much better as well since originally the driver side was making contact with the top of the rear quarter.

 

Silicone?!?!?!?!

use this, waaaay better

 

The first time I used silicone, like the tech article says. This time I used clear RTV sealant. But that stuff definitely would have been better, looks more like what they used originally. Too late now though unless it leaks again, which I won't find out til tomorrow.