>Tell me about tailgate hinges, please please, as I'll be ripping
>(gently) the tailgate of my '73 estate to attack the rust in the upper
>body panel. Any tips????
>
>Cheers, Chris
I had to remove a tailgate hinge 'cos one snapped. I tied the tailgate (very
heavy!) in the up position to a girder in the garage and then proceeded to
remove the bolts that secured the tailgate to the hinge. That part was fine. I
then undid the bolts that secure the hinge to the body and then my problems
began.
The hinge has a very long torsion bar that goes across the boot and a curved
piece that secures on to the tailgate. It's basically impossible to remove the
assembly because the curved section snags on the roof. I know now after hours
of pushing and pulling etc etc!!
I ended up taking the car with the tailgate in the boot to a local garage to
finish the job. They had endless problems getting the new one back in ('cos it
was a repro part) and in the process, using brute force and ignorance,
proceeded to dent the roof panel in both places near the curved section. Even
then, after about a day of work the tailgate doesn't shut very well and it
lifts about 1 foot shorter than it should so every time I use the boot I smash
my head on the lock!
So, having thought long and hard and after talking to a few people, this is
roughly what you should consider....
You need to wedge a thick metal bar in the hinge assembly before removing the
tailgate to prevent it springing open (be very careful here) and to put a new
hinge in you have to somehow 'close' the new hinge in a vice before inserting a
similar bar before reassembly.
You'll need two people preferably and you have to be extremely careful - these
torsion bars are very strong and I spoke to one person who had been clean
knocked out by one of these and woke up on the other side of the garage with a
hefty dent in his forehead! Be warned.
So, I face the same job all over again to undo all the bad work that the garage
did!
This time I'm looking into the possibility of cutting off the torsion bars and
doing away with them and then getting hold of some suitable gas struts from a
more modern estate to weld onto the tailgate.
Do you have any friends in your club who've experienced similar problems and
have gone this route? I'd be very interested to hear??
hope this helps
Andy
MKII 2.5S Estate
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