Tail Panel Replacement / Deck Lid Alignment?

[jsibayan]

Yes, it is the detachable panel. The old one, fits just like the new one. There's a gap.

 

[Dichard]

Yes, it is the detachable panel. The old one, fits just like the new one. There's a gap.

Strange..I have no clue.. damn....

 

[jbloake]

I haven’t done this , but it looks like if you only shim up the upper filler panel, your lower hinge panel is not going to be high enough to seal to the trunk lid to keep water out ! I would think you are going to need to cut it across in front of the hinge area and follow Bills advice from post 56. Take a measurement , lay something straight across the trunk floor above the frame rails to see what you already have to know where you need to be . Just measuring of the trunk floor may be bending the floor from the jacking ! Put it together with sheet Metal screws first !!!!!! before you do any wielding

 

[jsibayan]

Thanks jbloake, I've been looking at what Bill suggested. I placed the weatherstripping on and it appears since my buddy and I worked on the trunk by pressing in downwards which helped considerably, would seal. My thoughts is that since the trunk seals-seals the trunk of any water, the upper deck filler panel is just a cover for the spring and hinges and that placing spacers to take up the gap to meet the trunk above for the aesthetics would be an easy fix.

The jacking "UP" of the entire lower deck filler panel would be difficult because of the amount of structural welds in all of the aspects of the body such as both quarter panels, lower deck filler panel, roof rear pillars (rear window area) are all of the forces that we'd run into. In addition to the jacking of it, I could use some steel 2" tubing and lay them across the trunk area using the rear frame braces but I would think that it would bend in the middle. If I use the bottom of the trunk's floor pan and brace it, I would think that it would create an indentation because of the force of jacking it upwards or maybe I'm thinking this through too much. I don't know.

 

[jsibayan]

U could probably put a floor jack or port a power in the trunk with a board across the top and slowly push up on it. Take ur time and do a little at a time, make sure u put something across the trunk floor to protect the floor.

Thanks Bill, Jbloake, and dichard for the suggestions. It worked perfectly. Hopefully, someone out there that runs into this situation will help. It closed the gap and I managed to tweak the upper deck filler to make all of the body components level out.

 

[Dichard]

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Thanks Bill, Jbloake, and dichard for the suggestions. It worked perfectly. Hopefully, someone out there that runs into this situation will help. It closed the gap and I managed to tweak the upper deck filler to make all of the body components level out.

Well, glad it worked out. I was scratching my head on that one. Thumbs up for the engineering feat of excellence.

 

[bodymanbill]

Nice work, just some of the PITA stuff us body guys have to do on a daily basis.

 

[70ZED]

Sorry, JSIBAYAN, missed your question way back in April. If you look at the LH trunk line, split the gutter drop from the panel and add a coat hanger wire width.. A lot of playing around. Then a lot of mods around the outer taillite area to rear panel. Makes a diff whether you use the short or long spoiler

 

[jsibayan]

Sorry, JSIBAYAN, missed your question way back in April. If you look at the LH trunk line, split the gutter drop from the panel and add a coat hanger wire width.. A lot of playing around. Then a lot of mods around the outer taillite area to rear panel. Makes a diff whether you use the short or long spoiler

Thanks 70ZED, my buddy and I finally got it hammered or "Jacked out". Then I ran into another issue. I'm using a 3-piece spoiler. I guess when I cut up a perfectly new AMD quarter panel and attached it to the factory original quarter panel something went wrong. The left side spoiler isn't matching up for some reason. "Anyone" of ideas....I'm too pooped out to think at this point!!

 

[giggity]

Thanks 70ZED, my buddy and I finally got it hammered or "Jacked out". Then I ran into another issue. I'm using a 3-piece spoiler. I guess when I cut up a perfectly new AMD quarter panel and attached it to the factory original quarter panel something went wrong. The left side spoiler isn't matching up for some reason. "Anyone" of ideas....I'm too pooped out to think at this point!!

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not a great idea, but you can bore out the spoiler holes to give you more adjustment on the fin.