Tailgate adjustment

[A+MAESTRO]

Hello again,

I'm after your expert advice as always (telling me to take it to a professional is a valid suggestion but not likely at this time..).

So I finally got around to arranging having my tailgate windscreen swapped over to the one I had repaired almost a year ago. They're coming on Wednesday afternoon.

In preparation I've taken the tailgate off to fit the new one. So far so good, came off ready enough and got the wires fed in to the new one with relative ease.

However the big problem is it doesn't seem to sit properly. The bottom of the tailgate sits proud. The latch catches but the panel is sitting higher at the bottom of the windscreen (not fitted) than the line of the car and I've got large gaps above the lights.

Is there an order I should be adjusting the bolts for instance to give me the best chance? The panel seems to be true to the car, just not sitting right.

Thank you

A+

I didn't get a photo of how it's sat, sorry

[Doctordiesel77]

It is a while since I did one, but if I remember rightly the adjustment of the two rubber buffers on the side was quite important. I don't think I realised they were adjustable at first, so wasted a bit of time trying to adjust the latch and hinges...

[A+MAESTRO]

I didn't realise that either. Thank you, I'll add that to things to check later.

I'm going to measure the distance on the hinge as well and make sure they're the same as the one which I've taken off.

[A+MAESTRO]

I feel like I've improved the gap, particularly one side.
I tried measuring the gap on the hinge and they seem very close to being the same as the one removed.

Tbh the rubber bumps aren't even touching as the gap is so far off.

I've shimmed between the hinge and car and that has improved the situation. I think I may need to fiddle with this, I shimmed both sides but I will try removing one side and then reversing. I can't work out in theory which side needs to be adjusted to pull it in where so will attempt trial and error.

The driver's side is looking almost flush but the passenger side I can still get a finger in behind the corner. The gaps always seemed wide but they weren't raised like it is.

Annoyingly it started raining so play stopped.

[Doctordiesel77]

When you get back to it it may be worth taking the catch off so that it can't interfere until you get the hinges sorted out? The rubber stops are not guilty anyway!