Tailgate Hinge Failure

[dmorales-bello]

The driver side tailgate hinge snapped off on the hatch door side last night when I was opening the hatch !! On closer inspection it looks as if it had been glued from factory, not welded. I will be taking the hatch door off to repair and re-attach the hinge tonight but would appreciate any forum members' experience with this issue.

Edited August 3, 2016 by dmoralesbello

[sweatybetty]

that's rusted out.

[Patcon]

I have seen that failure before. There is no corrosion protection between the hinge plate and the hatch. The welds are just spot welds. They corrode and then break. I cleaned the one I saw and rewelded it. The hatch metal and bracket metal were both solid on the one I did. They need to be sealed up well to keep water out of the connection. The bracket has a lot of load on it...

[dmorales-bello]

4 hours ago, Patcon said:

I have seen that failure before. There is no corrosion protection between the hinge plate and the hatch. The welds are just spot welds. They corrode and then break. I cleaned the one I saw and rewelded it. The hatch metal and bracket metal were both solid on the one I did. They need to be sealed up well to keep water out of the connection. The bracket has a lot of load on it...

Patcon, would I have to take off the hinge from the car in order to weld onto the hatch? How is it attached on the car side,  bolts or welds? 

[Patcon]

Yes, you have to remove the hatch. The break looks to be between the hatch sheet metal and the clip that screws to the hatch hinge. Mine was broken the same way and I believe on the same side. There are large Philips screws into the body hinge, if I remember correctly. They can be hard to get out without stripping them. Put some penetrant on them for a day or two before you try. You should be able to locate the bracket by looking at where it sat originally. I would drill out the remaining spot welds and treat it with weld thru primer then locate and reweld...

[dmorales-bello]

29 minutes ago, Patcon said:

Yes, you have to remove the hatch. The break looks to be between the hatch sheet metal and the clip that screws to the hatch hinge. Mine was broken the same way and I believe on the same side. There are large Philips screws into the body hinge, if I remember correctly. They can be hard to get out without stripping them. Put some penetrant on them for a day or two before you try. You should be able to locate the bracket by looking at where it sat originally. I would drill out the remaining spot welds and treat it with weld thru primer then locate and reweld...

Thanks for the tips. Just sprayed some WD40 Penetrant and will hold off until tomorrow to repair. 

[Patcon]

A helper is a good idea. The glass makes the hatch pretty heavy and awkward. Remove the hatch strut first...

[Zed Head]

I've attached my hood to the rafters of my garage before unbolting it.  An option.

You do need room to roll the car out from under though.  Plan ahead.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Zed Head

[dmorales-bello]

Went at it late last night and got the damage repaired with the help of a buddy of mine (and a couple of beers). The welds had failed due to surface rust, nothing deep really. Cleaned it up and decided to fill in the gaps between the hatch skin and the underlying steel frame with body panel epoxy glue. Not only will this help hold the two parts together but it will eliminate any spaces between the two surfaces and prevent rust in the future. Welded the edges and also drilled and tapped holes close to the location of the original tig welds. Placed 2 screws, removed the screw heads, cleaned everything up and applied some touch up paint. Feels very solid and lined up with the car even better than before with a couple of 1mm aluminum shims we fabricated and placed between the repaired tab and the hinge. All in all, a good thing came from a lousy one. That rear end of the hatch sticking out a few millimeters beyond the car body had bothered me a lot but hadn't figured out a way to line it up any better. 

Finished the job at 2:00am but here are some pics. I'll shoot some more pics of the rear hatch alignment with the car body later today and post.

Thanks for all the great tips once again!

 

[siteunseen]

That looks great!  A couple of beers goes a long way amongst friends. 

[Patcon]

We done!

[Patcon]

We done!