Rear hatch hinge bent!

[bronchole]

Last weekend I was in Prescott AZ for the NASA Prescott Car Rally. I volunteered to do the reconnaissance run for the crew I was there with (This Side Up Rally Car Racing). These reconnaissance runs are limited to 35MPH or posted speed so they are not very hard on a trail rig. We did about 40 miles of groomed dirt roads in about 2 hours.

Later that day in the service area (that’s what they call the pit stop area) I tried to open my back hatch/door. I normally just start the door to opening and let the shocks take it the rest of the way up. The door only opend up about half way and made a scrunching sound. I figured something got in to the top and was blocking the way. It ends up that the passenger side hinge somehow bent and has the door far enough out of aligment that it would not allow the door to open. I didn’t force it any further open. I attempted to close the door and everything was pretty put of whack. I had to push the door sideways towards the drivers side to get it to partially close. That is where I left it for the rest of the weekend. I had to pull the fuse for the dome lights to keep it from killing the battery.

Today I tried looking to see if this is a common problem. I didn’t find anything on a search of the site. Anyone have any experience with something like this?

I will probably just go down to the junk yard next weekend and get a pair of hinges and try to swap them in.

Dan

 

[Robman]

Sounds like you flexed/twisted the frame pretty good.

 

[Stic-o]

Never heard of this...

 

[bronchole]

I got to thinking about this. Maybe what happened is that i rattled the hinge hardware loose. Ill look at it tonight when i get home.

 

[bronchole]

After getting a good look at the hinges and the alignment of the door the only thing that I found out of the ordinary was that the top front edge of the door had been bent upward to a slight point near the center of the edge. I took a dead blow hammer and massaged that area of the door back down to where it belonged. Now the door closes similar although slightly harder than it was.

As far as I can tell there must have been a small stick in-between the door and the roof. as the door opened it rolled the edge of the door out which caused the door to hit the roof.

Since I was there and looking at things I decided to adjust the door height so that it more easily engages the latch. Now I can easily close the door with minimal "slamming". Before I hade to slam it pretty good with pressure being held on the passenger side in order for it to close good enough to get the interior light to go off.

Thanks for reading

Dan