Mathius

I couldn't find a tech article on this and a search wasn't fruitful. Can someone give me some tips on replacing this? It seems easy, except for the area close to where the glass meets the rear of the vehicle. There's very little room to work there. I'd really prefer not to remove the hatch both a. because of the wiring that runs off it (defoger, breaklight), and b. to not risk breaking the glass with undo stress. Oh, and I am concerned about re-aligning it once it's back on.

Anything that can make this a bit easier? Looks like I basically apply the adhesive on the outside ring of the hatch, and then snap the seal on the little rim all the way around, right? My old weatherstripping came off real easy, probably indicating that the old adhesive didn't do much good. Once I get it all cleaned up, I'll probably put the new one in in a few days. I could use some advice here before jumping into the project.

Thanks
Mathius

85zcamaro

Well, being that im 16 and i did it in 20 mins it's def. not to hard, All i did was Prep the area, like pull off the huge chunks of rubber from the old one, then lay the new one in push it down , then go around with some weatherstripping sealer and make sure it stays down , But if you run into any problems or get confused about anything, just shoot me a message...

-Chris

Mathius

So you didn't remove the hatch then? I didn't think it was terribly difficult, I've redone the seals on my t-tops, I was just concerned about the lack of space where the hinges are for the glass hatch. I have big hands and I hate working in cramped spaces (one of my least favorite parts of working on cars.) So you snapped yours in place first and then put the sealer on it? Hrm. I can see how that could work.

Prep work will be a piece of cake. I took the old seal off last night and it came out in one piece. In fact, i considered just reusing the old and sealing it better, but there was a small chunk missing. Probably wouldn't hurt anything, but I did buy the new seal afterall, might as well use it. I didn't see any rust spots forming yet, so I must have caught my leak pretty early in developement, or it wasn't that bad, or trapping water anywhere. All I have to do is run some adhesive cleaner around the rim to clean up the residue from the old seal, which is still very moist for some reason, so it should come off easy, and then put the new seal on.

Thanks,
Mathius

85zcamaro

Yep thats all i did, Just be careful about the sealant getting everywhere, because once it's on, it doesnt want to come of your paint But good luck and im glad that i was able to help you