Thread: Rear Door

Yep one day the wind caught my tailgate and slammed it open and bent the hinges ever so slightly so that the striker was out of alignment and opening and closing was a slam and tug excercise everytime.

My solution was to pull down on the top of the tailgate when it was slightly ajar with all the wieght I could muster (me and my 25 yo son) to push/pull the hinges back into alignment as much as we could.

Worked ok but not quite enough and I had to shift the striker up a smidgen to allow the door to close/open freely.

DO NOT move the striker in closer to the front of the vehicle as if you do and then close it the force in the closed position makes it impossible to open.

I made this mistake and had to remove the tailgate inside trim enough to access the locking mechanism hinge arm so that I could hold it down in the opening position while I kicked the door open with all my might.

Made more difficult by cargo barrier and drawers!!!

Good Luck hope this helps

Cheers

Hi Alpick,

Have done the door hang with the bolts slightly loosened to get it where it is however big gap at the top of the door, took it to some panel shops today and the feedback ranged from a couple of cartons of crownies to bend the door to bending hinges back to shape and re painting to replacing hinges.... hard to know who to believe... think new hinges is the way to go considering they are only around the $88.00 mark instead of the door coming back bent more out of shape....

This happened to my wife last week. She thought the door was shut until it swung open as she was driving down our drive. Seems to have bent the bottom hinge slightly and now the door sits higher as it shuts and the latch (part on the car not the door) drags on the bottom of the mechanism in the door.

I tried swinging on it to pull it down but seems I need to eat a bit more. Maybe I can get a jemmy bar and lever between the latch and the mechanism to pull it down. Otherwise maybe one new hinge.

Cheers,
Nova

Hi Nova try loosing off the bolts just slightly and pulling it down with your weight, another two are located behind the small round caps and another two behind the door trim. You can also loosen the guide on the other side of the door frame and move it up a smidge....