dmw 85 Euro S A/T

The rear hatch on my 85 Euro has always been about 4mm too far back on the car. There are no spacers under the hinges and I see of no way to move the hatch forward. Any ideas?

dprantl

That is a very good picture that exactly shows the problem. Unfortunately, it is not the hatch that is out of alignment, it is the whole bumper cover. Look at the back edge of the rear fender, the bumper cover is supposed to be in line with that as well. Or is that a weird camera angle?

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

dmw 85 Euro S A/T

The bumper cover is just partially installed. I'm looking at how the corner of the hatch lines up with the back corner of the left rear fender. The gap between the roof and hatch is pretty wide as well. The whole hatch needs to move forward on the car about 4mm. The only possibility that I can think of is to machine the body and hatch surfaces of the hinges making them a bit thinner but I think I can only get about 2mm by doing that. Hinge alignment only seems to be an up/down/port/starboard thing with the front/rear position having no adjustment at all.

I don't know the crash history of the car but it had a fiberglass ground effects kit on it when I got the car and I don't think that the PO would have done that unless the car was already in the paint shop for other work. I can't tell that the car has ever been wrecked but even if the rear of the car had been damaged, I don't see any way that it could have affected the alignment of both corners of the hatch with both rear fenders. I do know that the latch assembly on the hatch hits the back of the latch socket causing the hatch to sometimes open itself. I put thick felt pads on the back and sides of the socket as the rubber that was inside the socket is long gone.

I'll go out and measure the hatch/roof gap when I get a chance.