Has anybody ever tried to adjust the rear glass for a better fit. Need any advice or diagrams or pictures or?.
Thanks
Chris

Chris,

I have installed two 82 CE hatchback glasses in 78-82 Corvettes and made adjustments to them as well as others. Adjustments can be made at the hinge mounting plate up in the header. The interior panels have to be removed to do this. Each hinge is attached to the mounting plate with 4 bolts and each can be adjusted from front to rear and side to side when the bolts are loosened. The latches can be adjusted the same way but the rear trim panel must be removed to access them. The problem with these windows is that over time, the hinges stretch due to the force exerted on the glass by the gas struts. While the window is in the down position, the struts are compressed and constantly pushing the glass toward the rear of the car. The hinges are made of a soft material and stretch or open up allowing the glass to pull away from the body and gasket, creating a gap at the top leading edge of the window. As I said earlier, the hinges can be adjusted, (moved forward) to make up for this stretching, but only so much. In many cases the hinges have stretched so much, that there is not enough adjustment to make up for it and the hinge support plate must be releived to allow the hinges to be adjusted farther forward.

I have one of these windows in my Vette and to minimize the hinge stretching, I remove the gas struts from the window while it is stored for the winter. This takes the pressure off of the hinges for several months out of the year. Good luck. If you need more help, let us know.

chris,

You can also "tighten" the fit at close, by screwing in (or out for looser) the two latching prongs (?) on the glass that go into the latches at the rear edge of the trunk.

I bought an extra set of hinges as backup. Then took the original hinges and put them into a vice and squeezed them .5 inches. The distance to squeeze if a function of how much you need to get a good hatch and pin fit. I then reinstalled and the hatch fit perfectly. I was supprised at the fact that each had stretched unsymetrically.