Had a bituvva mishap with the tailgate a few weeks ago which resulted in the bottom hinge bending inwards, causing the handle/latch side of the tailgate to kick upwards by 5 to 10 mm and thus miss the striker when closing.
I was on holiday at the time (sloping car park at St. Ives was the prime mover, although more fool me for parking with the hinges down!), so I did an expedient fix by swinging on the free end to bend the top hinge inwards by an equivalent amount. This allowed us to close the tailgate, but it was now far too tight on the handle/latch side, because both hinges were bent inwards.
To the chase: seems like I'm not the first to run into this one (known weak point?) so I thought I would share my method for straightening the bent hinges, since I was rather chuffed that it worked out.
You will need: the standard bottlejack that comes with the car; some offcuts of 4x2 (biggest piece needs to stretch across the tailgate opening, so 50in or so); a tape measure; a saw
Start with the top hinge: you will need two lengths of 4x2, a short stubby one to protect the paintwork at the hinge end, and a longer one to brace against the other side of the door opening, with just enough room for the bottlejack in between. Then just wedge the long 4x2, bottlejack and stubby 4x2 into the gap and squeeze the bend out.
It helps if the ends of the 4x2 are square, and be careful the jack doesn't suddenly pop out and whack you in the face or whatever. You might need an assistant to set it up. At the hinge end, you want to press the stubby 4x2 on the cranked bar that runs into the door (see attached pics), that will give you maximum leverage on the hinge with the least danger of the brace/jack slipping sideways or bending something you didn't want to bend.
Then do the bottom hinge second: (because you will likely need a shorter piece of 4x2 to brace this one). This one was a little awkward, because the cranked bar that runs into the door makes a slightly different angle against the far side of the opening, so the brace tends to slip off if you do it that way. So instead, I braced against the trim around the opposite-side dicky-seat belt-mount, using another short length of 4x2 to spread the load. The trim will creak and groan like hell, but it seemed to spring back fine having delivered enough resistance to bend the hinge back.
I was lucky enough to achieve the perfect amount of straightening first time, so only needed one bending effort per hinge. I did it by eye, stopping when the hinge looked straight, but your mileage may vary.
I was concerned the procedure might bend the body instead of the hinges, but seems like it was man enough to take the punishment - phew.
I was on holiday at the time (sloping car park at St. Ives was the prime mover, although more fool me for parking with the hinges down!), so I did an expedient fix by swinging on the free end to bend the top hinge inwards by an equivalent amount. This allowed us to close the tailgate, but it was now far too tight on the handle/latch side, because both hinges were bent inwards.
To the chase: seems like I'm not the first to run into this one (known weak point?) so I thought I would share my method for straightening the bent hinges, since I was rather chuffed that it worked out.
You will need: the standard bottlejack that comes with the car; some offcuts of 4x2 (biggest piece needs to stretch across the tailgate opening, so 50in or so); a tape measure; a saw
Start with the top hinge: you will need two lengths of 4x2, a short stubby one to protect the paintwork at the hinge end, and a longer one to brace against the other side of the door opening, with just enough room for the bottlejack in between. Then just wedge the long 4x2, bottlejack and stubby 4x2 into the gap and squeeze the bend out.
It helps if the ends of the 4x2 are square, and be careful the jack doesn't suddenly pop out and whack you in the face or whatever. You might need an assistant to set it up. At the hinge end, you want to press the stubby 4x2 on the cranked bar that runs into the door (see attached pics), that will give you maximum leverage on the hinge with the least danger of the brace/jack slipping sideways or bending something you didn't want to bend.
Then do the bottom hinge second: (because you will likely need a shorter piece of 4x2 to brace this one). This one was a little awkward, because the cranked bar that runs into the door makes a slightly different angle against the far side of the opening, so the brace tends to slip off if you do it that way. So instead, I braced against the trim around the opposite-side dicky-seat belt-mount, using another short length of 4x2 to spread the load. The trim will creak and groan like hell, but it seemed to spring back fine having delivered enough resistance to bend the hinge back.
I was lucky enough to achieve the perfect amount of straightening first time, so only needed one bending effort per hinge. I did it by eye, stopping when the hinge looked straight, but your mileage may vary.
I was concerned the procedure might bend the body instead of the hinges, but seems like it was man enough to take the punishment - phew.
