Rear decklid mounting- any alignment tricks?
 

Hi,

I restored my car several years ago and put a duck tail on it. I'd like to reinstall the original rear decklid. Since the whole decklid was taken apart to be repainted, it now needs to be reassembled and aligned. Rather than do it by trial and error, can the Pelican braintrust can help me with it?

Do I mount the hinges on the decklid first or to the car and then place the lid on the rear of car and bolt the hinges? Any tricks to figuring out the washers on between the decklid and the hinges. I will be using a second set of hinges, so I'll be able to swap the decklids at will.

Lastly, my restorer said not to put on the grill until I was completely satisfied that the decklid wouldn't stick, so I can bolt everything up through the opening.

Thanks!

Yes, keep the grill off.
Remove the center plunger assembly from the lid.
Mount the hinges to the car first, with the bolts snug, then mount the lid without washers.
Now carefully close the lid and observe the alignment.
Because the bolts are snug, you should be able to move the lid for corrections.
Once you like the position, look at the height differences between lid and body at the top.
Use shims to make up the difference.
Mount the center plunger. Cover the latch hole with masking tape. Dab the plunger with some grease. Carefully lower the lid until the plunger touches the masking tape.
Re-adjust the plunger to the grease-mark to fit the latch opening.

Gunter,

Thanks!!! Those are exactly the kind of tips I was looking for.

I use a similar technique with one minor change. loosely attach the decklid to the hinges. Then, I like to use a towel to match the height of the decklid to the body. Then adjust your body gap and use painter's tape to hold in place. Then reach in through the grill opening to tighten the bolts. This prevents you from moving the decklid prior getting the bolts tightened. Lay one strip of tape down the left and right body gap. You can use a mirror to see if you need a shim washer in the forward or rearward bolt by the way the hinge hits the decklid.

It's much easier to swap the decklids and keep the hinges the same. I do this 2-3 every year since I like the tail less lid for everything but track driving when I put on the whale tail. Loosely place the deck on the hinges with the allen bolts. There should be a shim also. If not, washers will work. Close carefully and check to see if you latch in aligned properly. You may need to adjust the front-back positioning by sliding the lid. The side seams are adjusted by the position of the latch. Just don't have the latch too far off when closing because it will have difficulty opening completely.

To all -

Thanks for this string of responses. I'm restoring my '65 911 and found a deck lid off of a '67 to replace the one that was on the car (from a '69 or later). (I have deemed it OK for me to use a '67 lid with different badging as the car has a '67S engine in it; the badging on the '65 will match the '67S badging.) Anyhow, after getting everything lined up, I found the replacement lid sat too low at the top. I guessed shims were the answer, but wasn't sure until I went through this thread.

Incidentally, to avoid chipping my new paint, I covered the top and sides of both the body and deck lid with painters low-stick blue masking tape. It has worked very well and give you the opportunity to properly adjust the gaps without fear of chipping the paint. But still be careful. These old Porsches are special!

Alrighty then, I followed the above when installing a fiberglass duck/lid and while I am ever so thankful the latch isn't stuck, it would be nice if it actually latched.:mad:

The plunger seems centered left to right and front to back - both by eyeball and tape marks. So, I ass/u/me the plunger is not going deep enough. I tried an extra washer between the plunger plate and the deck lid - no help. Should I try removing the rubber stoppers along the edge of the tail near the back lip? Or will that get me stuck?

Is there a good way to figure out the correct plunger depth?

The plunger has a lock-nut on it.
Open it and extend the plunger more by turning it ccw.
The rubber stops are threaded and can be turned in or out.

The correct plunger depth is when the latch clicks. :)

You want to adjust the plunger so that the lid is locked and sitting on the rubber stops.

Thanks. I knew about adjusting the rubber stops, but I didn't see the plunger was also adjustable.

I think I was so concerned it wouldn't unlatch that when it wouldn't latch at all I couldn't see straight. :mad: I'll try the plunger adjustment today and another tip I picked up from Sherman in a related thread.

This post is a keeper...Great info!

subscibed

Thanks. Tried that - 2 1/2 turns and it works perfectly!

Pelicanland rocks!

Thanks for the info here,
I'm busy with adjusting the lid, but hadn't a clue were to start.

Just one question, while adjusting is the hood strut connected to the hinges?

my lid had also a whale tail on it before, i removed the second hood strut. Is it recommended to use new hinges on the right. As this seems always to low. like the lid is resting on the body

Thnx!

Reaching in through the grill opening to tighten the bolts was something I hadn't thought of, really helps to keep it perfect once you have it set correctly.

Thank you!

Also allows you to manually release the latch by reaching inside the engine compartment though the grille opening, in the event the plunger isn't aligned properly and doesn't respond to pulling the handle. (Ask me how I know.)