upper tailgate closing issues

[lcgtr1970]

hi guys
Ive been restoring an hq van and am at the stage of putting the upper tailgate back on. I bolted it back on to the hinges and when I close it, it sits too far out at the top and doesnt seem to seal at the sides either.
Ive tried shifting the hinges back as far as they go but it isnt helping. Ive even tried different hinges that i borrowed off a mate and it still doesnt seem to close right.
Is there a trick to fitting it back on or a trick to the hinge placement to get it to close tight?
Any help is appreciated as its doing my head in!
cheers

[Maysik]

Did you have the hinges off the tailgate itself?

[lcgtr1970]

yeah i did. i took the tailgate off the hinges...left them in the van roof.

[Big Rob]

Loosen the hinges at the mounting point inside the van, shut the tailgate (carefully!) and climb inside and tighten the mounting bolts when the tailgate is in position. Have someone push against it to get a good seal while you are doing this.

[Maysik]

Had a look at mine, my hinges have been moved towards the front of the car as I can see the bare paint.
Have you put new rubber seal on and it is too solid? Cant see that holding it open but something to look at.

I brought my van back home today from storage so if you still have dramas put some photos up here and I will go out and have a look with the pics on my Ipad.

[lcgtr1970]

Hi
Yeah I did put new seals in but there's a gap between the seal and the body...I'm going to have another session of trying and swearing to get it to fit. I'll get some pics and see what you think compared to yours.
Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.

[Vombil]

Loosen the hinges at the mounting point inside the van, shut the tailgate (carefully!) and climb inside and tighten the mounting bolts when the tailgate is in position. Have someone push against it to get a good seal while you are doing this.

sound advice

[Innuendo]

Sounds like another person who has the seal on backwards?

[lcgtr1970]

ok...
so i spent a good half a day trying to fix this mystery...
I got my father in law around and I did as big rob suggested, i loosened the tailgate hinges where they mount to the roof and where it mounts to the tailgate itself and we tried pushing on it and tightening up the bolts....an issue i found with this is that we got it relatively flush when pressing on it and i managed to tighten up the roof mount bolts, but whilst tightening up the bolts that attach the hinge face to the tailgate itself, it seems to push the tailgate further out the tighter it gets.
I tried a couple of sets of hinges (mine and a borrowed set from a mate), and a combination of the 2 sets but no matter what we did (moving hinges in all directions) it wouldnt seal.
I even took the seal off the tailgate and tried that ( as it is a new seal and seems to be quite firm in the bottom corners)...but it still didnt help.
Tomorrow I am going to borrow a mates tailgate to see if for some strange reason mine is not 100% right (although it look to be fine) and try n fit it up.
Apart from that Im stumped!!
Ill pop a pic or 2 up of how it looks.
Any opinions/photos or anything that will help will be massively appreciated!
Thanks guys

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[Maysik]

DSC06746.JPG

I'm thinking you have the hinge attachment at the roof around the wrong way.

If you disassembled the hinge for refurb. its been re-assembled backwards.