highland58
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Dave
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2020
- Threads
- 12
- Messages
- 1,059
- Reaction score
- 1,279
- Location
- Seattle area
- Vehicles
- 2021 Mach-E GT, 2023 Bolt EUV, 2018 F150 XLT
- Occupation
- IT Solutions Architect
I installed my hatch cover on Saturday. I encountered some issues.
1) the front end by the seats was a very tight fit end to end. It took a fair amount of force to get it into the slots in the pieces added there.
2) there is a gap of about 2.5 inches between the roller piece and the seats. I can look down into this gap (with a flashlight) from the small rear triangle windows, and see a fair amount of that area. I am thinking of getting a piece of foam and pushing it into this gap, possibly gluing it to the roller housing to keep it in place. Here I am looking in the little window:
3) the pieces that hold the pulled out end of the roller also left a peekable gap in the back end with my first attempt, and the next day one of them came off. I heated the back pieces and walls with a hair dryer on the second try, and I wedged a piece of wood in there overnight. (traces of that piece of cedar wood show on the left side in the picture below). I could see on the tape where it was barely stuck on the first time, just on the upper side of the wall seam.
I moved them back further, about 1.5 inches past the seam on the side wall. Before moving them back, I could look down in the back window and there was a gap there that I could see down into. After moving them back, the gap was pretty much closed, but at that point the roller was pulled out as far as it would go to be able to attach that. I looked from the back end and I see that the end pieces have a lot of room on each end, it is barely long enough to stay there if pushed to one side. It only has about 1/16 inch left before it would come out.
These are good under normal use, but there is almost enough room to push it out on one side by accident. It would not hurt to have these a bit longer, but there is not a lot of clearance on the sides when pulling it out.
Overall this is better than the OEM cloth piece, but there is room for improvement in the design
1) the front end by the seats was a very tight fit end to end. It took a fair amount of force to get it into the slots in the pieces added there.
2) there is a gap of about 2.5 inches between the roller piece and the seats. I can look down into this gap (with a flashlight) from the small rear triangle windows, and see a fair amount of that area. I am thinking of getting a piece of foam and pushing it into this gap, possibly gluing it to the roller housing to keep it in place. Here I am looking in the little window:
3) the pieces that hold the pulled out end of the roller also left a peekable gap in the back end with my first attempt, and the next day one of them came off. I heated the back pieces and walls with a hair dryer on the second try, and I wedged a piece of wood in there overnight. (traces of that piece of cedar wood show on the left side in the picture below). I could see on the tape where it was barely stuck on the first time, just on the upper side of the wall seam.
I moved them back further, about 1.5 inches past the seam on the side wall. Before moving them back, I could look down in the back window and there was a gap there that I could see down into. After moving them back, the gap was pretty much closed, but at that point the roller was pulled out as far as it would go to be able to attach that. I looked from the back end and I see that the end pieces have a lot of room on each end, it is barely long enough to stay there if pushed to one side. It only has about 1/16 inch left before it would come out.
These are good under normal use, but there is almost enough room to push it out on one side by accident. It would not hurt to have these a bit longer, but there is not a lot of clearance on the sides when pulling it out.
Overall this is better than the OEM cloth piece, but there is room for improvement in the design
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