Tailgate black border cracking

sawood12 · Mar 20, 2005

This is a bit of a tricky one to describe. The tailgate has an aluminium (i assume) frame all around the glass. Inside this frame and extending around the interior of the glass tailgate is what looks like a black painted border (or might be a black tape). This black painted/tape border is cracking at a number of different locations around the tailgate. There are also areas where it looks like this border's adhesive has now failed and is not stuck to the glass. The tailgate is still watertight against rain but when I wash my car with a sponge I get drips of soapy water running down the inside of the tailgate.

Anyone had any experience of this and if so can it be repaired or reapplied?

Cheers.

Fen · Mar 20, 2005

TADTS.

The border is replaceable by careful masking and painting.

I just washed mine and got beads inside too - first time for me so I will bow to the wisdom of those unfortunate enough to have had leak problems before.

chrisr · Mar 20, 2005

Yep my car also has a slight leak where the tape has cracked and eroded over the years - over to the experts.

Diver944 · Mar 20, 2005

Both of mine have had cracking of this border ever since I've had them. I keep meaning to tidy it up by just scraping it off with a razor blade. I've heard of others masking it up and then painting the border back on. I don't think I will

Guest · Mar 20, 2005

Mine is also flaking. No leaks, just looks untidy. Tricky to get to some parts. I do need to rplace the rubber washers on the rear wiper as when it rains I have some moisture. Guess they have perished a little.

richthomas · Mar 21, 2005

there is a guide to fixing the hatch here: http://www.9xauto.com/hatch/hatchkit.pdf

looks a bit daunting though so I think I'll give it a miss! Nice tip about the hatch pins at the end though, mine wont budge so I might give it a go.

Guest · Mar 21, 2005

i scraped the paint off the glass yesterday,it came off very easily with a small flat blade screw driver and looks much better now.
i also resprayed the aluminum on the outside at the top of the window as it was starting to flake off at both ends.

sawood12 · Mar 21, 2005

Thanks for advice, It seems like a pretty common thing. If it gets worse or starts to leak I think i'll start making enquiries with people like Autoglass. It might be a fairly cheap repair.

Guest · Mar 21, 2005

Parallel thinking HERE

Diver944 · Mar 21, 2005

Darren that Rennlist post is a good find.

I feel so inferior at the level of DIY expertise a lot of those guys have [

]. Anyway, my 'frit' has been cracking for years, but no leaks so far. I always assumed that black strip was decorative, it's nice to know what it does

Guest · Mar 24, 2005

If your "frit" is cracking off on the edges it isn't the end of the world, maybe. The big problem is the glass delaminating from the frame due to this. Besides any water leaks that may occur, the rattles of the glass in the frame will drive you crazy.

So don't put in any fresh hatch shocks as they will stress the frame and speed failure. Some guys just use a wood stick to prop up their rear hatches when required.

If you have to repair, 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) makes a glass primer that works great. It is sort of new, in the last couple years, and isn't available everywhere. I had to pick up some for a guy in Canada and send it to him for his hatch repair. It is around $25 for a bottle to do the job.