My repro hatch adventure

[69-72]

You may have heard me previously *****ing on here about the quality of the aftermarket hatch I bought.

Well after a year of it sitting around and a few unanswered emails to Bowtiebits.com which I understand is the manufacturer of these fine pieces of crap I decided to take matters into my own hands and fix it myself seeing as how I am into it for almost $600. This is my story.


The main problem was that handle guts are no where near close to fitting into the hatch like they should.

Here are some comparison pictures with an original hatch

[69-72]

I started by separating the two halves of the hatch, just at the bottom. Once I did that I realized that this fiberglass isn't at all bendable. I then cut slits at either end of the hatch to allow it to move. Still wouldn't bend so I took a grinder and cutting wheel to the entire length of the hatch between the two slits grinding down the fiberglass. Now it would bend a bit but not stay in place. So out came the heat gun. Putting a fair amount of heat into it allowed me to bend the fiberglass and get it to stay in position, clamping it and letting it cool allowed it to stay in that form.

[69-72]

Now I had to find a way to glue it all back together and rebuild up the part that I ground down and had weakened with the heat gun. I found some stuff at the local boating store that worked well. After about 60 clamps I got it all glued up. You can see in some of the pictures of around the window opening of how much it actually had to be bent to have the hardware fit inside the hatch. After all that was done and the built up area was smoothed out and reformed to the shape it should be I had to make the window fit. Now right from the start before I touched it there was no way the window gasket would fit on the hatch. The fiberglass was a 1/4" too thick in most areas, so that had to be ground down to make it fit.

All in all I figure I have about 30 hours into this hatch.
I can understand maybe having to trim a bit here and there but for the amount they are selling these for it seems unreasonable to me to have to
-drill out and elongate the holes for the hinges
-grind down the window flange to an acceptable size
-completely reshape the bottom half to allow a STOCK handle to fit
-add the sheet metal reinforcement that the hatch handle bolts to since it wasn't there
-significantly enlarge the hinge pocket holes

...and the area where the supports arms attach to is so completely malformed there is no way I can repair it aside from cutting the whole thing out.

[69-72]

And not the best pictures but the finished product sans paint.

[special-K]

Man,that`s pure b.s! Then,they don`t reply?You must have mentioned "Blazer hatch" in you e-mail and they caller I.D.ed (ignored) your arse..."Oh no,not another".
I knew they were expensive but didn`t know they are junk.I guess my good original is worth more than I thought.

[trucks72]

I had to go through the same thing. I did something like what you did to the handle section. Mine also would not fit the top. So I had to trim it. Also the hindges would not fit. So all that had to be cut. I would have been better to start out with a orig. that was busted up.

[trucks72]

One more thing. Have you fit your glass yet. My glass did not fit also. I trimmed it a little. Then had to get glass trimmed to fit.

[JayDubBlazer]

You should email bowtiebits.com this thread to show them how to build them properly.

[71swb4x4]

I thought you were exaggerating on the 60 clamps deal. I counted 62. That's a lot of clamps to have in the garage!! They must have been waiting for a big hatch repair project.

[turp mcspray]

Originally Posted by JayDubBlazer

You should email bowtiebits.com this thread to show them how to build them properly.

I agree. Send them your pics and explain all of the problems. Hopefully they will fix their product or just stop selling it. These are the things that give repop parts a bad name.

[Yukon Jack]

Bowtiebits is a local place in Wichita where I have bought a couple things over the years. The guy has zero personality and seems like I'm bothering him any time I've gone in there. Poor way to run a business and looks like that bleeds over to how he has handled your situation.

[lks dcvn]

I don't know if I would have the stones to cut into a new repo hatch - nice work though.

[70rs/ss]

I have two originals that have some cracks, I'd rather fix one of those than drop $600 on a new one that doesn't fit. Fiberglass work is really pretty simple, glass mat, two part resin, and apply, cracks fixed?

[RED72blazer]

If I had a good hatch to copy for a mold I could make these a million times better and probably cheaper. to bad that guy is a dick.

[Skirkpat]

That makes me want to punch Mr. Bowtiebitits in the junk!!! I live close enough to do it too. Hope it works out for you!!

[69-72]

Originally Posted by turp mcspray

I agree. Send them your pics and explain all of the problems. Hopefully they will fix their product or just stop selling it. These are the things that give repop parts a bad name.

The place I bought it from (Manes truck parts) spoke to the manufacturer and told me they said that they sold over 50 or something of these and this is the first they ever heard of any problem. I am sure they will come across this information at some point anyways. I do know pretty much what all the problems are attributed to but I really don't feel like sharing that information with them to fix their mistakes. Plus it seems that my emails don't get there anyways *rolls eyes*

JUST TO BE CLEAR Manes Truck parts was very good through this situation and offered me a chance to return it or significant portion of $$$ back, I took neither because I felt that they shouldn't have to pay the price of someone else's mistake.

[69-72]

Originally Posted by lks dcvn

I don't know if I would have the stones to cut into a new repo hatch - nice work though.

Thanks, I didn't have the stones either, it took me a year to collect them. :p

[69-72]

Originally Posted by 70rs/ss

I have two originals that have some cracks, I'd rather fix one of those than drop $600 on a new one that doesn't fit. Fiberglass work is really pretty simple, glass mat, two part resin, and apply, cracks fixed?

Exactly now that I know this in hind sight it would have been easier and more worthwhile in the long run to fix my original that was literally broken in half then it was to fix this mess.

[swyfor5]

Cool insight! Mine's not in that bad of shape, so I think I'll try and fix it myself. Thank's for the thread!

[SILVER_WS6]

So did you get this worked out?

[Bentblazer]

Most of us on here usually try to fix and repair things our selves. In my case I had more time than money than to buy a repro. I spent all last winter taking two hatches and building one, both were junk. My point is unless your hatch is totally trash try repairing your original, its not really that hard. I tried to upload the link and was unable, if you do a search for (Hatch pic needed) it may be there. I'am very pleased with to out come.

[Bentblazer]

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=438402 This may be the link