Hatch Restoration Kit Mustang Hatcback 1981-1990

With my 2015 Mustang gone, the 2018 not quite here yet, for the last month I've driving in my Mustang LX here. Now I haven't driven a Fox Body in quite a while, and I'm getting used to all the things that make a Fox Body what it is. The one thing I can't deal with though is the noise from the hatch, the hatch is rattling, I can hear air rushing in, there's definitely all kinds of issues going there, plus the struts won't even hold it up anymore if you did try to find the problem. So today we're going to address all those issues by installing this hatchback restoration kit.

This Hatchback Restoration Kit's available here exclusively at CJPonyParts.com and provides all the components necessary to fix the common hatch rattle found on Fox Body Mustangs. That includes new weather stripping, some new lift cylinders, a new striker bushing, and new bumpers for the hatch.

This installation needs a small flat-head screwdriver, Phillips-head screwdriver, 3.8" ratchet, and a T-50 Torx bit.

In our case, the first thing we're going to do is replace the lift cylinders since they're completely shot on this car. What you want to do there is support the hatch safely so you can remove the cylinders without having it fall. To remove the lift cylinder, the first step is remove the bracket from the body by removing the two Phillips-head screws. Now with a small flat-head screwdriver or a pick, we're going to pull back on the metal spring to release the lift cylinder from the hatch. Now with the lift cylinder off, we can remove the lift cylinder from the factory bracket. What you need now is put a dab of grease on both of the ball studs, one on the hatch side and one on the bracket.

Reassembly, we're going to start by connecting the lift cylinder to the factory bracket, and we want to make sure the body of the lift cylinder is going to connect on the hatch side, and bottom of it connects to the bracket. Simply line up and press it on. Now our bracket can be screwed back in the car. All right, the bracket tightened down, now what we're going to do is lift up the lift cylinder and connect it to the hatch. Then repeat the process on the other side.

All right, so the next part we're going to replace as part of this kit, is the bumpers, and the kit includes two brand new Ford hatch bumpers. So in our case, this one's actually broken and not even installed properly. The way these do is they thread in, and they give you adjustment, so what you want to do is simply unthread the old one. We'll thread the new one in, now we'll finish everything else, we can adjust.

One of the major contributors obviously to the rattle in this particular car is going to be this striker bushing, or should I say, lack of a striker bushing. The original one's long gone and since replaced with electrical tape, which really doesn't do a very good job. So to remove this, all we have to do is remove these screws here to get this panel out of the way, and there's a bolt on the outside to remove the entire striker. There's going to be two screws up top, and one down in the spare tire well.

With the set of screws removed, now we're going to flip the carpet up, and to get the piece off, there'll be one more screw at the bottom, and you've got to remove the screw on the side. All right, now you remove the striker with a T-50 Torx bit. All right, so now we're going to thread the washer off, so you remove all the original tape and goop, and everything else attached to this thing. Now once you finally get all the tape off, go grab the new bushing, you just have to actually kind of work it on a little bit. And then reinstall the washer. Now it's ready to go back on the car. Tighten down the striker, and we can move on to the weather stripping.

To properly install the weather stripping, what we're going to do now is remove this panel here, and loosen all the top screws all the way around so we can pull the panels back and get the weather strip seated properly when we install the new piece. There, with everything loose, now we can remove the factory weather strip. What we're going to do now is just get some sort of a generic cleaner, doesn't matter what you use, we're going to clean the whole edge out before we install our new weather stripping.

Okay, so with it clean, now we're ready to install our new weather strip. What you want to do, start right here in the middle, right where you took the other one off. This edge, you want it facing outward. Okay, so just put it over and then press it down, just work your way around. Just make sure it is seated and pushed all the way down, there's a metal tab in there that will kind of hold it in place. When we get down here, it will be a little bit too long, that is actually on purpose. Make sure you get a good seal, you're just going to cut it to fit. Okay, once it's cut and sealed, now we can actually go back and install all the screws removed from our panels. With the last screw in, you can reinstall the cover for the spare tire well and the carpet, and then our installation's finished.

The hatch restoration kit was just what my 1990 LX needed. Now the hatch actually stays up like it's supposed to, the new weather stripping keeps it sealed, and with the bumpers and the new bushing on the latch, it doesn't rattle like it used to, which is a million times better. Overall, the installation's pretty straightforward, taking around two hours, you'd be back on the road in no time.