C5 Style Speedster Hatch 84-96
Dry Fit:
Since no two Corvettes are identical, we recommend that you dry fit the part onto your car – mark where you may need to sand extra…etc. This way you won’t run into any problems after you have already painted the part. You will be doing your sanding prep work next, so that is the best time to make any alterations if necessary.
Prep Work:
To sand the part, we recommend you to block sand or DA the parts out with 80 to 150 grit sandpaper. Whenever we prep parts, we spray a light mist of white spray paint over the part as a guide coat to show us where we have sanded. Also during this process, you will want to do any pin hole filling and/or work if needed. Along the seam lines you may see some pin holes. This is normal in any fiberglass that has two parts bonded together. Luckily, the speedster hatch doesn’t have many bonded parts except on the roll bar attachment. We recommend dura-glass for body work and fiberglass pin hole filler, for those repairs.
Spray the part with primer. We have found a high seal primer works best…K-200 or something similar.
Refit the part, then wet sand with 400 grit paper. You are now ready for paint.
Hatch Installation:
Remove the inner liner from your roll bar.
Undo the four nuts holding the rear hatch in place
Make sure you disconnect the rear defrost and the struts
Very carefully, lift the rear glass from the car and safely store
Remove the three pieces of plastic surrounding the rear cargo area
Remove the rubber seal around the cargo area (weather stripping) ** see note below **
Place hatch onto cargo area
Push down to lock into place
Slip roll bar into place and tighten down with the included nuts
Reinstall inner roll bar liner
Window can be slipped in at time of installation of roll bar.
To remove window, you must remove inner roll bar.
** The reason you have to take out the weather stripping from the cargo area, is basically because the GM stripping is too thick. We have had several customers who have went to a place like Autozone to get a smaller stripping. The bottom of the hatch has a lip which can be grinded as well…so if you take both of those steps, you should be able to make that part of the hatch weather proof. One customer was actually able to get the hatch to fit with the GM stripping. **