[Terry M. Hunt]

I removed the trunk lid and tension rods before my car was painted. Now in the process of reassembling the car. Current project is refinishing the trunk compartment. While taping things out to do this I noticed the body color paint on both hinge arms was scraped up. Moving the hinge arms up and down I can feel a point where they bind. If I look closely at the vertical flange of the hinge assembly I can see the place where the inside surface of the hinge arm makes contact. Photo A shows how close the gap is between the hinge arm and the vertical flange of the hinge assembly on the passenger side. Driver side is just as bad. Photo B shows this same gap on the driver side of my 64 GTO. You can see that it is much wider. Photo C shows the inner surface of the vertical flange of the hinge assembly on the 66. There is a ridge that is bead rolled into this flange that protrudes a little on the inside of the flange. It is this raised surface that the hinge arms are scraping against as I move them up and down. Photo D shows this damage on the hinge arm paint. I’ve tried a couple of ways to get the vertical flange to move/flex, etc. toward the center of the car to eliminate this area of interference, but I haven’t been able to move the flange, and I definitely don’t want to deform or damage anything on these structures by applying too much force, etc. I can imagine that getting the hinge assemblies out of line could lead to a disaster getting the trunk lid to ever fit right or seal. Is it possible that having the tension rods back in place could cure this? I know they were a aPIA to remove so I’m sure reinstalling them will be no different. I’ve never run into this on any of my other cars. With the tension rods out and the trunk lid removed the hinge arms would move freely with no interference. Would love to hear any theories you guys have on this.

[skunkwerks]

Terry,
I think you have the RH hinge pushed over to one side too far. I have run into this before. The left hand hinge is not over far enough. they need to be centered on each other and where they go relative to the deck lids final position.
You need help with this one to get the deck lid into the correct position at the same time working the hinges over more. The left hinge is over to far to the right and the right hinge needs to move to the right more to not rub.
You need to move the left hinge over 1/4 inch on the deck lid bolts to the left and then move the right hinge over the same amount on the deck lid bolts to the right and see how this helps or makes it worse. if worse do the opposite.
You may need help putting a little left side pressure on the deck lid when you do the right-hand side adjustment.
All your doing is using the left hinge to keep the right one straight and the deck lid in the correct position.. This is caused by the right hinge not welded perfectly from the factory.

Deck lid adjustments are 3 dimensional sometimes.

Very hard to explain what needs to be done to correct this

[Terry M. Hunt]

You’re saying I need to attach the trunk lid in order to achieve the correct positioning/spacing of the hinges? I had thought about that, but have not tried it yet. When I try to move/flex the hinges left or right there does seem to be some play in them; hopefully enough to eliminate the binding once they are bolted to the trunk lid. If I’ve misinterpreted what you posted just let me know.

[skunkwerks]

Terry,
Yes you will need to bolt the deck lid on and adjust. There is a lot of slop in some of the deck lid hinges from the factory. Some are better and worse than others.
You will need to preload one against the other to make it right. Both are usually pulled out toward the QP on each side if that makes sense. Sort of canceling each other out as far as side loading.
Also,
If you did not get the tension rods in the correct holes that will cause the same sort of issue.