Just as the title, I'm looking to adjust the rear hatch. I had a collision center repaint my bumper and touch up some scratches under the tail light. Now the right side of the door is pulled out nearly a quarter of an inch. I tried to move the latch attached to the car (that holds the recoil string). This did nothing. I read in the Bentley manual to adjust the hinges but this makes no sense to me. Seems that would only help the up and down, not the in and out.
Has anyone adjusted this door?

 

What you have to do is crawl into the trunk and have someone close the lid. Don't worry, there is a glow-in-the-dark latch release in there. Good luck.

Just kidding.

I don't suspect the hatch can twist much, so if one side is flush and the other side isn't, I'd look to realign the hinges, not the lock pins (latches attached to the car, as you put it).

The worst part of doing an adjustment like this is knowing how much to move it. Before loosening any of the alignment bolts, get a paint pen and draw a circle around the head of each bolt. That way you will at least know where they were when you started.

Did they remove the hatch to do the body work? If so, one of the hatch hinges might not be exactly in place below the bumper. I haven't adjusted on myself on an R52. I'm reading along in Bentley. If nothing else, you could end up putting shims or washers underneath the left lower hinge bolts, but that shouldn't really be necessary.

Try closing it while holding the convertible top up out of the way, and then the latch pins removed from the body. If it can't be aligned with those out of the way, then work on the hinges.

...and let us know how it turns out.

 

I was beginning to wonder if this forum fell to the wayside with no replies, lol.
I'm pretty convinced that the adjustment is under the bumper which is why I posted. I was hoping there would be a shortcut to removing the bumper. Also I didn't want to damage the chrome covers over the latches and wondered how they are removed.
Thanks for the reply. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

 

[QUOTE=haygood;3550481]What you have to do is crawl into the trunk and have someone close the lid. Don't worry, there is a glow-in-the-dark latch release in there. Good luck.

Just kidding.


Haywood...too funny!

 

I finally had a few minutes to work on this. The door hinges are under the bumper as I suspected. I removed the bumper and found that the last mechanic to work on my MINI didn't know how to do proper maintenance. (my wife had a small fender dent that needed a collision shop repair) The mechanic removed the door but put the hinge shims on the wrong hinge. One hinge was shimmed too thick. Once I swapped them around the door became much more flush. With some fine tuning to the door locks in the boot everything lined up nicely.

Again, another reason I hate to have other mechanics do work I can't do myself. (I don't have metal bending tools or a paint booth)