Damages to hardtop rear doors. Reasons and solutions.

Let's start with the hardtop’s rear door. A frequent problem is damage to the paint coating on the rear truck bed flap caused by the hardtop’s rear door. Most often, the reason for this is the failure to apply or the incorrect application of protective film to the truck bed elements. In this case, the hardtop rear door sealing elements come into direct contact with the car’s paintwork. When driving, the rear door moves slightly, i.e. vibrates on the truck bed rear flap. Impurities that get under the seal, such as dust, sand, etc., act like an abrasive paper on the car’s paintwork and damage it. This problem relates to both the completely glazed doors and those made of ABS. To avoid such cases, you should check the condition of the protective films applied to the rear flap from time to time and keep the hardtop clean. Any foreign bodies at the joints between the seals reduce the effectiveness of the sealing and cause scratches on the paint during long-term use.

There are also cases where the rear glass doors crack. They are primarily caused by the wrong positioning of the hardtop during the installation. If the hardtop is mounted too close to the vehicle’s cab, stresses are introduced at the joint between the rear truck bed flap and the glass rear door. In this case, the cracking of the rear door is only a matter of time. The user or service technician who notices the wrong position of the hardtop or its displacement should immediately correct it following the installation instructions for the specific hardtop. The installation instructions provide the proper sequence of tightening the installation clips and the torque to be used to tighten the individual bolts. Therefore, a properly calibrated torque wrench is required to properly tighten the hardtop to truck bed.

All Road Ranger hardtops have a rear door, and some of them are fitted with side flaps. The side flaps may be made of glass or ABS – opaque. For both types of flaps, there is one type of damages – damage to the hardtop’s paintwork caused by the rubbing of the lower edge of the flap against the lower part of the indentation for the flap. The reason for this is the central hardtop mounting clamp has been tightened too much, contrary to the instructions. If noticed at the initial stage of use, the hardtop installation error can be corrected by tightening the bolt using the appropriate torque. If the hardtop is used for alonger period, damage to the paint work and additional irreversible hardtop deformation can occur. Repair to the damage requires additional sprayer’s work.

Just as elements fitted to the vehicle require regular maintenance, so does the hardtop. This will ensure its long-term and trouble-free operation. Refer to the instruction manual of a specific hardtop and perform service operations in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations.