Went out to the shop, decided to swap hinges on the high side, had a couple extra. Closed the hatch and it was waaay better, to within half a millimeter. Oh wait....I removed the weatherstrip in the corner to remove the hinge. I put the weatherstrip back on and right back where I was, 2 millimeters high. 🤣

Why didn't I do that to begin with? It's the &%$#@$%& aftermarket piece of crap weatherstrip they sell. Let me tell you something, I restored this entire car, sure I had struggles, but nothing compared to the struggle with these aftermarket hatch weatherstrips. Attempt #1: I carefully cleaned the weatherstrip of all residue, even scuffed up the area to be glued and cleaned again. Followed the instructions on that 3M super weatherstrip adhesive, did the corners first, taped it down. Next day, did the straight sections, taped it all down. Waited a couple days. All good right? I was doing something and happened to bump the corner, and it came off. It didn't stick! What? I gently lifted on the a section and it just basically fell off. That's where a 2 day nightmare started. Removing the 3M super weatherstrip adhesive, ☹️ It won't stick to this aftermarket weatherstrip at all, none, but have you ever tried to remove it from paint? Without damaging the paint? It took me 18 hours to get that black nightmare off. The hatch wouldn't close anyway. Every piece of aftermarket rubber I installed on this car with that 3M stuff didn't stick at all. So I cut sections of it up, and tried different adhesives. The best I found was goop. It's clear and it sticks way better. So, I ordered another hatch seal from a different place. Unfortunately it looked the same as the first, with spliced in "thicker bulkier" corner sections. That's the problem, I think, these spliced in sections. And that's where I am today. It really sucks. An old timer once told me, "it's made to sell, not to use".

I just went through the same hatch issue during my resto. Mine was also only an issue on the driver side. My body guy ended up bending inner edge of the hatch (the part that the seal goes on) to get the hatch to close flush. May not be the 'proper' way to do it, but it fits right and doesn't leak so I'm happy. I'm using an aftermarket seal.

I ordered a hatch seal from Australia.

Here are the profile differences between the PRECISION hatch seal and this one from Australia and their compression.

This Australian Hatch seal has the same profile throughout the entire seal, unlike the "molded corner" Precision one.

The 2nd hatch seal I tried was ordered from VintageRubber and it is identical to the Precision seal, which is anything but precise. 😆

Edited May 13May 13 by Parman

19 hours ago, Parman said:

I ordered a hatch seal from Australia.

This Australian Hatch seal has the same profile throughout the entire seal, unlike the "molded corner" Precision one.

From who? Are you keeping it secret? Link would be nice or just a name.

I was going to try it out first, but I just finished installing it and the seal fit like a glove.

I think I read on their website that they may be going out of business soon. It's part# 864.131

15 hours ago, Parman said:

I was going to try it out first, but I just finished installing it and the seal fit like a glove.

I think I read on their website that they may be going out of business soon. It's part# 864.131

Website says they'll be closing down the business at the end of 2025 (they've been in operation since the mid-1980's, so that's a pretty good run). They appear to be re-sellers, rather than manufacturers (I suggest this b/c they're offering an extensive catalogue of parts across dozens of badge plates and vintages). I wonder where they've been sourcing that Z hatch seal. Japan, maybe?

I don't think it's an original Nissan hatch seal, as it's sold by the metre.

But it sure is better than what I had. It's not a simple seal swap like it would be for the doors. There's 6 interior panels to remove, then the adhesive. Then there's all those push pin clips, oh, I found out where some of those pins are going, I found the mother load. I think I got 14 of them from this one spot with a piece of radiator hose taped to my shop vac and a piece of screen taped over the end.

I ordered and received one of these seals from Scott's as well. I can confirm that it's much better than the Precision version. With the Precision version there was a big gap all the way along the bottom of the hatch, which welcomed copious quantities of exhaust into the cabin. The hatch sat visibly higher than the edges of the quarter panels. The hatch was higher on the driver's side, and stuck out slightly at the back on that side. I removed all the weatherstripping (both inner and outer) and checked the fit. I was surprised to find that the hatch still sat slightly high and stuck out slightly at the back on the driver's side. I removed the support strut and that allowed everything to align. The strut is a replacement. I'll have to check the source. With the new hatch seal in place, but not glued, the hatch sits pretty nicely. It's very slightly high, but I suspect it will settle, and I haven't tried adjusting the hinges or latch yet. Once I connect the strut, though, it's noticeably higher again. It's lower than it was with the Precision seal and there's no gap along the bottom edge, so I don't think exhaust will be a problem, but it's higher than I'd like it.

Has anyone noticed a strut causing the hatch to misalign? Any ideas about how to correct it? I'm a little surprised that the strut can move the hatch backwards. I would have thought the hinges would prevent that.

28 minutes ago, davewormald said:

Has anyone noticed a strut causing the hatch to misalign? Any ideas about how to correct it? I'm a little surprised that the strut can move the hatch backwards. I would have thought the hinges would prevent that.

They corrected that mistake with the 260's on - by putting struts on both sides. Not only does a single strut cause the hatch to twist but when closed there's always pressure on one side and not the other. The gas strut is constantly exerting pressure forward on the left hinge and not on the right hinge.

You probably won't like the cure as it involves finding a parts Z - 260 or 280 - and removing the mount from the right side strut that's welded on there and moving it to your car so you can add a right side hatch strut. And I don't remember if the early Z hatches have captive nuts for strut mount on both sides or not. We had a guy in Scottsdale rebuilding a 240Z that wanted to add that second strut before he painted so we cut that bracket off a parts car for him.

I've never tried to replace the hatch hinge pins (which might get worn). We learned early on to leave the hinges in place whenever possible as they're such a PITA to properly adjust once you've loosened or removed them.

On 4/8/2025 at 1:39 AM, Parman said:

Unfortunately it looked the same as the first, with spliced in "thicker bulkier" corner sections. That's the problem, I think, these spliced in sections.

Hmmm. Not sure if this will help, but:

OEM weatherstrip often makes strategic use of 'rubber stuffing' (technical term -- I just made it up) at locations where the strip has to make a tight bend. It's put there to keep the hollow section from collapsing (which would possibly lead to unwanted wind noise or water ingress). You can't see it. You'll only know it's there by doing a pinch comparison at selected locations along the length of your the weatherstrip. I found it in both the Kia Sportage and Nissan Altima weatherstrip that I experimented with. The 'stuffing', as used, was ~ 4" - 5" long. I wonder if the aftermarket suppliers are doing the same thing?

p.s. I used the front-door weatherstripping from a late-1990's Kia Sportage for both my doors and hatch. Very happy with the results.

15 hours ago, cgsheen1 said:

They corrected that mistake with the 260's on - by putting struts on both sides.

That makes sense, but the problem is really just cosmetic (once I've confirmed that the exhaust problem has been corrected), so I don't think I want to go as far as adding a second strut to correct it. I don't think all cars with the single strut have raised driver side hatches, though, so I'm thinking that there are other ways to address this. If the hinges are worn, that might be a place to start, or maybe the two hinges just need to be adjusted relative to each other to lower the driver's side? At this point I haven't glued the seals back in or attempted to adjust the hinges or latch, so I think I'll move ahead with those steps and see how close I can get things to flush. The upper portion of the new inner seal is almost vertical when installed. When the hatch is closed the vertical portion slides outward against the underside of the hatch to create the seal, so I expect it to compress a little over time as well. As an aside, I was happy to see that, with a couple of careful initial closings where I manipulated the seal at the hinges, the seal is sliding over them properly. Both my original seal and the replacement were mangled by the hinges.

I've been procrastinating on the next steps because I know I'm not going to enjoy removing the adhesive from the car before gluing the new seal in, but I'll report back when I've made progress.