are you like me in that your hatch doesnt want to come off of the latch when you unlock it, making the cabin hatch release basically useless and forcing you to use both hands to open it from the rear which is inconvenient when carrying bags or boxes? well if you have a spare welder, bench or angle grinder, and 10 bucks you could have a spring loaded hatch just like this:


what youll need from home depot is simply a set of springs and washers. we are after the 45lb springs listed on top, and there is the sku in the corner. next you will need some washers, the ones i used i got for free but they are 7/8 od and 5/16 id and they are a perfect fit and it should run you like $5 for a box. this is all you will need (the bolt is from the hatch latch hook). i took pictures after i was all done so the washer is already welded on and ground. dont mind this, just pretend its a brand new spring.

next you will need a way to hold these together as you weld them, so i just took a long wood screw and a piece of scrap wood and ran it down until the spring had just enough tension not to move but not super compressed. hook the grounding clamp to the part of the screw thats on the other side of the wood and put it on a stable surface. line up the washer to the spring and go ahead and tack and weld. run them under the faucet for a second to cool it off.

go ahead and take your welded springs and grind them down with the grinding implement if your choice. next open your hatch and undo one of your latch hook bolts (dont do them at the same time so it doesnt get misaligned). and run it through the spring and reattach it. you should make sure it runs straight and parallel with the latch hook so the bottom of the spring sits nice and flat on the lock housing. make sure you crank down the bolt nice and hard. do the same with the other side.

congratulations! your hatch will now spring up whenever you unlock it as well as putting tension on the hatch when its locked to help prevent any rattle there might be. if want to keep your paint nice you can probably find some rubber bumpers and make them work (you can figure it out, i believe in you) however if your z is a beat to s*** rolling scrap bin like mine, then this is optional.

i realize not everyone has a welder and grinder just laying around, so jb weld would probably work just as well, you could also probably figure out a way to make a split washer or something work with some creativity too. if you look hard enough you might even find something like this premade. the only limit is your imagination (and how far your wallet lets your imagination run).

Or for the price of nothing, you just slide the latch down a tad.