The thin plastic bits plastic holding in the square bolts on the garnish finally broke for me, and I didn't want to spend $80 on a replacement garnish. I was sorely tempted, especially seeing the OEM upgraded ones with the metal bracket replacing the poor plastic design. My fix? Tie wraps! There is a thin pathway under the plastic mount point perfect for routing a tie wrap. I used the thick ones I had from Harbor Freight, but would choose a thinner one if I had to buy them. Here are some photos of my hack. Hope this helps someone. I will update the thread if my fix fails. Tie wrap liftgate garnish repair by remaker posted Aug 28, 2022 at 10:58 AM Tie wrap liftgate garnish repair by remaker posted Aug 28, 2022 at 10:58 AM Flip over garnish to work on easily by remaker posted Aug 28, 2022 at 10:58 AM
Interesting idea... Didn't think there was enough room for that? I had a friend who doesn't like to spend money and wanted me to glue all the busted pieces together and I used liquid steel epoxy and told her it might not work. But to my surprise after a few months it's still holding strong. Didn't expect that. I might try it again with my own car which has this problem thanks to rear hatch freezing shut at a rest stop last Christmas.
Everyone seems to say "epoxy won't work" so I didn't try. Not sure if this fix will fare better, but we'll see!
Yeah... I felt the same way, but when someone is willing to pay you to do it and find out... I did my best to add some reinforcements to strengthen it and if you spend enough time opening the hatch when it's broken, you develop a technique that puts the least amount of force on the weak spots, so maybe that's part of why it's continuing to hold strong?
