Hi All,
I have this worn piece on the rear hatch of my 1980 Monza. I have attached pictures. It is riveted onto the inside of the hatchback and wraps around the driver side of the hatch back latch opening. The best I can guess is it is a bumper/guide so that the latch lines up and maybe limits side to side movement of the hatch when driving. It was on the car when I bought it in 1984 and looks like a stock original piece. It used to be almost clear but has yellowed over the years. It is reasonably soft, still to this day, it reminds me of the material that those clear car seat covers from the 60's were made out of.
I would like to replace it with a new piece if I could find one. If not I might try to make something out of synthetic rubber.
Really kinda wondering if anyone else has this same piece on their car? I checked with Clyde and he doesn't have one on his 75 and there is no hole for the pop rivet to go either on his, so I'm wondering if its something they added just on the later year cars. I'm going to see if I can find the keys to my other 80 Monza and open the hatch and see if it has one or remnants of one.