Broken Hatch Glass ??

[glassbuggy]

Ok so I got a rear hatch to customize instead of having down time on my daily driver. Anyway the boy knocked over a wheelbarrow and I think you know what happened to the hatch glass.
So I've removed the bulk of the glass (it was tinted so the film held the bulk of it in place.) Question is - How do I remove the rest of the glass that looks like a picture frame?
Bart

on the plus side it will be easier to work on

[SixChuter]

Here is a pic of the fellow replacing my glass. He pryed the old pieces lose with a very narrow screwdriver. Here is a pic of him doing his magic. Good luck.

[glassbuggy]

Seems like there would be an easier way, I've wondered about that handle with the wire you can get at an auto parts store, but I am not sure and can't find much info on this procedure - it's like black magic or something

[glassbuggy]

Alright since I can't find any info here on the Org, I'll post some

I needed to remove what's left of the glass around the hatch - it sort of resembled a mosaic picture frame.
Using some simple tools I was able to do this fairly easily. One thing that didn't work was a tip I was given about a guitar string and two dowels - fail
Also a hacksaw blade works to a degree but it's easy to scratch the paint behind the glass.

This is a pic of my beginning broken window

[glassbuggy]

Ok first cut of the lip around the edge of the glass with a knife. After the fact I think I would reccomend a carpet knife, You can get one at Home Depot and it would work for all the cutting - I used a sheetrock knife with a carpet blade and it took two passes so I think a carpet knife would be better for this as it takes a longer rectangular blade

[glassbuggy]

The edge of the glass makes removing the seal difficult so you will have to break it up , I used a pair of end cutting pliers and a body hammer.
This photo is the cutting away of the seal

[glassbuggy]

An inspection sticker scraper works great for cleaning up the remnants from the hatch, there seems to be some black primer the factory used for adhesion purposes and you can see it in the pics another photo shows what the underside of the seal looks like after being cut away

[glassbuggy]

On both sides of the window the defroster connection is soldered right to the wires in the glass! The pigtail from those connections plug into the wiring harness on both sides. I pulled the harness away from the frame for photo purposes and this is how they unplug

[glassbuggy]

The glass is gone! I don't know if you buy a new seal or if it comes already attached to the glass.
At the top of this thread the man is picking the glass from the old seal to reuse it (I suppose), but after trying this it seemed it would take days LOL

I lost a bunch of the photo's but I wanted to include that I used a glove on one hand to pull the seal/glass up away from the frame as I ran the knife under it pulling toward me


Here's the cleaned up hatch, now it's time to shave the ugly holes !

[cjohnsontech]

Nice DIY write up!

On a more personal note: Did any glass fall into the hatch panel itself? If so, any idea how to get it all out besides just shaking it and hoping it's all gone? My car got broken into over a year ago and there's still some rattling around back there...

[glassbuggy]

I did get some in the hatch frame but with the glass out I rocked it till most fell out, I did pressure wash it and maybe that flushed some out the drainage holes. I have to check into that now that you mention it (to see if it's all out)

[Zann]

How does this glass usually break, besides someone knocking your hatch over

You guys who have had them shatter, was it slamming the hatch or break ins? I cringe when someone riding with me slams their door or my hatch because I see glass shattering visions in my head.

[cjohnsontech]

Zann, mine was from a break-in (stole my laptop from the trunk those bastards) but I think the same thing whenever I close my door. Especially with the flex caused by it's excessive size. So I only close the door with the window either fully up or fully down... No mid-way closing cuz you can see it bend pretty fierce

Other note about the glass being in my hatch lid: periodically a piece of glass will fall into the latch and seize the mechanism! The only way I have found to open it after that is to crawl into the trunk from the back seat, remove the plastic panel, and forcibly jerk the release cable to break up the glass. Thus the reason why I now drive around without that panel on just to make it ALOT easier.

If anyone has any ideas on how to either get the glass out or to stop the glass from entering the mechanism, it would be much appreciated...