I was wondering how it would look without the trim. Mine is rusted pretty bad, and first I was thinking about just scuffing and painting it, then I remembered last time I washed it rust was coming out from inside of it too when I sprayed the water into it. Then my next thought was about my 88 s10 Blazer, it had the metal trim and I replaced the rear glass with a newer one that didn't have the trim and it cleans the whole area up an looks alot better. So has anyone ever just removed it? Or what does the glass look like without it? Is there going to be any mounting issues without it?

let's see... tempered glass without a protective edge... I don't think that's a very good idea

If the trim is that badly rusted, replace the trim or the entire hatch.

Your side windows don't have trim..... GM thought it was fine for my blazers rear glass.... Alot of newer vehicles don't have trim on the back hatch of SUVs.....

your side windows don't weigh 100 pounds, have complicated curves, and are under the kind of torque that your back glass is

bad idea... rethink your plan

There are pictures floating around here of people who have tried that and the glass almost always shatter. The best and really only thing to do is mask everything off and paint the trim, or better yet remove the back glass and do it that way.

I think the trim is very important to the structure of the hatch, as a whole. I would guess the glass breaking might have something to do with the way the decklid attaches to the glass. Only four bolts (eight actually, but only four go through the glass directly to the decklid) attach the two together and they need to be torqued pretty good to keep the hatch properly aligned. The hatch struts push hard against the lid and will push the lid out of position if the bolts are too loose. I think the decklid internals actually slide in between the trim on the glass. The trim extends past the glass, underneath the decklid and spoiler. Since the glass is so damn heavy, i'd venture to guess all the attachment points that connect the glass/lid are very important. The ends of the glass/lid, attached by the trim, might even be the most important attachment point, in regards to NOT breaking the glass.

I got the trim off the glass on my 92. its a 2 man job though. I didnt have any trouble with cracking glass etc just dont take it off in a rush. Mine had surface corrosion. Ill try to get some pics up.

A can of trim paint is less than $10.