anyone have any tips on how to remove the glass from the rear deck lid without destroying the glass?

 

unbolt it?

 

It's more like removing the deck from the glass... there are bolts & then there is some GM black super sticky junk usually... after you have removed all the bolts, just kinda start peeling it back slowly... depending on your climate, heat gun may help...

Raf

 

Yeah it unbolts and has a line of the black sticky crap. Mine just slowly pulled apart. I then removed the steel side glass strips. I sanded them down and repainted them flat black. That is very strong glass.

 

i was planning on using a heat gun to soften the sealant up. most of the lids i've seen had broken glass at the sealant. didn't know how stubborn that stuff was. i didn't want to get myself into ripping the deck off and 1/2 way through saying "oh s***, does anyone have a rear hatch w/the glass included!!!"
thanks for your help bill

 

Use fishing line if its stubborn

 

I pulled the deck lid off the glass just enough to slide a blade in to cut through the sticky silicone.

 

when installing the glass, what do you put in place of the sticky silicone?

 

I sharpened a stainless steel straight edge ruler and used that to cut through the nasty sealant.

When you put it back together I would recommend using clear silicone.... definitely do not ever use the white gorilla grip sealant. It is water soluable.

 

The glass is bonded to it with Butyl. Not silicone
If you can get between the glass and the butyl cut it with a razor blade or something sharp. If you want to save the glass then go slow and cut through the butyl as much as you can all the way around then try and push it out gently without stress cracking it. Then to reinstall clean all the old butyl off the glass and as much off the hatch as possible. You can buy a roll of more butly for around 20$ then just go over where it used to be and put the backglass back in. Or use urethane if you know what that is its stronger and more leak resistant.