a thought on replacing rear hatch...

[cstanley]

While at a truck accessory shop this weekend, browsing the camper shells for my old man's truck, i noticed a few shells that were really nice. they had very substantial locking mechanisms (on the high-end models) as well as the regular ones. anyway, many of them looked to be about the size and shape of a blazer hatch, or close to it. so i'm wondering if a person could use that hardware and possibly have a piece of glass cut to match the shape of a regular hatch. If it were used this way, it would be a lot lighter, more durable, and maybe look really nice. it would be full glass, rather than having the fiberglass frame.

Similarly, i was noticing this setup on newer SUVs, for instance a ford explorer. the glass looked about the size and shape.

I guess the glass could be cut any shape you needed, as long as you had the hardware off of the set-up. could look really nice... sorta like the one below, only with flat glass instead of contoured...