RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

[Rocket Man]

Maybe lol

Tease.

 

[adventurenali92]

Well it’s been an interesting week. I got an email last Saturday that a 2005 Escalade ESV was just made available in the Wilmington LKQ pick and pull yard, pretty much Long Beach area. I figured what the heck, I’m not busy I’m gonna run down there for ***** and giggles. With traffic it took almost 3 hours to get there. I was hoping to score the esky running boards. Got there, found the truck pretty quick, but the running boards were pretty jacked up. Dang..... anyhow, I turned to the back end of the truck to see if the glass was intact. And sure enough it was. It has always bugged me that I don’t have the 2005/2006 style hatch on my truck. The 2002 esky hatch I grabbed last summer was in fine shape and I had used some JB weld on the lift support areas on the inside of the trim molding and it wasn’t giving me any problems. But I figured, “what the hell I know the 2005 hatch will be cheap, I’m gonna just grab it.” Easy enough to pull off the truck. Unfortunately the third tail light mount was trashed.... well no big deal I have one in fine shape that can just be removed from my glass and transferred over. Well what a shit show that turned out to be.


to start with, pulling the trashed base off the 2005 hatch was a nightmare. It broke into many pieces.... that should have told me what to expect with my good light base.... I thought I could get it to come off intact, and I was so wrong. Everything went perfectly until it was time to get the bottom edge of the base separated. I heated thoroughly, and starting gently wiggling to get the adhesive to give. And then boom..... cracks....... Fuuuuuuuu it snapped so damn easily.
RIP third tail light base....

 

[adventurenali92]

Luckily I still had the base that was attached the orginal esky hatch I had bought several years ago, that was starting to separate at the lift support area. The base was intact but it needed to be painted. This one was not glued to the hatch with factory adhesive so thankfully I got it to separate from the hatch with no issues after pulling the hatch out of my storage unit. I put the 2005 hatch on the truck Monday, and then Tuesday morning ran down to hesperia to pick up the base coat paint I needed to repaint the backup base. Got it sanded, and primed. Then base coat and clear the next day when I had time in between work. Had to roll around all week with no esky third tail light.... and ewwwwww.... it was like it was naked all week.... lol Paint isn’t perfect but it looks good and should hold up. Asked the family I live with if I could borrow the garage for a couple hours this afternoon to get the base mounted on the glass. She’s off the mountain today so it worked out perfect. I used 3M body molding adhesive and it worked out perfectly. Base and light is back on the way it’s supposed to be, and I’m not gonna lie, I like having the 2005/2006 style hatch on my truck. And thankfully my esky third tail light still works perfectly. Lol

 

[Tonyrodz]

Well it’s been an interesting week. I got an email last Saturday that a 2005 Escalade ESV was just made available in the Wilmington LKQ pick and pull yard, pretty much Long Beach area. I figured what the heck, I’m not busy I’m gonna run down there for ***** and giggles. With traffic it took almost 3 hours to get there. I was hoping to score the esky running boards. Got there, found the truck pretty quick, but the running boards were pretty jacked up. Dang..... anyhow, I turned to the back end of the truck to see if the glass was intact. And sure enough it was. It has always bugged me that I don’t have the 2005/2006 style hatch on my truck. The 2002 esky hatch I grabbed last summer was in fine shape and I had used some JB weld on the lift support areas on the inside of the trim molding and it wasn’t giving me any problems. But I figured, “what the hell I know the 2005 hatch will be cheap, I’m gonna just grab it.” Easy enough to pull off the truck. Unfortunately the third tail light mount was trashed.... well no big deal I have one in fine shape that can just be removed from my glass and transferred over. Well what a shit show that turned out to be.

View attachment 276793
to start with, pulling the trashed base off the 2005 hatch was a nightmare. It broke into many pieces.... that should have told me what to expect with my good light base.... I thought I could get it to come off intact, and I was so wrong. Everything went perfectly until it was time to get the bottom edge of the base separated. I heated thoroughly, and starting gently wiggling to get the adhesive to give. And then boom..... cracks....... Fuuuuuuuu it snapped so damn easily. View attachment 276794 View attachment 276795 View attachment 276796
RIP third tail light base....

Could've fixed that crack np. Some epoxy and bondo--BOOM--DONE!

 

[adventurenali92]

Could've fixed that crack np. Some epoxy and bondo--BOOM--DONE!

I have neither the skill nor the product necessary to do that. Lol. And I would know it’s cracked.... and it would just irritate me knowing it’s there... haha.

 

[Sam Harris]

Looks great Chase! The later, trimless rear glass is also on my shortlist... would really love to do that. I haven’t really looked though. I’m afraid if I do find one, it will be all scratched to hell from someone using the rear wiper all the time, after mudding [emoji107][emoji853]

 

[adventurenali92]

Looks great Chase! The later, trimless rear glass is also on my shortlist... would really love to do that. I haven’t really looked though. I’m afraid if I do find one, it will be all scratched to hell from someone using the rear wiper all the time, after mudding [emoji107][emoji853]

Yeah I’ve seen a lot of scratched up ones. Thankfully the one I found was in pretty good shape. I could see the shadow of where they used the wiper blade but it wasn’t scratched. After a clay and a full polish with my new rupes machine, it shined right up. Thankfully glass can be polished with a good product. Don’t be shy of finding one with light scratching. It can be cleaned up! I followed the polish with two coats of chemical guys carbon force ceramic coating.

 

[Rocket Man]

Looking good Chase. Next time you’re pulling trim off glass that’s attached with high bond tape, use a single edge razor blade in a good holder and cut in passes with the blade tight to the glass, don’t try to cut all the way through on the first pass. Unlike when you’re pulling it off a painted body surface you can get away with the razor blade because it won’t dig into the glass like it would otherwise. That’s how I removed the wide top trim off the 05-06 glass I bought so I could paint it. If the blade grabs use a little glass cleaner as a lubricant.

 

[adventurenali92]

Looking good Chase. Next time you’re pulling trim off glass that’s attached with high bond tape, use a single edge razor blade in a good holder and cut in passes with the blade tight to the glass, don’t try to cut all the way through on the first pass. Unlike when you’re pulling it off a painted body surface you can get away with the razor blade because it won’t dig into the glass like it would otherwise. That’s how I removed the wide top trim off the 05-06 glass I bought so I could paint it. If the blade grabs use a little glass cleaner as a lubricant.

With any luck there won’t be a next time lol. Hopefully this is the last time I do any hatch or base swaps

 

[Tonyrodz]

Luckily I still had the base that was attached the orginal esky hatch I had bought several years ago, that was starting to separate at the lift support area. The base was intact but it needed to be painted. This one was not glued to the hatch with factory adhesive so thankfully I got it to separate from the hatch with no issues after pulling the hatch out of my storage unit. I put the 2005 hatch on the truck Monday, and then Tuesday morning ran down to hesperia to pick up the base coat paint I needed to repaint the backup base. Got it sanded, and primed. Then base coat and clear the next day when I had time in between work. Had to roll around all week with no esky third tail light.... and ewwwwww.... it was like it was naked all week.... lol Paint isn’t perfect but it looks good and should hold up. Asked the family I live with if I could borrow the garage for a couple hours this afternoon to get the base mounted on the glass. She’s off the mountain today so it worked out perfect. I used 3M body molding adhesive and it worked out perfectly. Base and light is back on the way it’s supposed to be, and I’m not gonna lie, I like having the 2005/2006 style hatch on my truck. And thankfully my esky third tail light still works perfectly. Lol

View attachment 276797 View attachment 276799 View attachment 276800 View attachment 276801

I see you also have the flaking clear coat on the roof. Have you tried to fix it some how? Buffing, compound?