Well pictures help visualize ideas. I personally didn't want 1/2" of rubber or foam underneath the glass, and like working with metal, so thought I'd try this. To answer a previous question, yes I will still be using the original glass. By raising the glass uniformly around the channel, nothing will really change the way the glass sits. If you look in that second picture from my first post, I set the glass 1/2" from the bottom edge, and that gave me a consistent gap around the window edge.
I'm still grinding the welds on the first piece, but as soon as I'm done I'll post a pic of the finished product, and progress with the bottom piece.