My windshield seal is old and has cracked and separated from the roof somewhat, causing water leaks into the driver side footwells. For now, I treated the gap with a Silicone II sealer to minimize rain-related leaks, but it's only a temporary solution. Ultimately, I will need to have that seal replaced.

I searched the forum about this, and I found a few threads about this, but my questions is somewhat different. I have NO experience whatsoever replacing windshields or their seals on ANY cars. I would only give the car to an MB dealer to have this job done to make sure they put all the OEM materials, but I'm sure it will be expensive... What would be my chances of success if I decided to undertake this job myself? What sort of skill is necessary for this?

I like this question.
Recently I replaced my rear window seal, having never done a window seal on any car.

In my favor I had:
MB manual for body that explained removing and installing window.
Dry clean place to work on car inside.
All the time I needed (spent a week on the whole thing going really slow).
The willingness to take it to a local window shop in case I failed.
A spare replacment window from a donor in case mine broke.

I think a first-timer can do this, how else can you learn ?

You don't mention how much other stuff you do yourself.
It takes a can-do attitude.

For your own sake, check out a local window installer, ask if they have experience with MB.
I found a local shop that was okay with replaceing the seal for around $100 labor only.
Actually quite a deal.
I did not use the MB factory seal, a billion members here will certainly
chastise me for that. Whatever.

I ended up doing it myself. Completely removed window alone.
Used teenage son to help install.

Another member only a week later did front window. Must have been his first time.
It came out okay.

If you have the time, patience, place to work uninterrupted, go for it.

Good point - I should qualify my other skills and working conditions. I haven't worked on the Mercedes yet because I just got it, but on my '87 Saab, I replaced valve cover gasket, rebuilt the distributor and replaced distributor oil seal, adjusted timing, replaced battery, replaced battery cable, removed and repaired starter, replaced front shocks, replaced balljoints, replaced headlight, and maybe a couple other jobs I might be forgetting.

Working conditions... I live in an apartment complex, where I do not have a garage or a driveway, just a public parking lot and a nice tree :) I am therefore at the mercy of the elements. If it's dry - I have dry conditions. If it rains - I don't. I only really have one day for the glass job because I don't want the car to sit without a glass overnight and I actually need the car on a regular basis. I can get my dad or my friend to help me where two more hands are needed. Generally, I work with barebone tools (whatever I accumulated from Saab work, which isn't that much) and try to buy whatever I need for a particular job that I don't have.

Do you think it can be done for the first time under those conditions, or would I be in too much of a rush?

The front glass is easier than the back glass. The worst senario is you break the glass:mad: , but a beginner should have little problem with this project - get a helper if you are not used to working with large, bulky things that break. It should not take you more than 2 hours to complete the task

Before you just change the seal, take a drive toward the sun at the end or the beginning of the day and see how badly pitted it is. Since you just got the car, it would be a shame to do the seal and find out a week later that it would have made sense to put in a new pit free windshield. There a couple of states that will replace your windshield with no deductible if it is pitted badly.

Len

Installing a windshield (which is what you will be doing to install the seal) is a whole lot harder than a rear window. They are more curved and easy to break. I've done a number of rubber-held rear windows, but would probably defer a windshield to a professional, and expect to pay enough for him to replace a broken piece of glass now and then. And have him promise to replace it if he did break it, of course.

If you do this yourself, be sure to cut the old seal to remove the glass. Normally, you don't try to remove the glass from the seal leaving both intact. You destroy the part that you don't want to save.

i am trying to remember but it seems i pay from about 225 to 250 for a pro to do it with a new windshield and seal.

this is not something that i would ever do myself because of the chance of breakage. glass is pretty easy to break if handled just a little wrong.

i might try when i was a lot younger and if i had two extra windshields. but typically on a 20 yr old car the shield is so dirt pitted that it needs changing any way.

what the hell, when i was younger i would have driven with a crack til the shield started to fall out! lack of funding will do that to you.

tom w

try calling a few glass plces and getting qoutes from them. it may well be worth the $$$ to have piece of mind, not having to leave car over nite w/out the window,cracking window,etc. i have done a bit of glass, but i have watched the pros do it first.( worked as a gopher in a body shop when i was 18)

Dealers don't do their own glass. Call dealer or indy shop and get a recommendation.

In my opinion, doing this yourself is definitely not the way to go. I presume your time is worth something. If you screw it up, then you will have to pay to have it corrected. There is a possibility of damaging interior items during the removal.

Windshield replacement market is highly competitive and thus pretty cheap.
They will come out and do it in your parking spot. The two windshields I have had done on my 300E's were around $250 bucks.

Steve

If its the front windsheild there is no seal, you chaulk the heck out of it and stick in in.

Also if you have glass coverage on the car call your insurance company. Usually they will cover it, and you get a nice new free windsheild!:D

If you do decide to do it yourself (Not recommended) be sure to wear rubber gloves. Gloves are MANDATORY, so as not to get any of the oil from your skin onto the new seal. Any minute traces of skin oil, will cause the glass sealent not to seal properly, causing the glass may pop out in the slightest accident.

Observe the pros, or even TV commercials you'll see what I mean.

Phil

I was a bit reluctant about this project, and after these replies, I think I'll look for a way to contract this job out. My insurance deductible is too high to cover the windshield, and I don't want to change my policy temporarily so it covers the windshield. The glass is in good shape - it doesn't bother me to look through it whether it's head-on sun or headlights. There are no cracks either. I'll check with the dealer who they use for glasswork (if they'll tell me), and there's also a shop I know of in Princeton area that service primarily Euro cars.

I let a firm called Binswanger Glass do mine last year (they are a chain). I think they did a good job and for $250 installed provided me with a brand new Pilkinton tinted windshied to replace my badly pitted one with three pebble holes in my '98 E300.
Most glass guys won't take on a seal replacement without making you indemnify them from breaking it during removal. Apparently more often than not they can't get the old one out without breaking it. I can understand this after seeing how they remove it (there is a tool they run around the seams that runs between the glass and the seal but the bottom is especially hard to get loose...my old one cracked while they were taking it out and they were being pretty careful about it.

There is a place here local that comes to your house to do it and charges $85/seal (I supplied the new seal). They did a very good job.

I have done about a half- dozen of these and haven't broken one yet (knock wood). The last one took literally half an hour. The first one took all day. The learning curve is very steep on these- but if you don't try the first one you will never get the experience. I would suggest getting quotes first on having someone pop a new one in at your place. I found them to be surprisingly cheap for the W123 (like $200 installed). Then , if you break it, call them over to install a new one. If you are careful and CUT the old seal out, I think odds are in your favor to have success.

Ok, I think I need some more advice here... I went to the MB dealer today and asked the parts guy look up the seal(s) for the windshield on my '84 300SD.

Their system shows 4 parts for securing the windshield. That's right - FOUR! Each is termed "garnish", so I believe they mean the metal bracket trim pieces that sit over the windshield seal. I am not sure if the seals come attached to the new metallic "garnish", but each of these pieces is about 70-80 bucks. There's one for the top drivers side, one for the top passenger side, and two on each side of the windshield. This makes sense because the metallic brackets are indeed discontinuous - not one single piece.

But does it mean that there's no "windshield seal" for this car? You just stuff the sealant into the groove and put these metallic "garnish" pieces on and you're done?? I think that's what Hatterasguy was saying in the post above... Maybe it's not such a difficult job then?

Since I'm sure front windshield was done differently on different chassis, could you specify if your advice relates directly to my 300SD with W126 chassis or another Benz from your experience...

Hmmm. Someone with a W126 needs to pipe up here. The W123 and W116 is old-fashioned rubber all around. Is it the W126 that is rubber in front and butyl in back or vice versa? If you have a butyl seal there, I don't know. You have to cut the window out with something like piano wire. How you glue it in I'm not sure. I like the old ones I can figure out myself

You are correct - just your butyl sealant. The four parts are the two winshield surrounds and the two window channels.

Alright, now we're getting somewhere...

So how do I remove the metal trim pieces around the windshield - anyone know? Pry the center clip out with a flathead screwdriver and same on the rest of the trim?

Would I need something like a long thin scalpel blade to insert under the windshield to separate it from the sealant?

PM me your email address and I will send you the PDF documents for the molding install and windshield removal/replacement.

That's awesome - thank you, TX76513!!

I just PM'd you my email addy.

Just tell us a success story when you are done:D

If that windshield trim needs polished up - this is the time to do it!

sorry for a dumb question... but how do i go about getting those metallic trim pieces polished? my metallic trim pieces on the doors are also in need of polishing... do i have to send those out somewhere to have them electropolished, or is there a better and faster solution?

If its the front windsheild there is no seal, you chaulk the heck out of it and stick in in.

Also if you have glass coverage on the car call your insurance company. Usually they will cover it, and you get a nice new free windsheild!:D
Yep...just caulk it. stick it in and fill in the gaps.

You will also need some kind of rubber or ceramic spacers to keep the glass from touching any metal. If you seal it in while it's contacting metal it will crack.

It's something I would do if I didn't have the money to pay to have it done. Preparation is the key. clean it up good and use a good primer.

Danny

sorry for a dumb question... but how do i go about getting those metallic trim pieces polished? my metallic trim pieces on the doors are also in need of polishing... do i have to send those out somewhere to have them electropolished, or is there a better and faster solution?


Those are all anodized aluminum. You either have to have them re anodized, or just replace them.

If you do happen to tackle this yourself it is my understanding the glass will take a little more abuse on a warmer day than a cold one..Old wives tale? If you check with the glass guys and find it is true just make sure to pick a warm day even if you get them to do it if you have to pay for breakage.

Yea good point about the spacers... From reading that MB Service Manual procedure for replacing/resealing the windshield on W126, they say that spacers are only necessary for W107 and all the necessary spacers come in the reglazing kit for W107. For W126, the manual says nothing of the spacers in the reglazing kit and the MB kit does not come with them. Perhaps the body has pre-molded rubber (?) holders for the windshield and obliterates the need for inserting or replacing the spacers on W126.

The Mercedes windshield reglazing kit is apparently available, and using the part number from the Service Manual, I put the order in for one of these. It's supposed to have the special Butyl tape with embedded copper wire, as well as some primers. It's really quite ingenious the way they designed this. You hook up the copper wire that's inside the butyl tape to a battery, and resistive heating will make the tape plastic and allow for safe (or so they say) removal of the windshield. When I get to this procedure, maybe in 2-3 weeks when my schedule isn't quite so crazy, I'll be curious to see how it all works out. Perhaps I should get one of those beams with suction cups for handling the glass to keep it from getting torqued during removal and installation. I do NOT want to replace my windshield - hopefully I'll keep mine in one piece :)

Suction cups would probably be a good idea. If the front windsheild is anything like the rear it will require some force to push it out. Get a helper to sit inside the car and push as you watch/pull/get ready to catch!

There are two "special tools" for this job cited in the MB Service Manual:

- a screw-driver type tool with an end piece that looks like a wedge, which I would guess is for prying the glass loose

- a tool with an L-shaped end, which I guess is for removing some of that butyl tape when it gets softer to get access to the glass

Can these be bought at Home Depot or Lowe's or Ace's or whatever? They can probably be done without, but anything that would make the job easier - I'll take it.

As you have no doubt heard. Use no metal tools at all for this work. Period.

I found the small plastic tire tools for a bicycle (bought at Target for $3)
to be the most useful. In addition I had some plastic spatula/putty knives.
We ended up with a rubber mallet for final seating.

The only metal tool was a razor knife I used to cut away the inside of
the old seal to make removal of window easier.

Some good suggestions found on the board were old toothbrush handles
and fashioning a wedge out of wood.

I don't know if this was made clear or not - window trim that is in the rubber surrounding the windshield is removed and installed with the window out of the car.
Remove the window, remove the trim, remove the old seal.
Install the new seal around the glass, install the trim, install the window.

For TX76513, I sent you a pm with my email address. I am hoping that you will send me those windshield replacement instructions for the 126.

Thanks,
Bruce Bonds