I suppose there are a lot of methods for removing the old glass, but when I watched an installer replace my windshield I saw something very interesting in his method. He actually took a knife and cut the old gasket in half before he ever removed anything. This prevented the bending of the moulding and allowed him to easily pry the cracked glass out without damaging it anymore than it was, even though it was no longer usable. I think the latter was more "show" for me than it was anything else. He could have just as easily gotten inside the car and kicked the glass out after cutting away the gasket and lifting off the moulding.

On the install, he completely assembled it with moulding and everything outside the car, sprayed the gasket down with silicon, laid it over the opening and "slipped it back in". The latter was pretty neat because he'd taken some parachute cord and made a couple "wraps" on the inside of the gasket, laying the end of the cord inside the car. After laying the assembly over the opening he took the cord and started "unwrapping the cord" which pulled the rubber inside the window opening. A couple jiggles here and there and it was a perfect fit.

All-in-all a pretty nice technique.

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Don
'85 500SL (Euro) - 186,000 w/a complete restoration and engine rebuild at 154,000
'95 C280 - 174,000