My brother and I finally got around to putting the windows back in his 300D. Once we figured out what we were doing (long story), it went pretty fast.

Trouble spots:

Getting the trim into the lock slot on the new gasket can be a pain. We pried the trim out of the old gasket on the car, a mistake, since we then had to straighten it back out to get it to stay in. The corners are the worst, we had to use a hooked screwdriver (orignially made from a cheap screwdriver to work on brakes) to get the rubber up onto the trim. The rest of it was easy once the correct contour was established.

We used two wraps of #10 electrical wire in the body flange slot for installation, and Tire Shine to lub the gasket. Once we got the wire in the correct slot, things went fast -- on the front gasket, the correct slot is hidden and we were attempting to get the wrong portion of the gasket over the flange.

The wire fits nicely in and stays put if you have the correct location......

For installation, all it takes is getting the window set correctly so that the flange and gasket match up all round -- most difficult part is getting the position correct side-to-side. From there, pulling the wire out while another person presses the gasket and window inward will roll the lip over the flange like magic.

The corners will again give the most trouble -- more pressure is necessary to get the lip to come over, but too much and the wire won't come out.

Back window also required punching holes for the defrost wires on the W115.114, don't know if this is necessary for other models (it's not for W108 or W115.110 chassis gaskets). Front window required some help with the hooked screwdriver in a couple of places where the lip didn't roll over nicely, but that wasn't a big problem.

The outer lip had to be rolled out from under the edge, too, it didn't flip properly by itself. Any blunt tool will work there.

After gettting the gasket in, we tapped the lock trim down with a soft mallet to seat it. This was necessary, probably due the temperature of the gasket. It might settle in by itself, but tapping worked.

Next time I take a window out I'm going to try to pry the gasket lip over the flange rather than pry the trim out and cut the gasket -- will save considerable bother re-installing it!

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!