the grease is for where you dont want paint to stick. i used to do this on bikes when i didnt wanna remove the stickers.when the paint drys you can wipe tyhe grease off and the unwanted paint will come with.

__________________
have no worries.....President Obama swears "If you like your gun, you can keep it

I am going to be the dissenting opinion here and say just do the best you can and mask it. If you are very careful and don't overspray too much on the rubber you should be able to carefully take a knife and scrape off that tiny strip of paint you MIGHT get on the rubber. I wouldn't risk making a problem where one doesn't exist. Now, if the seal was known to be bad anyway or the glass delaminating , then pull it. But , to me the added expense of a seal, a moron to put it in and a potential broken glass and scratched fresh paint on a 20 yr old non-show car ain't worth the aggravation.

And yeah, I found rust under my seal, but I wouldn't pull it just to see if its there....

Just my two pfennigs...

__________________
80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

Just because your car is a monney pit, don't drag mine into the same category......

I have looked under the rear window where the typical rust spots form on the 126 cars as well as the jack points and I can say based on prior experience in body work that the only rust my car has is a bit on the rr 1/4 panel and a bit around th esunroff which can easily be taken care of. There is no rust under that rear window molding, only crud, I looked very carefully.

FWIW I will try to do the best I can within certain time and labor considerations. Maybe the rear windshield comes out, maybe not. The rope idea is an excellent one.

Also, the rear windshield is not delaminating in any way. Looks new.

__________________
Enough about me, how are you doing?

Well who just dumped a new tranny into their SDL!

How hard is it to spray paint? My problem is I would need to replace the left front fender and get a few dents removed before I could paint.

Are you taking out the dents?

btw some of that blue painters tape and about 20 minutes and not much paint will get on the seal. As said before it will scrape off.

__________________
2020 GMC Sierra Denali
2007 Tiara 3200

I'll have you know, it was a rebuilt tranny, not a new one.

__________________
Enough about me, how are you doing?

Just a rebuilt? It should have been a factory new one made by the same guy who built your original. Ahh now it is not matching numbers the value will tank! Did you remeber to use proper German swear's as you were trying to get it into place?

You know I am just screwing with you right?

__________________
2020 GMC Sierra Denali
2007 Tiara 3200

For what its worth, the time I've invested to this point is just about 45 hours. In that time, I've removed all trim, and glass, ( except windshield), gutted the doors, romoved the seats, removed the sliding roof and weatherseals. All the paint has been chemically stripped ( except the bottom of the doors where the lower body cladding will go--I left the original paint there. The body has been almost completely sanded and treated with phosphoric acid to eleiminate/prevent rust. I figure another 10 hours and I will be ready to shoot primer---Your mileage may vary

I don't have that kind of time, althouhg it would be fun.

Hattie, I'm starting to take this ribbing seriously.

__________________
Enough about me, how are you doing?

I just did a paint job on my 1975 115 300d. I removed the front and back windshields. They are dead easy to get out and not that difficult to get back in. Find a auto glass installer that can guarentee that he knows how to install MB windows. Get him to tell you the steps and how you are supposed to install the window into the gasket, then the aluminum locking strip into the gasket and THEN the whole thing into the car. You can't install the strip once the window in in the car. If you find someone who knows how to do this get them to take your windows out and store them at their shop. This will save you having to transport the windows to his shop for install or having him charge you a service call to do it at your house. The chances are as good as to make no odds that there will be rust around the holes where the rear window defrost wire goes from the window into the body.

When you remove the windows you can also tighten up the head liner if needed. It wraps around into the window opening and can be reglued with the window out.

The easiest way to remove your chrome trim is to use a Wunderbar pry bar. It is wide and flat with a notch in the center so that you can get around the plastic clips that hold the strip to the body. I took all of mine off with no problem. It is also easy to take off the door window sweeps (that little rubber and chrome strip on the outside of the door that seals against the window. Put the broad edge of the bar against the underside edge of the sweep and bump it up with your hand.

Another hint that helped me. Everytime you take off a component, put all the screws, clips, etc that belong to that piece in a small plastic bag and tape it to the piece. On a piece of duck tape lable where it came from, i.e., right rear door trim. It makes a world of difference when you go back together.

I had my car painted with polyurethane and it came out very well. Had to fill 2 small holes in the left rear fender well under the antenna. Replace your antenna seal since this is where the water comes into your trunk to rust out the fender well. Swab the inside of the well on both sides of the car with raw, un-cut linseed oil. It is thick eonugh to stay in place and doesn't dry out.

I removed all the trim, lights, grill, ect., etc. that could be removed. I sanded the body to what I thought was prefection only to be told by the Hispanic body man that gringos can't sand car bodies. Of course gringos can't work cement either so I guess I should have known. In total the paint job cost me $450. Of course this is in S. Texas and the body man is a friend so I doubt that this price will translate to the rest of the country.

Unfortunately the body man got another $250 out of me 4 months later when a kid backed into the left front fender just in front of the door.

In the end I bought the car with 104k for $1k, put about $3k in to it including a new trans. but now have a car that is virtually brand new and best of all my kid loves it. Best of all he runs it on French fry oil that he gets at work.

Good luck on your project.



j