Ok so I am trying to muster up enough courage to pull my own windshield so that I can replace my cracked/rotted seal out. I have already ordered the seal and will have it this week.

Can someone walk me through the steps on how to do it? I will have a helper. I was going to have a shop do it, but frankly, I'd rather spend the $200 on something more fun if I can do it myself without too much trouble!

Thanks!

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1982 300 CD "The Shady Lady"
Silver Blue Metallic
Pacific Blue Interior


1984 BMW 633 CSi
Bronzit Beige Metalic
Perlbeige Leather

after removing the chrome strips around the windsheild, get two suction cups like hte kind used to remove dents, and attach them to the windsheild. mask off hte hood and cowl, and get in the passenger seat. tilt the seat backwards, and put both feet on the glass, and slowly push it outward with the force of your legs, while two of your helpers holding hte suction cups grab the windsheild and remove it. i'd put a blanket over the hood and cowl in case they drop the windsheild

So, to remove the chrome I should just use a plastic interior tool? Do I cut the existing gasket?

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1982 300 CD "The Shady Lady"
Silver Blue Metallic
Pacific Blue Interior


1984 BMW 633 CSi
Bronzit Beige Metalic
Perlbeige Leather

To remove the front wind shield, on the inside you will need to remove the A-pillar covers, the sun visors, the visor clips, the interior rear view mirror, and the mounting bracket for it. With all that removed, the sun roof needs to be opened and the forward aluminum trim strip is removed after removing the six or seven small Philip’s head screws that secure it. With all those parts removed, the door wind lace near the top of the A-pillar is pulled off, that allows you to remove the MB Tex covered forward panel. Removing the wiper arms is recommended, on either the driver’s side or the passenger side the aluminum trim which runs down along the forward edge of the A-pillar is loosened after removing the three Philip’s head screws that secure it in place, you can with a hammer and a sharp edged block of wood get under the bottom edge of the small section of trim back towards the door and tap it up and free slightly if needed.
With all that prep done you can begin to remove the windshield, with a large flat blade screw driver you go around the inside of the opening placing the screwdriver blade about ¼” from the edge of the rubber seal and push the edge of the seal backwards and fold it from the inside to the outside of the steel opening’s lip. Sometimes it is a little difficult to get this started and keep the lip folded back as you pull the screwdriver blade out, just start with two screw drivers, use the first one and leave it in place and then use your second one to work outward along the seal from there, once you get a couple inches of the seal folded back it will stay in place. You do this every 2” or so and work all the way around the top edge and down the two A-pillars.

With the top and side edges of the seal folded back the windshield is essentially free, with some help; from the outside you lift the windshield free. You will need to carefully lift and pull the loosened trim out of the way and then lift out in that direction to clear the slight overhanging edge on the opposite side. When doing this take care to hold the glass and do not use the rubber seal around the windshield as a grip. This is important because the aluminum trim that is in the rubber seal can get bent out of shape if the seal gets pulled too far away from the glass.

Which "chrome strips might you be refering to? The trim along the A-pillar? The aluminum trim that encircles the wind shield fitted into the slot of the rubber seal is almost impossible to remove without bending and are very difficult if not impossible to reinstall later if they are.


P.S. I failed to read that you're going with a new seal, you can with the interior stuff removed just cut the seal with a razor knife. To install the new windshield and "rope" in the seal you'll need the interior trim removed.

Ok, I know I sound foolish...but what is the A-pillar????

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1982 300 CD "The Shady Lady"
Silver Blue Metallic
Pacific Blue Interior


1984 BMW 633 CSi
Bronzit Beige Metalic
Perlbeige Leather

The A-pillar is the frame holding up the roof at the front of the car, the B-pillar is between the front and rear doors, and the C-pillar is the rearmost roof frame support!

Awesome! Got it. I don't know much, but I am quick to learn! BTW I got that Nardi in and it looks beautiful!!!!

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1982 300 CD "The Shady Lady"
Silver Blue Metallic
Pacific Blue Interior


1984 BMW 633 CSi
Bronzit Beige Metalic
Perlbeige Leather

I just ordered a DIY DVD on how to do the rear windshield from Diesel Giant. I figure I can watch it and see if I am up to it. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

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1982 300 CD "The Shady Lady"
Silver Blue Metallic
Pacific Blue Interior


1984 BMW 633 CSi
Bronzit Beige Metalic
Perlbeige Leather

First off, I think the CD windshield is different from the sedan- so be careful as it won't be cheap to replace.

You got advice above on how to remove the windshield and save the seal. You have a much better chance of breaking the windshield doing it that way. You said the seal was bad anyway so don't do it that way.

Get yourself a sharp boxcutter and just cut the seal so as to free the glass. Do not mess with the aluminum strips as you will bend them.

Rick

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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 (??)

If you cut the old rubber on the outside with a knife you will be able to pry the windshield out intact. With the knife, just cut off the portion that overhangs the windshield such that all of the glass all the way around is exposed.

Once it is out, remove the remaining portions of the seal. Put the new seal in place around the windshield and arrange cord in the outer groove of the new seal with the ends hanging out at the bottom. Start the top in first, with the cord ends inside the car. Have the assistants keep pushing the windshield into position while pulling out the cord.

Unless the old one is perfect you can usually get a new glass installed for around $200 including the labor and the glass. I find the glass on these cars gets sandblasted after just 20-30K miles and the more miles after that the worse they are. This is evident when driving at night, or in the rain at night. For that reason I usually just have the windshield replaced once it gets the most minor star or scratch because it is nice to be able to see out of them under all conditions. Just my $0.02...hate to see you spend all this time replacing a glass unless it is really perfect.

Also, I have paid as little as $50 to have the seal replaced on one which leaked badly but was otherwise OK - well worth the price. You might call around and get some prices and you might just be surprised at how cheap it is. The real pros can do this whole job in under an hour in your driveway.

The highest price I was quoted was $100.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Just had to replace my windshield due to a stupid move of putting my elbow on the windshield for leverage when removing the windshield wiper arms-(spider cracks all the way to the windshield edge)

Total cost to have glass repair firm replace windshield and seal $212 (labor, tax, etc) and took guy 90 minutes to remove and replace all in myn driveway.

Call your insurance company, the insurance company have "arrangements" with glass repair places and you get a discount for being a Insureance company "X" customer.

The following is how MB recommends removing it.
If you're going to be doing more things like this, I suggest getting the service manuals. They're so helpful.

First is the window key:





Then the windshield:

Attached Thumbnails

     

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"I bought the car brand new off the show room floor. It brought my baby girl home after she was born, but I never thought that one day she'd be driving it to school!" -Dad

Resto and 240D to 300D w/ turbo swap in progress

FWIW, A friend of mine that has done body work and painting professionally for many years farms glass R&R out even on his own vehicles. He does the prep work (removing whatever is necessary to get to the glass) himself. His logic is that frequently the job becomes a pita and the (small) labor cost more than offsets the price of a broken windshield or torn gasket.