Cowl Header Panel Replacement - Boo, Hoo!!

[Strife]

No doubt, you may have "missed" once or twice putting on your soft or hard top. The previous owners of my 560SL must have been very weak, vision impaired, had no friends to help with the hardtop, or a combination of the above, because the areas on the stainless steel plate around where the locks go in on top of the windshield cowl looked like they were used for target practice. So, I bought the part at the dealer (ow, ow, ow). I didn't know that it would be such a B**** to replace. Getting off the mirror, reveal moulding, etc from the interior was not extremely difficult. I was going to replace my post seals (and doing this procedure seems to require their removal, which is apparently nearly impossible without destroying the old seals), so I did this - mine were bad, anyway, not unexpected after 18 years. Getting the top brightwork off of the front of the windshield was bad, but doable.

Getting the screws from the inside of the car holding down the stainless top plate was easy. Getting the "hooks" off the front was EXTREMELY difficult. I mean, extremely. One of the reasons it was so bad was the rather sloppy application of windshield sealant that obscured how they were locked in and gummed up the clips. Anyway, I did it, and the results were great. Really made the car look "like new".

Except, for one little thing. I noticed that I cracked my windshield. One little slip of a screwdriver while I was working the clips, one little nick on the edge of the glass, and that was it. Boo, Hoo!!!!

Does anyone have any opinions on glass? I really want to get the best deal on a replacement but I'm willing to spend more for superior quality if it actually makes a difference.