93 mb 300ce cabriolet: hard/soft top problems. HELP!!!!
 

hello, I am purchasing a euro 1993 mercedes benz 300ce cabriolet with a factory hardtop(I know that some say that a hardtop on this model must be aftermarket but I'm sure it is factory because it has mercedes benz badging). Anyway, when I took off the hard top to see the soft top, the soft top was inoperable. The only thing that looked out of place were the two flaps on either side of the tonneau cover, they were popped up and unattatched from the top mechanism(I know that these were supposed to be down and attached on models with no hard top but the hardtop attatches under these flaps so they had to be popped up even though the top was down). I tried to reattatch the flaps to this nipple-like attachment but they wouldn't go. The hardtop attatches to the car in 5 different places(2 on top of the front windshield, 2 under the flaps on either side of the tonneau cover and 1 in the middle of the tonneau cover towards the rear of the vehicle). Also when I pushed the red button for the top operation(located on the dash) the button would flash and beep and you could hear the top trying to raise but the tonneu cover seemed to prevent it from raising. Im thinking that when you go from hard top to soft top there must be some kind of adjustment in between this procedure that I am just not aware of. Another thing, I looked at the owners manual(which was all in german beacuse its a euro model) and it depicted a lever located behind the rear seat seatbacks that had to do something with the convertible top operation(I dont know what because it was all in german). The person who is seling this car is not very farmiliar with it so I am looking for advice asap. anyone please help me anyway you can. thank you!

This "lever" you're talking about may be the emergency release for the tonneau cover. I believe it's a 10mm wrench that you slide in the gap, engage, and turn to release the cover.

See if you can get the two side flaps secured into their proper positions. This top mechanism has a lot of microswitches and a brain, and if everything isn't in place it won't work. It's funny that way.