Just completed my drivers’ door, passenger door starts tomorrow. The door closes beautifully. The window glides lightly and smoothly –finally after 30 years.
It is a meticulous time consuming process of mechanical ingenuity. I did a half A__ job 30 years ago and always regretted it. I just didn’t have time to ponder the interferences and gas to figure out what to the factory guy would have done.
Both my doors had been reattached my idiots before I got the car, so when I got into them there was nothing where it should be. I had no sure reference but the windshield pillar.
1st there is a pretty good process laid out in the manual under Window with good pics. I used Gorilla glue (urethane) this time, I think it sticks better to glass than epoxy. The trick is to leave the guide clamping screws very loose until the very end, AND then when you are doing the final glide clamp screw tightening, carefully press the window back and forth, watching the plastic guides, while removing the play with the clamp crews, one clamp at a time. There should be no drag caused when you snugging up the screws. The window should go up and down as easily as before you tightened them.
There is so much to tell you, I think its best just to say nothing should be tight at the start. Pull the guides out, inspect, smooth out bumps & incorrect curves, anything that would misdirect or effect the plastic guides. Put them in loose at top and bot. Go for the pillar guide first: the window must come into the rubber seal just kissing the new pillar rubber/cloth surface just kissing the surface and continuing up the surface like its in love with it. Forget all the stuff about silicone grease if too tight -never go tight! You have to shim the guide, centered at the door opening, so the glass does exactly what it should. I had to cut custom shims from alu sheet to space the guide rail exactly where the glass just kisses the seal surface. It took a while. I had to use a longer bolt and then use washers to avoid interference as the clamp comes up with the closing window, giving the bolts threads to the back surface, no farther.
Next at the bottom of the guide, adjust the in/out angle of the glass so the glass again just touches at the start of the inside of the rubber and all the way up. It fits the curve, so just roll the window up and adj at the top. Height is in the clamping at the window bottom, just ensure for now, you can get the glass high enough. The height limited is adjusted lastly by the green rubber stopper tab that hits the inside doorframe one screw back on the clamp. (The rear stop is a dual stop both up for the rear of the glass and down again to the doorframe with the rubber ended #10 bolt std stopping thing.) Mercedes doesn’t put in extra stuff!
Once you get the front edge spaced and angled near perfect, adj the rear guide bottom to hold the glass forward (window down) against front rail with maybe 2mm slop fore and aft. Remember no tight. Guess at the angle then go up to the top of the rear guide and again cut shims so the glass comes out just kissing the rear rubber seal in the back and keeping the front edge kissing the front seal at the top. Use the angle adjust to kiss both surfaces all the way up. The opening perfectly fits the glass angles. You can shim the rubber holders in the soft-top frame to perfectly fit the glass. I mashed my seals up the holder grooves because they will then expand a little. I cut it too long on purpose to be trimmed later. I even bought the hardtop seals to use on the soft-top and put them in before cutting the corner and split, and left the front top rubber square until all was nice before cutting the front angle with a brand new sharp blade. It took me one weekend to get everything apart clean and prep the guides, glue the clamps on the glass, clean everything and three days to put it all back. I drove it for a few days before putting the panel back on to make final adjustments. My door was replaced once and I found the guy had mounted the door then realized he needed to drill holes for the rubber clamps. I had to redrill holes to put the front rubber in the right place.
So many little things to play with clean, and oil like the lock mech and crank mech, I have speakers in my doors and they needed new surrounds. I had a broken plastic guide jaw on a Sunday , made a plastic replacement that works so well I'll leave it.
