Replacing Front Hard/Soft top rubbers

[Garry]

I recently purchased from Buds Benz two windscreen to hard top/soft top rubbers to replace the originals on my car.  As an exercise, I ordered one of the OEM rubbers and one of the reproduction rubbers.  See photo.  The OEM is the grey looking one, it has elastomeric protection on it. The repro rubber is just that with no protectrant on it. Am replacing the small screws that hold the chrome on whilst have it open as there is some minor rust on the screws.

The other differences is firstly the OEM is slightly longer and I am yet to see if one or the other doesn’t fit. However the OEM one is considerable softer and thus can be manipulated into the channel easier and also will enable expansion.compression to fit the total width of the front channel.

You can also note that the cutout for the top latch is slightly different between the OEM and Repro. Again until fitted I am not sure what the effect of the differing shape cutouts makes.
Will add more as I clean and fit new rubbers to both hard top and soft top.  Plan is to put Repro on Hard Top, OEM on Soft Top which is used more frequently.

Garry

[andyburns]

Garry,  I have decided to never buy another aftermarket rubber after a terrible experience with a set of door rubbers that were obviously manufactured with very little attention to detail or quality control.  I have also had issues with an aftermarket gear shift set and soft top hood seal that felt to the touch like my kids snake jelly lollies.  Both are now in the bin.  Both were supplied from reputable sources.  The only way to guarantee quality is probably the OEM route. 

To the touch the mercedes rubber feels much more solid to me.  I would guess that they will also last much longer before breaking down. 

I really hope that your experience is much better than mine.  I may have had some really bad luck!

[Garry]

Andy,  Thats interesting that you found the OEM firmer as in this case it is considerably softer.  I agree that nothing beats OEM and I normally don’t use other but I don’t put my hard top on other than once every few years if I am taking the car to a paint shop to avoid getting all the paint dust on the soft top, so did not see it as critical.

I have been caught on a windshield rubber once and also on the door front to glass rubber, so would not normally get other than OEM.

[Garry]

Just to finish off,  I have fitted the two different hard/soft top front rubbers, OEM in the soft top and Repro in the Hard Top.  Whilst the OEM was softer, it was a bit longer than the Repro and was harder to fit as it was not wanting to sit in the grove very well and had to be squeezed up a bit to ensure it went evenly over the whole front of the soft top. The slightly harder Repro was easier to fit, sitting snugger into the grove using a contact adhesive. I still think the slightly softer OEM rubber in the long run will be the tighter leak free fit.

I guess the first time I drive it in the rain with either top up I will see if it leaks! That could be a year or two or in the case of the Hard Top, never.

Garry