Continued from above...
Next up it's time to seal this van up and make it weather proof. There is a glaring over site on Mercedes part when they designed the clips for the plastic side panels. Water can easily run behind the clips and into the walls during rain storms or when washing the van....not good. Now that I have my walls insulated the last thing I want is water getting trapped in with the insulation, time to fix this issue.
THIS IS A MUST DO FOR ANY SPRINTER
Note: For 2019 Mercedes finally decided to address this issue by adding a little rubber lip around each retaining clip to keep water out. I've heard that the seal is marginal at best and it's recommended that you still remove & seal these clips as well for a reliable waterproof seal.
Time to start removing the trim
The rear edges of the front doors and both ends of the slider doors have screws that need to be removed.
I purchased a cheap set of plastic body panel removal tools from Harbor Freight to remove the trim panels, they worked great. Note: Make sure the fulcrum of the tool is below the edge of the body panel so you don't leave any small dimple dents as you remove the panels. While pulling on the panel from the end work the tool down the trim piece and pop loose each trim clip.
Some clips will stay with the trim piece and some will stay in the body....either way not a big deal.
Next I removed the clips from the body using another one of the HF tools. You can use a screw driver here as well to reach in and compress/release each side of the clips, the HF tool makes it a quick process. The only thing keeping water out is the plastic contact against the body, and it's not a very good seal. Go slow and you won't break and of the clips, I managed to remove all the clips without breaking any in the process.
Next I used a bent pair of needle nose pliers to release the clips that were still attached to the side panels. I just reached in with the pliers and slightly compressed the tabs until the clip released.
Clips and Panels Removed.
Continued Below...