Doing the "rope in" is much easier than installing the gasket first... placing the glass in and then "picking" the rubber around the glass. But I know that most a time people have a different way of doing something and achieve the same result. Believe me when I tell you "rope in" is much easier.
We get a lot of people who bring the classic/muscle cars in to install glass without engines and we get to push them around. Windshields, back glass, door glass, etc... but sometimes they really don't want to bring there car to the shop and we will go to them. The pros you have talked to seem like they are not starving like we are. lol I mean most of the muscle cars we do are at paint shops, or a home owner with a nice garage... lucky sometimes ... but we usually take the job anyways. Now when they do bring it in it is much easier for us to do the install (talking windshields and back glasses) because we can control the environment, we know where everything is located, not in such a hurry, more prepared just in case there is a snag in the install etc... Sometimes when we do mobiles we have to deal with a lot of different situations. Dogs barking, smelly trash, people standing over you watching every move you (this one gets my goat) wind, rain, heat, cold.... I hope you see my point. Most mobiles however are late model cars and it doesn't take as long as our beloved old cars so we basically there about 45 mins max.
Our old cars are always least important, never in a hurry to get them done, put on the back burner. You go to a paint shop the owner is to busy getting money in his pocket with insurance jobs and then when that gets slow they move back over on our old cars. This is the same way the glass business does our cars.... insurance pays the bills, and pay checks. When we get caught up on the late model insurance jobs my boss tells me work on the 55 Chevy, Ford mustang, and so on. It's sad.
I don't know your circumstances if you have a nice garage , both doors on the car can be swung open on both sides, level ground, clean work area, but on my baby I would take it to them so they can be more comfortable doing the job. Be prepared also not getting the car back in manner of time that you expect it back. Most of the time this happens but like I say it depends when your car hits the shop... busy or not busy.
Now if you decide to do the job yourself keep some things in mind. If we install your glass and break it we will have to pay for it, if we scratch your nice paint job we have to pay for it, if the glass leaks we have fix to it on our dime, but if you do any of the above it comes out of your time and pocket. Your just buying a little insurance by letting us do it.
I'm sure you can do it but don't try to do it by yourself. Have a mechanically inclined friend to help you. Take your time is a key with working with glass. Let me know if you might have some questions.
