I banged my 300D into the back of a small SUV with a tire-mount recently (bummer, but other driver was not injured). My hood absorbed almost all the impact by buckling and folding up because it hit the mounted wheel/tire of the forward SUV before the SUV's bumper.

All in all the SUV hardly looked different, but my hood was pretty well done. It still runs and drives fine though, and there are no radiator leaks to speak of.

I have already sourced a replacement hood which is ready to go, but once I took off the old hood I realized that my hood hinges were pretty well bent up. I need to take them off but I'm not sure the best way. I have heard that one can release the little stop-tabs located at one of the elbow joints on each hinge such that you can raise your hood all the way vertical (and thus release all tension on the springs?...), but my problem is that the hinges are so bent back that the "indent" in the hinge where it is supposed to clear the top cowl where the air scoops and wipers are does not match up any longer and stops the backward travel to raise full-vertical.

What's the best way I have left to release tension or remove the springs so that I can safely unbolt the hinges and replace them in this condition? Since these hinges are dead, I'm somewhat tempted to just take a sawz-all blade to the top of them, but I'm afraid of what the spring tension would do, so I'm concerned about the safety of that idea. I have seen that you can drill out the large rivet type fastener at that top elbow joint also, but again I'm afraid of the action of the spring tension on the parts.

Anybody have some ideas or suggestions?

Thanks.

pics?
can you remove the hood? try to unbolt the hood from the hinges, then raise the hinges and remove the clip to get the hinge off the car.
if you took a serious hit, it's possible the fenders got mangled from the hood impact, and will not line up with new hinges...

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John ongoing strip party!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!
84 240D 5speed & 84 300 4Speed
67 rs Camaro, Dodge Pickup, parts cars 78 300D, & 93D(no doors?),85 SD, 83 SD, 85 300D, 85Euro 300TD, 87 300TD, 95E320 T
Daily Drivers 82 SD, 87 300TD, 87300TD!!!!,

IF the hinges mount like the SD, you may be able to remove the fender liner and remove the nuts that hold the hinges on. Alternatively, put the hood vertical and undo the clips that hold the hood to the hinge. Release the drivers side first to put the hood vertical. (Actually, try removing the hood from the hinges first.)

Attached Files

	88-300.pdf (432.3 KB, 76 views)
	88-300-2.pdf (341.9 KB, 57 views)

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85SD 240K & stopped counting. Looking for all 3 grey seats to go in my SD (anything from a 126).

Thanks for the replies guys... perhaps I wasn't clear though in my original post.

I was able to remove the hood already, as I was able to unlatch it and pull the hood up just enough to get to the bolts which hold the hood to the hinges.

Now it is only the old bent-up hinges that remain and that I need to remove. They are so bent backwards that they do not clear the cowl area and so I cannot raise them to the full vertical position.

If these hinges were not bent at all, totally normal, what would be the method for taking them off safely with regards to the tension on the springs? It seems like those springs are too beefy for me to just pull on them and unhook them off their hooks on the front of the springs. Don't these springs have to be released somehow so that I can undo the bolts which hold the springs in?

Is the normal method to bring the hinges full vertical (by releasing those little tab things at the elbows) so that enough tension is reduced enough to unhook them? If that's the case, I'm stuck because I can't raise the hinges to full vertical.

Hopefully you understand my situation now?

Thanks!

OK... well... I fiddled around by myself for a while and managed to remove the bent/broken hinges myself. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the front cross member at the top of the radiator, where the latch is was bent back more than I had been able to tell by eye. When I set the "new" sourced hood into place for a rough fit, I found that it was bent back at least an inch, such that the latch hole in the hood does not match up with the latch catch...

This may be very bad news indeed...? Amazingly enough there are no leaks at all from the two radiators right there. Is it possible to have a body shop bend this cross member back into shape? Are there any other options that don't involve cutting and welding?

Please say there is!?

Big tree, chain and a come-along. Anchor the chain to the tree, set the parking brake, put the come-alone on the crossmember and the chain, crank away until the cross member returns to it's original position. You could also just chain the crossmember to the tree and drive in reverse but you won't have as much control over where the cross member ends up.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Harbor Freight sells a cheap puller that I used to pull the same part out on my daughter's Mitsubishi after an accident. It's cheap and you can control the tension/force pretty easily. That and a dead blow hammer/mallet let you gradually pull things back into alignment. It won't be perfect but you should be able to get pretty close.

In the pic the center of the impact was the black spot (re-primed). I was able to pull that crossmember back out maybe 2 inches. Getting everything back into alignment is a trick: headlight mounts, plastic trim clips, hood latch and cable release. Slow and steady and lots of checking fit as you go are vital.

http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/winches/1200-lb-capacity-cable-puller-30131.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?category=&q=dead+blow

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It could be necessary to pull everything back into shape but before you start doing that I think you need to make some careful measurements.

If I remember correctly on the new hood the position of the latch has a small amount of adjustment.

EDIT:- Oh yeah post some photographs! Then we can see what has gone wrong... (we're not just looking for disaster shots)

AND if you want I'll measure my W123 300D if you need to compare distances...

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1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone

Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Thanks YAK and Army for the tips and links to the puller tools.

I think I could manage bending it myself, but I don't have something like a big tree or concrete wall or anything around my house that could act as a stable anchor. Guess I could drive out to some wooded area to try it... if I padded up the tree well enough...

I'll try to take some pictures of what I'm dealing with to post them also, so you can get a better idea of the problem. I haven't checked how much adjustment factor I have for the latch plate under the hood, but it doesn't seem like it would give me enough play to match up with the catch on the front cross-member...

Stay posted... may start another thread regarding this issue, as it's changed to frame-bending and such...

Got another vehicle with a tow hook - or a truck with a trailer hitch? I'm not recommending it, but that's what I did...

You're not pulling thousands of pounds, you're adding tension. The combo of the hammer and cable don't require a lot of force. You're not straightening a frame, just re-bending some sheet metal.

If you do use another vehicle, pick up some of those moving pads from HF, just in case. Wear goggles.

I've used the 2" wide ratchet straps for this, it' works great.

__________________
John ongoing strip party!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!
84 240D 5speed & 84 300 4Speed
67 rs Camaro, Dodge Pickup, parts cars 78 300D, & 93D(no doors?),85 SD, 83 SD, 85 300D, 85Euro 300TD, 87 300TD, 95E320 T
Daily Drivers 82 SD, 87 300TD, 87300TD!!!!,

If using the winch concept just be careful you don't draw the right and left sides together. I had a little TR250 back in college that rolled into another car just enough to move the grill inward and mess up the latch alignment etc. Did the winch and telephone pole trick. Inadvertently sucked the front corners in a little. Had to measure and jam a 4"x4" in there to keep the corners in position. Not to mention convince the police that I did not "crash into the telephone pole"...Classic! - Lady across the street reported me. LOL

You may want to have a good bodyman look at the car if you intend to keep it. A friend of mine used to own a bodyshop. Even he would have cars pulled by a shop that had the proper equipment to get it straight. I saw him cut a old ford truck in half and change a 2 door into a 4 door extended cab. He also cut the top off a Datsun Z, strengthened the body and made a convertible top frame for it. My point is he had skill AND used others for certain parts of the project.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting. Looking for all 3 grey seats to go in my SD (anything from a 126).

Depending on how badly bent it is you can sometimes get away with heavy duty G-clamps, blocks of wood and hammering onto sacrificial blocks of wood (Hammer the wood where ever possible and not the metal - unless you are going for a real Hammerite hammered metal finish!)

__________________
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone

Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!