Post collision - how to open hood.
 

Hi all.

Minor collision in the rain on I-84 last night. Apart from losing power steering, the car seems to be ok.

The hood is, however, jammed shut. The release cable still seems to be attached, but isn't doing much. Is there anyway to open this from outside?

If you're not terribly opposed to destroying your grill insert, you might be able to cut/tear through that and have better luck working directly at the latch on the radiator support.

That grille is completely knackered. I tried yanking on the latch to no avail.

I'll be pulling the entire insert out tomorrow morning. May have some better luck with some tools and a little more clearance.

This once happened to me, and I had to tear the grill apart. Even with that, it took a lot of work to get the lock to release. Good luck.

See important message at bottom of post as well.

Before you go too far with this. Are the headlights / turn signal lenses being stressed? If so try to remove them before pulling things out.

Are you going to replace the hood or just sort of pull it back into shape?

Is this a center latch or a latch on each end of the hood?

Do you want to make a get me going fix or are you going to replace hood , grille?

If doing the get me going fix, I'd carefully cut a bit of the broken grille section out, if parts replacement , just break it out.

After you get access, attach a come along and pull the hood out enough to take tension off the latch. If you can get to the hood striker bolts taking them out would get the hood open.

!! IMPORTANT !! Don't just unbolt everything and try to fit more parts. Leave things together and rough pull things back into shape. Doing so pulls parts back that you are going to reuse.

The hood and all that will need to be replaced in any case.

I'd take a close look at the bumper shock support as that may be crushed too by the looks of it.

Car may well be totaled but repairable with used parts to provide excellent service.

If the power steering belt is damaged I'd worry about the other belts too and try not to drive it until I got it all opened up to see the extent of the damage.

Based on past experience, I think you have at least three choices: 1-intercept the cable, expose the inner cable and pull; 2-remove the upper portion of the latch; 3-remove the lower portion of the latch

(more photos to follow)

(part 2)
I attached photos of the grille attachment points and of the underside of the radiator core support (latch & cable shown)

Good luck with this job - it's do-able, you just need either patience or a 'Clarkson' tool collection (large hammer & sawzall)!

If the hood was opening pre crash, no need to cut the cable and don't pull so hard on the release that it breaks.

At this point there is a mechanical bind up between the latch and striker, pulling things into rough shape will allow it to operate.

Insert some plastic for teeth inside the dented up grill ,the frt end looks like its snarling abit after that wreck.On my 190e with no grill insert I can take a long screw driver and get it to pop by wedging at just the right location on the latch area .Im not sure on a 300d ,I remember having to tear out a plastic cage like piece that surrounds this area when doing a 300d ,so you might have access after ripping that piece out and see if you can locate the area in question.

Thanks for the suggestions, all.

I ended up ripping out the grille insert and subsequently removing the grille from the front of the car. This, combined with essentially pressing the hood back into its ≈ original shape, gave me enough room to get the thing open.

The good news is, the hood and grille appear to have absorbed the entirety of the impact. The power steering belt popped off (?), but the pulleys look perfectly aligned and it should be a simple job to get a new belt on there. No fluids, leaks, or visible damage anywhere within the engine bay.

The return trip from Boston to New York was uneventful. If anyone in the NY metro area has a spare w123 chassis hood lying around, I'll gladly take it off your hands!

Did a little more straightening, and put together a temporary hood insert while I search for replacement parts:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5740/...457ddc01_b.jpg

Finding a replacement hood/grille in the NY metro area is proving to be harder than I thought. If anyone local has any leads, feel free to let me know. Otherwise I'll be looking at having something shipped over.

Did you try Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market

You might also have to look for other parts that would fit your car to get a match. Parts like doors / engine / trans as not all parts on older cars get inventoried , it just takes too long. Also, you may have to travel a bit, in / near city yards tend to be pressed for space and only keep fast moving newer stuff around.

Try calling Bob at six three one 294 seven 2 2 seven in Long Island. I was there 2- 3 years ago looking for some glass and he had a lot of W123 parts.

Thanks! I'll give him a call. I tried Miracle Motors in Jamaica today. They'd sent their last W123 with a good hood to the crusher on Friday (but have a lot of W114s/W108s lying about). Willets Point was a no go.