w124 knowledgeable ones please advise..........
 

i had my w124 in the garage with the hood open vertically and i hit the garage door button thinking it was going to shut and it opened. :eek::eek:

anyway, the garage door grabbed the grill and tweaked the hinges. i had an expert repair that specializes in vintage exotics (Ferrari, Lambos MB, etc) look at the car and give me an estimate. the estimate was 723.77 ---the hinges are 107/piece. the rest is labor/paint work.

they said that the front fenders and the hood have to come off to replace the hinges??????? i thought MB would have made this not so difficult to repair.i really did not want to have to disturb the undercoating to do this.:mad::mad:

has anyone done this and can advise what has to be done?

thanks for reading

Wow! I did the exact same thing about a year ago. The end result were bent hinges and the hood a bit raised on the back end. Everything else worked but cosmetically it did not look good. Took the car to a body shop and they estimated about the same. Fenders had to come off etc......

If you want the job done right, you will have to go through the process and get the hinges replaced and spend the money.

David, don't forget to check with an MB mechanic. On the W123 the fenders do not need to come off to replace the hood hinges - albeit a tight squeeze. Maybe the same with the W124?

I wake up at night with this Nightmare !
 

So, Whenever I raise the HOOD ...I unplug The Damn Garage Door Opener,First!

Just had my W124 returned from the body shop. Front-end collision...not bad at first, but hood lock wasn't engaged and hood flew open when driving away...hinges and hood sprung.

Got a set of hinges from someone parting out a donor car, and hood and grille from junkyard.

But to cut to the chase, the hinge replacement required fender removal. Sorry.

Fender removal is not that bad.....take em off yourself, drive there, and tell him you want a new estimate :D. Then put them back on and adjust the hood to your liking.

Bad luck! One time I forgot to latch the hood on my 85 300SD and I was checking stuff and my son wanted a ride to school. Off we go and down a hill the damn hood flew open and blinded me vertically. I pulled over, shell shock, and the hood was f#cked and the hinges bent. I ended up buying a hood from someone on the board in Ohio who was parting out and actually drop it off in CT as he was delivering other parts to Long Island! Very reasonable, I think I got it all done under $400. I din't have to replace the hinges as the body shop massaged them back not perfect but 95% there.

Fenders off, need to access the hood springs in there. Good time to check or replace the coolant reservoir and hose in the right fender.