Peter,

I replaced my shocks/struts with HD's as well.

Assuming the experience would be similar to my '86 300E, it took me about 7 hours by myself, working with floor jack, two jack stands, and a hydraulic jack for additional safety (floor jack jacks up one end of vehicle, stands support, reuse floor jack for supporting control arm, hydraulic jack under initial center jack position for extra safety).

Consider that I have never done this on any car before, so if you have, your time with an assistant may be less than 4 hours. Haynes manual was my guide, along with the instructions included with the Bilstein's. Socket wrench kit and zip ties (for when you break plastic brake line fasteners) was all I required, along with patience to remove the interior trunk panels without breaking the plastic. Don't forget to put on the rubber strut bump stop like I did, because recompressing the HD once inside the wheel well is hell, especially when you're exhausted. Finally, the HD kit did not come with the accordian boots, so I had to get those from Mercedes before I installed the struts.

Official mercedes instructions say a front end alignment is necessary after replacing the fronts, but that is a point of debate on this site. My car has experienced no observable alignment issues since the installation.

Be prepared for the firmer ride. Very noticeable. I like it at times (freeway driving), tolerate it others (stop and go streets). A recent posting in another thread said a call to Bilstein indicated the Bilstein aftermarket comfort is 15% firmer than OEM Comfort (also by Bilstein), while HD is 30% firmer than OEM. If that is true, I might have flirted with the idea of doing the Bilstein Comforts. I'm not unhappy with my choice, but have no point of comparison, having never driven a 300E with fresh comfort shocks (my OEM's had 150k miles on them).

Interestingly, the car rides higher in front with the new struts. Why, I have no idea. I now have more ground clearance than a Ford Explorer, which I demonstrated to a passenger the other day by driving over a curb with no worry of undercarriage contact. It's not a priority now, but I plan to go with a thinner spring pad to bring the body down and inch or so. I'll post a picture here later to illustrate this point.

Let me know if you need any other info.