Jim, the hood Star is held in place with a spring stretched over a retainer piece. Look closely at the underside of the grille with a flashlight and you'll see how the mechanism fits together. I removed the Star when I replaced the grille frame on our 1991 300CE by using a curved pick to stretch the spring and needle nose pliers to remove/replace the retainer. It's much easier when the grille is off the car because you can turn the grille upside down, but still tricky ... probably easier with a helper. I did it alone. I'll bet it's a real bear replacing the hood Star with the grille on the car. No doubt the service techs have a tool to simplify the job.

__________________
Fred Hoelzle