I had the same situation develop on my 95s420. W140. For me, the access was without removing the fenders, just undoing the bolts. Tight fit, but managed. The most difficult part for me was to seperate the spring offset lever from the hinges (I don't know if you have this on your model).

I would hesitate pulling the fenders as it was difficult enough to align the hood without disturbing the fenders. Removing them will make the fitment difficult.

Ron

PS. When I removed the driver side old hinge and spring lever arm intact with a few choice words. I could not for the life of me remove the whole assembly from the passenger's side. A fellow mechanic came to the rescue with an air chisel, effectively shaking the arm off of the hinge. Worked slick and fast.

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1995 E320 -171k-km
1995 S420 -333k-km