last week i had an incident with my hood flying up and doing all sorts of damage....bent the hood and hinges, as well as cracking the windshield....

i got a hood ordered and its coming with a set of hinges, i also have another set of hinges here...i figured i would get started with the removal while im waiting on the hood to get here....i got the hood off without any problems at all...i just need to know the easiest way to replace the hinges...am i going to need to remove the whole fender to get to those 4 nuts that hold the hinge on? my workshop manual says to remove the inner fender, i assume they are talking about the black plastic piece that runs inside the wheel well...i removed that, and could only reach 2 of the bolts on the passenger side...its looking like the job would be much easier if i were to just pull the fender off...but i dont know how much trouble that is, in itself.....i just need someone who has been through this before to give me some tips on getting those pesky, hard to reach, bolts...TIA

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1985 300SD 192,000miles...Astral silver/ Grey MbTex

1983 300D 194,000miles...White/Tan MbTex...my newest addiction

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