W126 blower fan removal

Some help from friends needed:

And I mean SPECIFIC help.

On my '88 420 SEL, my blower fan has slowly slowed-down, and is now not operating.

I need to remove it and at least check into status of same.

You need to remove the passenger side kick panel, which I believe is the upper carpeted section.

There are three phillips screws. I removed them, but the panel doesn't budge...and I'm reluctant to try to force it off.

Can someone explicitly direct me on this?

Thanks.