broken hood release cable1999 mercury mountaineer

[swasheck]

i have the cursed broken hood cable on my 1999 mercury mountaineer. none of the solutions i find seem to fit with the mountaineer (they’re all for the explorer). they all say “find the manual release right here” or “pop the latch like this” and it just doesn’t look the same on the mountaineer. this video is a good summary of what i’ve found online

but the mountaineer looks nothing like that at all and i can’t figure out how to get this hood open

here are some (admittedly poor) pics

 

[vroomzoomboom]

your video is for a f150, totally different animal. a 2nd gen ex, and mounty are the same.

 

[tinman_72]

The grills are totally different but the location of the latch in relation to the hood will be identical.

 

[swasheck]

The grills are totally different but the location of the latch in relation to the hood will be identical.

thank you. the vertical grill slats make it a bit more difficult. somehow i'm not finding the release even with a 12" standard. from the looks of the video, the release should be approached from the car's right side and it's near the front. is that correct? i'm honestly about to just tear the grill off to get at it that way