I think my hood release mechanism/cable broke inside and now after 2 days of constant attempts I lost hope I"ll be able to open the trunk. The Samba forum suggests cutting in half the chromed front handle, unscrew the 2 cut pieces from the outside in order to free up the hood mechanism... had anybody here ever encountered the same problem?
UPDATE: a few minutes ago I was able to open the trunk with the help of a friend in the driver's seat..he kept pulling the release-knob while I was pulling up the trunk at the same time...it was definitely a two people job...it finally popped open...the problem seems to be related to the spring on the hood handle and not the cable as I thought....