Successfully swapped the front panel connector (it's replacement was a used pull.) The main challenge is that the front panel PC board comes fairly close to the back side of the front panel connector, making it a little difficult to get a decent grip on the rear nut. Turns out a 1/4" drive, 1/2" thin wall hex socket on a 1/4" screwdriver-style socket driver handle was sufficient once the front panel assembly was rotated sufficiently around to accommodate the handle.
Now begins reassembly (reverse of disassembly, as the HP manual says.....) - the only steps that should take any special care are getting the top-to-bottom semirigid lines (2) back into position, and avoiding trapping any of the top/bottom section interconnect wires while bringing the two halves back together.
