I faced the same dilemma on the M18 in my 1810 recently. You are correct the easiest way to access the bolts holding on the fuel pump is to remove the engine tin. That's near impossible with the engine in the frame.
I removed the small piece of engine tin that surrounds the fuel pump (I'm guessing you already took that off). The next thing I did was shove some shop towels down the hole around the fuel pump so anything you drop will not disappear into the abyss and end up getting throw around by the flywheel fan. I took a philips head bit from my bit driver set and a 6 point 1/4" drive socket that fit the drive end of the philips bit. Put the 1/4" socket on my 1/4" drive ratchet and was able to fish that into position. One had held the bit into the bolt head and one hand worked the ratchet. It takes some time cause you can only turn the ratchet a small amount at a time.
I tried to get fancy on the reassembly and replace the philips head bolts with hex head bolts but the bolt heads are positioned too close the fuel pump body to allow clearance for a hex bolt socket. I ended up reusing the philips head bolts and reassembling the using the "tool" described above.
Good luck. Remember there is nothing holding the bit into the socket so if you tilt it too far the bit will slide out of the socket when you are getting it into or out of position - that's why the shop rags are critical.
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