Any one have a pic or two on whats under the front fenders? I am removing thr clip and need some info since its blind under there. Also any info on how exactly you go about pulling it loose without breaking anything. I have the front end all loose, got to get the back end loose now. Do the doors need to come off?

thanks

 

Holly cow batman-your removing frt.clip?Thats not real easy its bonded to the cowl and its tough to seperate without breaking things-How are you going to get it realigned?Yeh I think you have to remove the doors to get to the bonded area.

 

Yea, thats what I figured, thats why I am looking for pics. If I have to take it apart I only want to do it once, so might as well deal with any rust problems on the firewall while I am at it. Will have the whole drivers side off anyway. At least this way I'll have nice straight door gaps when I am done. So..
Clip off, roll it out and chemical blast the engine bay, suspension etc, then back in tha garage and remove and rebuild the suspension and drive line. Compressor and sandblast cabinet will be on line tuesday.

 

Sixfooter-are you removing the clip because of the fender?If the other side is good I would just bond on a new fender-that clip will be a bit$% to line back up-I've had guys tell me you never get it back the same-get lots of input from some of these body guys

 

Fender, front bumper and skirt are trashed. Headerbar is rusted badly and needs replaced, right headlight bucket has a broken ear, and I suspect at least some rust on the firewall/birdcage.

 

Check with some of these guys to establish referance points for reassembly.When I do the metal frame around windshield on verts I take about 20 differant measurements and I make temporary templants and bolt in steel bars from seat mounts to get it back to the correct spot.The frt clip has to be more difficult.

 

On the topic of front end removal, I need some advice on what direction to take. My 71' had a custom front end on it, which I have removed in order to make it orginal once again. I have been quoted with two different plans in addressing this issue. Once had been to replace the front end from the center of the wheelwell forward, as there is seam there according to the repair person. Another person has recommended replacing the entire front end, as making a seam at the wheels may cause issues with structural soudness of the front end as well as appearance at the wheelwells if the partial is not fitted properly. The cost of an entire ACI front end is about $200 more than the partial. The repair person recommending the partial replacement felt the front end was fine from the wheels forward and thought it was a waste of money to replace the entire front end.

For those who have replaced their front end with a one piece, are there seams that have to be addressed or is it just bolted in place where I can remove it myself. Note: The body is being removed from the frame.

 

Doors do not necessarily need to come off provided you can access the bonding joints down each fender. I will agree it's easier to do with the doors out of the way.

I used a stiff bladed putty knife; "gently" drove it between the fender/upper surround panel and the bonding strip, then tapped it along until the factory bond was broken loose.

Do you have the AIM? Farily good illustrations of front clip bonding areas in the AIM.

 

use a heat gun and a stiff putty knife or wood chisel (what I used).
heat the bonding adheasive with the heat gun and use the chisel to seperate it.

works like a charm!

here's what the front clip is bonded to:

 

One piece hand laid has no seams. I used a chisel and hammer. Don't go crazy just light taps. If it is original adhesive thats good its so dried out by now it will come apart easy. Fusor has some good adhesives to release that it takes a heat gun. Fusor is made by Lord Corp.Body supply stores should have it. But it uses a special gun to apply it. The is diffrent setup times available. Which is good this is no job for the ill fated.

 

It is not a very difficult job to do if you don't rush!! I removed everything from the inner fenders, and unbolted the core support. Then as others have posted I used a series of stiff putty knifes, and gasket scrapers. It was easy for me to start in the center of the cowl, and work my way out to the fenders. Then I worked from the rear most corners of the upper fenders close to the windshield down along the bond that is inside the door hinge area. You can see all the verticle bond areas in this pic.

The upper rear corner of the hood surround is bonded to a triangle piece of fiberglass that is rivited to the birdcage just below the corners of the windshield. If the cage is rotted that piece may just pull away before you get the bond seperated from the surround
You can see it in this pic just above the blower motor:

I suggest marking the panels for alignment before seperating the bonds.
(doors to fenders, surround to bumper, hood to surround)
I have more pics here:
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c7...1978/?start=40
I used Fusor #127 for the areas that wouldn't be exposed to paint, and evercoat SMC panel adhesive.
The fusor came with the special gun if you purchased 3 tubes of adhesive.

Corvette America sells a very helpful books #40614 for front, and #40615 for the rear.
I hope this helps.

 

I got mine loose with a long wood chisel with the doors in place just go slow, mine came off without damage, here is a god pic (not my car) of the bonded surface (the white areas) beware if it was reapired before there may be a few rivets there also

 

I got mine all apart without much trouble, took about 6 hrs total ithout getting in a hurry. Left fender, fender skirt and bumper cover were trashed so that made the drivers side easier. A long chisl got the reas of the seams with no trouble.
Wasn't going to do a body off, but got rusted mount pockets on the #2 mounts. Might get that part done next week, this week I got to get the suspension back on the frame, half way there

 

I was wondering if I need to go through this entire process if just the RH lower area has become separated from the rest of the car. Or, can I just do a local patch job? The inner wheel well has also become separated from the clip itself and I'm not sure I can fix while the clip is on.

My thought is to rip everything apart and redo everything, but after reading these threads, I'm not sure.

 

If you have no cracks on the outside or a plan for repainting, patch it.