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Disassembly of Front Clip |
While I've tried to be as complete as possible (and accurate), I'm sure that there are some omissions and mistakes with this procedure. If you find any, feel free to contact me with the correction |
Step 1: Remove the front bumper. Start by disconnecting the running lights. These leads were quite tight and required a pretty good amount of wiggling to get them to come loose. Disconnect the leads on both sides |
Step 1a: There is a small bracket tucked up in the corner of the fender attached by one bolt. Remove this bolt. If you are lucky the bolt will come out or snap off. If you are unlucky like me, the speed nut on the back side broke, requiring me to gring the bolt out. Repeat on the other side |
Step 1b: Loosen the two bolts holding the front bumper to the frame. DO NOT REMOVE them as shown in the picture. I found this out later and had to put them back in. |
Step 1c: Remove the two bolts holding the hood latch support and remove it from the car |
Step 1d: NOTE: There are probably a couple of bolts I'm not mentioning here that need to be removed. The shop manual was less than clear in calling out all the fasteners that needed to be removed, so it was a trial and error process. At this point, you should be ready to remove the four bolts that were loosened up in step 1b. Make sure you support the bumper when removing it. Its quite heavy |
Step 1e: '64 Impala with the front bumber removed |
The next series of shots are miscellaneous pictures showing location of various fasteners etc. Maybe someone will find them useful |
Step 1: Remove the headlights. The headlights are pretty simple so I'll let the pictures do the talking. Pictures are worth a 1000 words right?? ;-) |
Step 1: Remove the Grill. In my opinion this was the hardest part of the whole deal. Start by removing the "plate" shown in the pics. I don't know what the actual name of this piece is. If you are REALLY LUCKY the bolts will come out. Again, I wasn't and had to gas axe most of them. The speed nuts just dont hold up to 40 years of rust. |
Step 1a: There are a number of fasteners that need to come out. The bolts in the above came out with little difficulty. Most are not mentioned in the shop manuals. Again, it was trial and error to determine which bolts needed to come out. |
Step 1b: Remove the windshield washer fluid bottle |
Step 1c: Picture of the horn relay and the engine compartment wiring harness |
Step 1d: Grill removed from the car |
Step 2: Remove the front fenders. A simple task. Remove the bolts at connnecting the inner fender to the radiator support, the bolts at the top of the support (2nd pic) at the firewall, behind the door and at the bottom of the fender by the outer rocker panel (just below the big hole in the last picture. The bolt by the outer rocker should be sprayed with penetrating oil and let to soak for a long time. Again, mine had to be gas axed out due to the speed nut shreading. |
The next series of picture show the structure (or lack thereof) of the front cowl, rockers, floor supports etc. Reference only |
The next series of picture the engine compartment wiring harness connections and routing. Reference only |
Car with the front fenders removed. She's starting to look a little naked |
Step 1: Remove the heater box. Again, remove the bolts securing it to the firwall. The picture show the assembly detail of the heater box |
Somewhere along the line I pulled the radiator support. I don't have pictures of that process, but I believe was a single bolt in each frame rail which held the support to the frame. This concludes the disassembly of the front clip. I'm sure I've missed steps and probably have some mistakes. I would like to make this "journal" as accurate as possible. If anyone out there has additions or corrections, please email me and I'll make the necessary corrections. |