More bolts!

I really wanted to get the rest of the chrome and stainless off the front end today. Well, mission (basically) accomplished! The door handles, windshield wipers and gas cap is all still on there, but I didn't try to take those off. The one major piece I didn't take off that I wanted to was the hubcaps. I pulled and pulled, smacked them with a rubber mallet, pried on them, but they didn't budge. At all... Back to the drawing board on those.

Darn you, hubcaps!

I did remove the hood today. I asked the folks at OldIHC.org for advice on removal, and was told that there were just two bolts connecting the struts to the nose, then the nose is connected to the radiator by "four bolts." Well, four bolts off, and the nose didn't move. I found two more and the hood popped off!

To get to the chrome piece on top of all those grille pieces, you're supposed to remove the nose, so I figured that I had the four I was told about, plus the two "surprise" bolts, so it should just pop off, right? Nope. More bolts! Four more, in fact. Bolts that can only be reached if the radiator or fenders are removed. So... the nose stays on. I was, however, able to reach behind the radiator and get to the bolts that hold that chrome piece on and remove them. I also took off the trim to the parking lights, so the nose now looks like this:

That stainless strip down the middle? Yeah, the nose has to be off to remove it. That can wait.

I did also move all the chrome and stainless to my basement shop, where it will be polished over the winter. If you are following this blog from somewhere warm and think that winter is a long way off, consider that today, here in northern Minnesota, it's currently 60° with 30 mph winds. Tonight's low? 38°. Yeah. Winter's coming.

Chrome, stainless - and Nevr Dull!

See those baggies? Those are the lifeblood of the rebuild. Bolts, clips, parking light lenses, you name it. Who's gonna remember where a random bolt goes in nine months? Best advice I ever got - get plastic baggies that you can label - and label them!