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12/1/23: No turning back now! Today I removed most of the front clip so I could access the the floor and cowl components. After removing the lower inner cowl on the passenger side, I could see daylight coming thru the lower outer cowl, necessitating the removal of the fender. Unfortunately, I inadvertently boxed myself in by pulling the truck in the garage head first when I installed the new Power Disc Brakes. Now with the issue with the one rim hitting the caliper before fully seating, the truck only has three wheels. This is preventing me from turning the truck around. With only about six or so feet to the back wall, I can’t use an engine hoist to remove the front clip as a whole. So at this point, my only option was to remove the front clip in pieces. After removing the passenger side fender and inner fender, the lower outer cowl will need to be replaced but the inner to outer cowl look great, Yes! Seeing the issue with the passengers side, I also removed the drivers side to check out the cowl assembly. The outer cowl looks good and solid but the inner to outer cowl has a hole in the very bottom that looks like I can just graft in a small patch. Overall good news!

In retrospect, the clip would have had to be broken down into pieces as the lower splash pan in front of the radiator suffered from a little rust plus was modified (butchered in reality) by a previous owner to move the radiator forward, accommodating a 235 with a long shafted water pump. The clip was missing allot of the fasteners and what was there was cheep mismatched hardware. The grille also needs replacement or refurbishment.

So at this point, I’ve got good access to replace the floor and lower inner cowls. I need to order the passengers side lower outer cowl. I was also going to order a new splash pan until I saw the price. With the $170 price tag plus the extra shipping, totaling $212 plus tax, I really need to reevaluate whether it’s fixable.