The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 58/59 Frt Fender & Grill Unit

When pulling the front fenders and grill as a single unit on a 58 Chevy Stepside is the hood removed seperately, remain with the cab unit, or stay with the fender-grill unit?

It looks like the hod would provide some support and stability to the rear of the fender unit if it remained with them.

The book does not make any mention of the hood. The hood is attached to both the cab unit and the inner fenders.

You must have a strange one. Unless someone started to do a one piece tilt hood or something the hood should only be attached to hinges which are attached to firewall and of course to hood latch on radiator support . As one piece would make a heavy cumbersome unit to remove . If you are restoring all will have to come apart eventually anyway for repair \ paint

My hood brackets are attached by 2 bolts to the cab (firewall) and 1 or 2 bolts to the inner fender liner. Shop manual provides instructions for removing fenders, radiator, etc as a unit but does not mention hood.

I understand concern for weight but like most things in these projects it is a problem that needs a solution. A completed restoration is a series of solutions.

I recently removed the front clip from my 59 1/2 ton, just like you want to do. i removed the hood first, then followed the rest of the directions in the service manual. The only problem I had was I could not get the front clip raised high enough to clear the front bumper. The splash apron kept hanging up under the top lip of the bumper, so I removed the bumper.

I got 3 guys to help me, grabbed the 2 fenders, and lifted it off. It was suprixingly stable at the cowl end.n I sat it on the floor about 10 feet in frontl of where I am working,and the sheet metal is strong enough to support its own weight without bending.