9/1/2003: Removing the grille and front bumper

I removed two stuck nuts by cutting them with a dremel tool and cutting discs. It was tough not to damage the trim around them while doing this, but since it’s on the underside of the nose, it’s not particularly visible even if I did enlarge the openings a bit (which I did, just a tad)

This let me pull off the nose trim and the grille. I can see how wrinkled and crooked things are throughout the front of the car. the bumper is particularly tweaked. I removed it and found that one of the mounting points was totally out of place. Bumpers are particularly hard to find for these cars- I do have a spare set in the barn, but am not sure of their condition at the moment. Since the bumpers would be one of the last things to go back on the car, I don’t need to worry too much about it quite yet.

Now that the trim is out of the way around the damaged parts of the nose, I can get a pretty good idea of what sheetmetal I would most likely want to salvage from the parts car, if it’s in decent shape. Next time I am at the barn, I will take a closer look.