ibskyde

Hey all - just got lucky enough to score my first restoration project, a 68 coupe. Went and ordered a couple of repair / teardown manuals (Haynes, etc) and all seem to be lacking some details that'd be pretty handy to have. First snag I've run into now is removing the front fenders... along the top there were several bolts, along with 2 or 3 on the bottom that have all been removed. The thing almost wants to swing free but it's still fastened somewhere up front where it meets up with the headlight and its little cowling... are there some bolts up underneath that connect it that I'm just missing or are there some welds in there that are causing my headache? I tried looking and reaching around underneath but couldn't find any nuts / bolt heads that were within my reach at least...wishing these manuals would cover any of these details or have any diagrams or anything like that but alas...

Aside from the bumper, most of the front end is still in place...am I just removing things in the wrong order and need to pull some other parts before the fender?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Flash70

When I did it I worked my way back from the front. Stone guard first then bumper then grill then hood then fenders. On mine there were bolts in the front that attached to the radiator support but I have aftermarket fenders so I am not sure if they all have that. Also other things attach to the fenders as well that might make them difficult to remove. I believe the stone guard (?) or whatever the bottom piece is under the bumper connects to them.

That is from what I remember Good luck with the project. They are super fun

Jaded

There are several bolts along the top, two bolts on the bottom near the door, two bolts that are in the front right behind the headlight bucket, and two below the headlight bucket that attach to the front valance. Then there is a bracket that holds the front bumper on the side, and one in front that is on the edge of the headlight bucket.

ibskyde

Thanks guys for the quick replies! Sounds like that confirms what I was thinking in that there were some bolts I was just missing behind the headlights. I've already got the bumper and lower valance removed...guess at this point I'll keep at the front and get the stone guard / grill out of the way next and see if that lets me at the fender and light area. As for that headlight bucket, would that come off right with the fender or do I need to get creative to find a way up behind there to get at those bolts?

The next thing I noticed just now is that side marker light in the fender...there's enough crap built up on it that it's pretty tough to distinguish how the heck it comes off. I figure once the fender is free then I'll be able to move it at least a few inches worth of cable slack so that hopefully I'll get a better look at the light to see how to disconnect the fixture. My hope at this point is that they'll be like the lower fog lights up front and have the 2 small retaining nuts to unscrew and theyll pop right off.

Anyways thanks again for the info!