Nose replacement on my '70

[ThatGuy]

It all started at the class I just started at CCSF. I brought the car in to work on in class and started with the front fender.

[ThatGuy]

The A pillar had some rust behind the fender that needed a bit more than a wire brush and some POR-15.

[ThatGuy]

I used the grinder to determine the extent of the cancer and made a piece to fit in the resultant hole in my frame.

After welding I ground it smooth and started making the bracket that the fender bolts to.

I used some 1" square tubing from Home Depot and cut it to make it look like the old rusted bracket. Minus the rust of course.

I had to reuse the attachments that the bolts thread into and re-weld them onto the new bracket. Then I welded the bracket in place. Add some primer and paint and it's all good.

[ThatGuy]

But I digress, OK back to the nose replacement. I had a nose from a 68 that was wrecked so I put it in the blast cabinet and cleaned it up. It's not perfect but at least it's not rusted through.

I started drilling the spotwelds and separating the nose from the car.

More pix to come after some more progress this weekend.

[Slackey]

I need to do this soon. How long did each task take respectively? Also, how is the wing attached at the front? Is it spot weld to the nose? Cheers,

[ThatGuy]

It takes about 1/2 hour to take a front fender off. The fender (wing) is leaded to the nose piece right above the headlight. I think there may be a spot weld or two also. I used a hacksaw to separate the wing from the nose and then ground off the remaining metal. This works if you're not re-using either the wing or the nose. If you want to repair and put the wing back on you could probably use a plumbers torch to melt the lead and wipe it away with a damp cloth. After getting the lead out of the way you should be able to get a better view of whatever spot welds are there and separate it with a chisel. Air chisel works best for this.

Be careful to use a respirator when grinding lead and wash your hands after.

Fixing the rust spot took a few hours to cut, fabricate, weld it all back and then grind and paint.

Re-fitting the wing can take 1/2 hour, to a couple hours depending on how many times you have to take it back off to beat it up to make it fit right.

[ThatGuy]

Next step was to separate all the welds holding the nose to the car. It's welded on the inside and bottom of each frame rail and spot welded inside the fender well.

Again, the air chisel to the rescue, this thing rules.

[ThatGuy]

I missed these spot welds at the top front.

[ThatGuy]

Now I needed to clean up the sheet metal for the new nose.

I had to grind off the remnants of the old nose, there were little nubs/bumps from the old spot welds that had to come off before I used the hammer and dolly or else I would not have been able to get it flat.

Grind only the extra metal not the base metal, you don't want it to get too thin.

After straightening I wire wheeled it instead of grinding to take off the rust and paint but not take any metal.

Then a quick spray with the weld through primer and it's ready for the new nose.

[ThatGuy]

On my replacement nose the front top corners were not in great shape so I had to rebuild them.

First, the right side.

[ThatGuy]

And then , the left.

[ThatGuy]

After that, I had to fix the rockers before I put the front fenders back on.

First, right side.

[ThatGuy]

Then the left side. Sorry, no after pix, just imagine shiny new metal.

[ThatGuy]

Then I had to adjust the door/fender gap by welding in some material (coat hangers) to fill the gap a little. Driver side looked pretty much the same.

[ThatGuy]

After all this, I put the fenders and hood back on and adjusted, installed the lights, installed and filled the radiator. All the work detailed in this segment took 34.5 hours, not counting the time in class one day at school.

Obviously I still need to fill, sand and prime but that will come later.