C1 1959 surround removal
I just removed the surround on my 59. Hopefully this is useful for others. You'll notice that I chose to leave the original upper dash panel and not replace it with the one that comes attached to the new hood surround.
First, I installed the hood on the radiator support and lined it up, so that I could use it as a reference when installing the new hood surround.
Then I used an air-tool cutoff grinding wheel and made a cut on the side fender panel seams, the middle of the windshield channel, and the inner lip of the back and sides to the engine compartment (hood well). You'll notice that I also make a cut thru the top fender on the front side of the firewall.
Take special care to cut at least 1 inch (preferrably 2) infront of the firewall, so you don't cut into the tab that you need to glue to. This is also true for the seam in front of the door jamb. Also, be careful not to cut too deep when using the air tool near the firewall and door jamb, as well as when cutting the windshield channel. There is a lower fiberglass piece to the dash that glues to the top surround under this winshield channel, and you only want to cut down to the green glue seam (fiberglass filler). You will, however, want to cut thru the side fender bonding strips.
Another area of difficulty is at both front corners of the hood (near the hinges). There is a very important tab that sticks up from inner fenders at each corner. You'll only want to cut the inner lip of the surround up to where the L-shape ends (before the hinge). Then you'll cut around the front corners of the hood on the TOP of the fender. Once you remove the surround, you can go back and chisel/grind the remaining lip of the surround from this inner fender well tab. (I found a dremel tool with the sanding cylinder worked well for this part).
Then, I unbolted the radiator baffle from the lower front valence and radiator support. Next, I used a chisel and hammer to break the glue seam between the bonding strip that is glued to the front inner fender, and the lower valence on the front nose of the car. The bonding strip stayed attached to the front edge of the inner fender wells, and there is not much of a grip holding this to the front nose, so that was the best place to pry apart.
Now the front end of the car will come off as one complete unit.
Next, you can use the hammer and chisel to pry the u-shaped lip that is still glued to the innner fenders and firewall surrounding hood. You can use this same technique to pry the back-half of the hood surround from the firewall, windshield channel and the top of the front jambs. I then ground out all of the fiberglass filler glue with an angle grinder and a set of 80 grit 2" and 3" sanding disks (about 10 of them).
Another area of interest is a fiberglass piece that is part of the front door jamb that does stick up about 2 inches above the parting seam of the surround and lower fender panel. You'll notice that I cut through this piece (I'll attach a picture of this in a future email). I could not find a way to keep it with the car, so I'll just need to glass it back in before I put in the new surround. You could possibly cut the back fender about 3 inches above the horizontal fender parting seam and about 5 inches in front of the door jamb, if you want to try and pry these apart.
In all, this took about 8 hours including the follow-up grinding to remove the glue (i.e. fiberglass body filler) at all of the seams.
I'll include some pic's/instructions when I install the new surround..
First, I installed the hood on the radiator support and lined it up, so that I could use it as a reference when installing the new hood surround.
Then I used an air-tool cutoff grinding wheel and made a cut on the side fender panel seams, the middle of the windshield channel, and the inner lip of the back and sides to the engine compartment (hood well). You'll notice that I also make a cut thru the top fender on the front side of the firewall.
Take special care to cut at least 1 inch (preferrably 2) infront of the firewall, so you don't cut into the tab that you need to glue to. This is also true for the seam in front of the door jamb. Also, be careful not to cut too deep when using the air tool near the firewall and door jamb, as well as when cutting the windshield channel. There is a lower fiberglass piece to the dash that glues to the top surround under this winshield channel, and you only want to cut down to the green glue seam (fiberglass filler). You will, however, want to cut thru the side fender bonding strips.
Another area of difficulty is at both front corners of the hood (near the hinges). There is a very important tab that sticks up from inner fenders at each corner. You'll only want to cut the inner lip of the surround up to where the L-shape ends (before the hinge). Then you'll cut around the front corners of the hood on the TOP of the fender. Once you remove the surround, you can go back and chisel/grind the remaining lip of the surround from this inner fender well tab. (I found a dremel tool with the sanding cylinder worked well for this part).
Then, I unbolted the radiator baffle from the lower front valence and radiator support. Next, I used a chisel and hammer to break the glue seam between the bonding strip that is glued to the front inner fender, and the lower valence on the front nose of the car. The bonding strip stayed attached to the front edge of the inner fender wells, and there is not much of a grip holding this to the front nose, so that was the best place to pry apart.
Now the front end of the car will come off as one complete unit.
Next, you can use the hammer and chisel to pry the u-shaped lip that is still glued to the innner fenders and firewall surrounding hood. You can use this same technique to pry the back-half of the hood surround from the firewall, windshield channel and the top of the front jambs. I then ground out all of the fiberglass filler glue with an angle grinder and a set of 80 grit 2" and 3" sanding disks (about 10 of them).
Another area of interest is a fiberglass piece that is part of the front door jamb that does stick up about 2 inches above the parting seam of the surround and lower fender panel. You'll notice that I cut through this piece (I'll attach a picture of this in a future email). I could not find a way to keep it with the car, so I'll just need to glass it back in before I put in the new surround. You could possibly cut the back fender about 3 inches above the horizontal fender parting seam and about 5 inches in front of the door jamb, if you want to try and pry these apart.
In all, this took about 8 hours including the follow-up grinding to remove the glue (i.e. fiberglass body filler) at all of the seams.
I'll include some pic's/instructions when I install the new surround..
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