After getting my engine, tranny,underside of my project complete, I am starting on the body. I started taking off all the moldings and emblems. The problem that I am running into is the front fender moldings. They are connected with speednuts (not sure if that is what they are called). The drivers side I can get them all off but the one closest to the drivers door. I can see that one but the door has to be opened just the right amount. About half way. The passenger side looks to be impossible to access since I have factory air. I needed to replace that fender anyway so I can get the moulding off. The problem will be trying to get the moulding on the new fender. Am I going to have to attach it before I put the new fender on and then tape it up before I paint, or paint the fender off the car, put the moulding on and then put the fender back on. I don’t really like any of these options so I’m hoping someone has a better idea. My other problem is getting the speednut off of the drivers side closest to the door. I thought that I would have to take the door off first but it doesn’t look like I can get to the hinge bolts without taking off the fender. I’m stuck for now.
I would have to look again, but can you see if you would be able to remove/re-install the moulding with the inner fender liners out? They are easy enough to do that it would warrant given painting with them off, vs taping them. But I do not know about pulling/installing the liner on the passenger side with AC option.
Hmmmmm. Hadn’t thought of that. I went out to the garage to check it out. The inner fender liners are flopping around pretty good without a fender but I don’t think that I can get the liner all the way out or more importantly get it back in with a fender in the way. BUT.... I’m thinking that I might be able to install the fender with just the front and rear bolts and leave the liner unbolted to the fender and I might be able to reach up through the gap between the fender and liner and install the moulding. What do you think?
With the car on jack-stands and the wheels off, you remove all the bolts around the edge of the fender opening, and the four on the forward lip (where it connects to the radiator core support) and the stabilizer bar on the front bottom corner. Then rotate the liner aft and it will almost fall out, but will require a bit of "bowing" and sometimes a little persuasion to get the rear outboard edge (where a mud flap would mount).
O.K. That makes sense. I think I will try to temporarily install the fender with the front and rear bolts and give it a try. Thanks for the info. I will let you know how it went.
Trying to get the door on and aligned with the fenders on is a very unfun way to spend the weekend, (or several). And without the "special wrench" you will need monkey arms and S wrenches, short wrenches and a lot of patience. And you will need a few extra of those same wrenches to replace the ones you throw out into the weeds. Not to leave out the 3 axis of pitch/roll/yaw that the door "flys" in adjustment. I have all new side trim for my 1964 Skylark, and have put off swapping it out for the all the reasons in this thread (and a few that are not). If you can, post pics, in case other's have some tips to keep you from throwing tools.
I started to take the inner fenders out of mine one time to detail the engine bay. Got all the bolts out, but couldn't seem to get the inner fenders in any angle that I could get them out without prying and doing more damage. Then I thought if they were going to be that hard to get out, how was I going to get freshly repainted inner fenders back in without scratching them up. So I ended up putting them back together and doing a bunch of masking etc. Came out nice though, just took a lot of time. But, if all the bolts are out, you might be able to move them around enough to get your hands up in behind there from under the car.
I guess that there is no way I’m going to take the doors off at this point. I was able to use a 1/4” drive ratchet with 2 long extensions and a universal adapter and get a socket on the last speednut on the drivers side closest to the door. The door has to be opened just right, not quite halfway. Then of course just when I thought I had it, the post that the nut threads onto broke off. So now I need to figure a way to get the post fastened back on. Trunkmonkey, how did you manage to score new side trim for your 64”?
