Removing the Front Body

It is time to start disassembling the Jeep. My original plan was to remove the transmission first. After doing some research I realized that it will be a lot better if I just get the rusted out body removed first. This will give me some more room to get to the transmission and engine. I was able to get the whole front end of the body removed today.

Here are a couple initial shots of the front before I hacked into it.

Removed the hood. This was the easy part.

In order the remove the body I had to start disconnecting everything that was connected to the body.

Removed the radiator. This radiator is shot. The bracket on the left fell right off once I pulled the radiator out. I also had to cut the lower hose to get it off. There was still some antifreeze in the radiator, but it was a milky color with a lot of dirt and rust in it.

I like this look without the radiator in it.

My buddy John came over to help out some. Here he is helping unhook the lights.

Removed the battery and the bracket that it was resting on. There is rust all over this body.

This is a shot of a couple of the support bars that connect the front body to the tub. I had gone to Lowes first thing in the morning to pick up a can of PB blaster, but to my surprise all of these rusted bolts came off very easy except the last one. Not a single head broke.

Here is the containers for the washer fluid and for the antifreeze.

Just removed them.

The good old Dixie horn had to be removed.

This is just a bad shot of some wiring

The rusted up old jack mounted to the body.

That me trying to remove the front body

We got everything removed except one last bolt located in the front under the grill

This last bolt was so tough to remove so we ended up cutting the body around the bolt so that we could have more room to get this bolt off. I am using a crowbar to bend up the steel to remove the bolt. It turned out that the plate on the other side of the bolt was so rusted out that is would just spin with the bolt.

Here is the front of the jeep with the body removed.

Here is the body. Notice the front grill where we had to cut it

The body and hood was so rusted out it was not even worth trying to sell or salvage. I plan to replace the body anyways, so I decided to just take this rusted up junk to the dump.