Front Clip

[1949P17BC]

Am the proud new owner of a 1947 Special Delux P15 with a bad motor. How easy and what are the steps and bolt locations to remove the front end for easy engine removal

[greg g]

Removing the dog house if fairly easy, I believe there are 13 or 15 bolts per side involved, 4 0r 5 Rear of fenders to cowl, 4 or 5 inner fender to frame, and 4 I think on each side near the bottom of the radiator. Make sure you tag all you wires as you remove them. Remove the hood leaving the hinge hardware and the cross hood support on the car (some cars do not have a cross hood brace)

Also if your stainless rocker trim is there, there is a bolt going through the bottom of the fender at the cowl joint. It is a two/three man lift or you can use a sling on you engine hoist if you have one.

Perhaps some has phote documentation of the process.

What tests have you done to asess the condition of the engine?? Is it siezed? If it will turn over did you do a compression test? Most of these engines will start and run in pretty poor condition.

[Arthur1947]

There are ten bolts that hold the fenders to the cowl, two bolts where the cowl meets the chassis. The most difficult ones are the two located under the radtiator support. Be prepared to have either a torch or some special grabbing sockets. I don't know excactly what hey are called but they are pictured in the red case. So long as your car is not a rust bucket it is a fairly simple procedure.

Best.

ARTHUR

[bob westphal]

Why do you want to remove the clip when it's very easy to remove the engine without it?

[BobT-47P15]

A long time ago (like 30 years ago) I simply took front end sheet metal apart....piece at a time. That way you can do things with each part as needed. Also with the front end off, there is usually road gunk that can be cleaned off the frame and other parts. Just depends what you want to do. I think it's easier to do some things with the motor with clip removed. However, the current motor was put in without removing anything other than the hood and radiator.

[Don Coatney]

I still want to know how Dennis Hemminwgay pulled and installed his P-15 engine without removing the hood??? He must be Hudini not Hemmingway!

Dennis? How many scratches did yiou get????

[Dennis Hemingway]

No scratches Don, but we did have to shorten the chain to get the engine out. If I ever have to do that again I will remove the hood.

Dennis:D

[Don Coatney]

No scratches Don, but we did have to shorten the chain to get the engine out. If I ever have to do that again I will remove the hood.

Dennis:D

Sorry but I dont buy it Dennis! Must be the backwards hat

[BobT-47P15]

Don, it WOULD appear that the radiator had been removed......

[Dennis Hemingway]

Every thing in front of the engine was removed exept the grill.

Dennis

[blueskies]

I'm from the "remove the clip" camp, much easier IMHO, nothing in the way to scratch. There are 12 bolts that hold the clip on my '50, but there must be 50 bolts in the clip itself. Taking it apart one piece at a time is alot of unnecessary work. Especially if you are going to work on anything else under the hood... And, it's alot easier to get it all lined up and back on the car when it's all one piece. My painter dissasembled my clip and painted all the parts, so I had to put it all back together, it was a chore.

With the clip off, it's easy to pull the engine with the tranny attached too-

Pete

[glendale]

i hafta agree pulling the clip is the way to go. now you can piant the frame and do a general clean up. it took me and two buddies an hour to pull mine.

[Young Ed]

I've done it both ways. They both work. Due to a little snafu with the engine rebuilder we had to pull the engine out of dads convert 172 miles after a total restoration. That was done with only the hood removed. He didn't want to risk the paint on the front clip or wreck the alignment.