'71 Imperial. I'm trying to remove the wheelhouse...

hootothecore

New Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2024
Messages
28
Reaction score
29
Location
Earlysville, VA
I've removed all attaching hardware, but the front lip of the wheelhouse is over a stud in the subframe cross member and under the radiator support. It looks like the only way to remove the wheelhouse is to remove the radiator support (more than what I want to do). I initially thought the lip of the wheelhouse would be slotted around the stud, but no. If I had access, I'd cut the lip to make it slot around the stud (the hole in the lip over the stud is about 3/4 inch in diameter and the stud is about 3/8 inch).

I can provide pictures if that will help.

Any advice/ideas?
 
I've removed all attaching hardware, but the front lip of the wheelhouse is over a stud in the subframe cross member and under the radiator support. It looks like the only way to remove the wheelhouse is to remove the radiator support (more than what I want to do). I initially thought the lip of the wheelhouse would be slotted around the stud, but no. If I had access, I'd cut the lip to make it slot around the stud (the hole in the lip over the stud is about 3/4 inch in diameter and the stud is about 3/8 inch).

I can provide pictures if that will help.

Any advice/ideas?

I removed the passenger/right side wheelhouse on my 1971 Imperial about a year ago now. My car came from back East but was stored in a barn with a concrete floor so it didn't have too much rust. I did not have to remove the core support but I do recall having to remove a troublesome stud as you are encountering using a stud remover - I let it soak over night using some Kroil as well as all the screws that go around the right front fender opening and it wasn't that hard to do - but get the right tool to do that. There are a number of bolts down in that front leading edge area that seem to take forever to remove and the front of the wheel house is sandwiched between a bunch of pieces of metal up there. One just has to be patient and remove all those vertical bolts up there and it will eventually come out, but for sure it is no fun at all. If you get stuck leave the project for a couple of hours or leave it overnight after getting some rest. Taking some notes or photos of the area during the removal process would likely help in knowing just how the bolts go back together to hold all those sandwiched metal pieces together again.

My takeaway after that job was being grateful that I didn't have to do the left wheelhouse and that some engineer was obsessed with holding all that stuff together and that there should have been a better, more simple design.

In my case, I had to remove that inner fender wheelhouse mainly to be able to access the hoses going into the passenger compartment heater core to replace them since they were the original ones and were held in place with corbin clamps-ugh!! I couldn't really find a better way from underneath the car that was doable mainly because that subframe within the stubframe made that area access really hard. I am not sure what your reason is for removing that wheelhouse but if my issue wasn't yours, you might want to do that job while you have access to that area as well.
 
I removed the passenger/right side wheelhouse on my 1971 Imperial about a year ago now. My car came from back East but was stored in a barn with a concrete floor so it didn't have too much rust. I did not have to remove the core support but I do recall having to remove a troublesome stud as you are encountering using a stud remover - I let it soak over night using some Kroil as well as all the screws that go around the right front fender opening and it wasn't that hard to do - but get the right tool to do that. There are a number of bolts down in that front leading edge area that seem to take forever to remove and the front of the wheel house is sandwiched between a bunch of pieces of metal up there. One just has to be patient and remove all those vertical bolts up there and it will eventually come out, but for sure it is no fun at all. If you get stuck leave the project for a couple of hours or leave it overnight after getting some rest. Taking some notes or photos of the area during the removal process would likely help in knowing just how the bolts go back together to hold all those sandwiched metal pieces together again.

My takeaway after that job was being grateful that I didn't have to do the left wheelhouse and that some engineer was obsessed with holding all that stuff together and that there should have been a better, more simple design.

In my case, I had to remove that inner fender wheelhouse mainly to be able to access the hoses going into the passenger compartment heater core to replace them since they were the original ones and were held in place with corbin clamps-ugh!! I couldn't really find a better way from underneath the car that was doable mainly because that subframe within the stubframe made that area access really hard. I am not sure what your reason is for removing that wheelhouse but if my issue wasn't yours, you might want to do that job while you have access to that area as well.
I'm doing an engine compartment detail. Engine is out and completed. I want to paint the wheelhouses, so both are going to come out. I want to brush all the rust scale from the frame and make it look nice. I may replace upper control arm bushings at this time, too.

The stud in question, seems to move a little, but there is no access to it from below. The one I'm working on is the passenger side.
 
if there are enough threads on the stud above the nut, put a second nut on the stud and tighten the 2 nuts against each other...then try to unscrew the lower nut and hopefully this will unscrew the stud from the frame...you may need to hold some pressure on the upper one while you're doing this to keep them locked together (this is referred to as double nutting a stud)...penetrating oil and patience ( and possibly heat ) are the keys here it takes a while for rust to chemically dissolve so dont rush it
 
Chrysler took a page out of the GM design book on that one.

GM loved to make you remove the right side wheelhouse to get to HVAC parts going back to the early 1960's, even on cars that only had a heater. I've got the wheelhouse out of a 1963 Impala at work right now to get access to the A/C components.

Still better than the "newer" stuff that required complete dash removal to do any HVAC repairs.

Jeff
 
Back
Top