I recently removed my front end to change out my fender, and I'm starting to take apart the front bumper cover, to clean it up and I need to replace the headlamp assembly bar as well.

When I took the car apart, the two corner bolts (where it meets the top of the fender), are some kind of weird double sided bolt. One end goes through the fender and is bolted on. The other end screws into the headlamp assembly.

This was a bitch for me to remove. When loosening the bolt inside the fender (which was a bitch to reach in the first place), the headlamp assembly bolt kept coming undone, instead of the bolt I was trying to remove. I ended up having my dad clamp some vice grips on the inside headlamp bolt and then I was able to loosen the nut holding it to the fender, and remove the whole front end together.

Now I need to remove the headlamp assembly and separate it from the bumper cover. How do I go about doing this? I could probably get away with vice grips again, and unscrewing it that way, but I'm worried about screwing up the threads on the bolts. Am I missing out on some tip that makes removal easier?

Oh, btw, I have a 92 RS Camaro, sorry. I should have made that clear in the beginning.

I can post pics if necessary.

Thanks,
Mathius

 

if im understanding u correctly, u are removing the top bolts that hold the nose to the fender, those bolts are actually studs that are mounted into the fiberglass headlight fixture, and usually they come out when u try to loosen the nuts, once u get them out, you will have to epoxy or glue these studs back in, or get another fiberglass support bar. do whatever u have to , to get them off, i had to go as far as cutting them with a hacksaw in the past, hopefully u wont have to do this..

I hope i could help

Matt

 

Wow, I thankfully didn't have that problem when I replaced my front clip. At any rate, those bolts/nuts are a HUGE pain, and I managed to finally get them loose using an open-ended wrench and turning them little by little. Persistance is the key. I would think that so long as you can get a good wrench that is the right size (metric I think...), you shouldn't end up stripping the bolts/nuts. Good luck!

 

yeah patience and persistence, not to mention small hands , is the key, and yeah they are metric, 10mm i think.

 

It's 2:45 a.m. here right now, I had a late guest, but I snapped a few shots with the digital of the offending bolts and I'll post them tommorrow. The studs actually appear to be attached to the bumper cover itself, but without removing it from the headlamp assembly, it's difficult to see what's going on back there. Hopefully someone will recognize the problem after I get a chance to post pictures.

Thanks for replying,

Mathius

 

Ok, here's some pictures of the offending bolt, and I think you can make out the location pretty well. Like I said, it seems to be a double sided bolt that's somehow looped through the bumper cover and connects to the fender and the headlight assembly.







Hope this helps. I think it can be screwed in and out of the headlamp assembly with vice grips if absolutely necessary, but I don't want to strip the threads. I don't think they are attached to the headlamp assembly as someone said. I haven't unwrapped my new headlamp assembly from the bubble wrap yet, but it doesn't feel like there are any studs attached to it.

Thanks again,
Mathius

 

I have found my self in this type of setuations many times before and i have been able to come up with a salotion. When you have a stud that you want to unsrew and you don't want to use vicegrips and ruin the threading the beast way i can think of doing this would be to: Frist locate two (2) nuts that are of the same threding as the stud and same size socket, what you want to do next is place one nut on the stud, not all the way in but just fare enuff so that you can place a secound nut on the same stud.) then locate the prober size socket for the two nuts and slid it on. when you go to trun the two nuts the outside nut will not let the inside nut turn so the stub will have to trun and then wala the stud comes out with out ruining the tread. you can do the same thing for palcing the stub back and when you want the nuts off the stub you just take them off one at a time it that should work just fine. this is what i always do to take out the studs for exhoust manafolds and i did the same thing when i took the ac out of my car it works just fine.

good luck man.

 

Ok, the double nut trick did the trick, and I apologize, they were definately studs attached to the headlight assembly, however, they were also screw-in type, so it wasn't as if they couldn't be re-installed. My next trick is getting the studs apart from the bumper cover.

As you can see from the pictures I posted before, there's a little disc that keeps them attached to the bumper cover. I need to take these little bugger's off so I can install the new headlamp assembly. Those of you who've replaced your front ends, did you find these disc's necessary? Should I bother with getting a replacement?

Also, while I'm at it, does anyone have any tips for cleaning up the headlamps themselves? I'm going to sand down the rust on the back of them with some high grit sand paper, maybe use some rattle can on them to restore the trip and whatnot....

There are two sets of screws on the front headlamps.... One is a set of two that holds each fixture to the headlamp assembly bar, the other appears to hold the fixture to the back of the headlamp. If I remove the second set, will this expose the inside of the light? If it does, I think I'd rather just leave it, and not risk getting water in there. Anyone have any info on this?

Thanks,
Mathius