Hood hinges and firewall covers

Today I braved the chilly garage (it's been snowing here fairly steady the past few days) and tackled getting the hood hinges and the old ratty firewall covers off.

After pulling the battery out, the four small screws holding this piece on are very evident (and accessable).

Once the cover is out (in two pieces), this is what I discover. It is just the first of several "holy crap what has been GROWING in here" moments to come.

The cover (or what's left of it), from the opposite side. Not sure what caused that hole toward the left side. I'm hoping my fellow Pontoneer neighbor Ernie will end up fabricating me a set of these covers once he gets his pattern right and makes a set for himself (see yesterday's post).

Here's a closer shot of some of the detritus found behind the cover. I believe, from recent postings on the Ponton group, this is the remnant of a hose that directs heated air to the front windshield defroster. Folks described the original hoses as paper wrapped around springs, and said hoses had a near 90-degree bend on one end. Some of the talk regarding these hoses was to do with more modern substitutes for these old hoses, pieces that would last far longer.

Another cover remnant, with most of the padding (meant to deaden sound, I believe) still attached. The back side appears to be a thin layer of cardboard.

A shot of that same area behind the removed cover, once I fished out most of that ratty residue. Looks like this bundle of wires has lost some of the collective wrapping. I figure I'll be replacing as many of the electrical cables as I can manage, just for safety's sake and for long-term reliability.

Passenger side hood hinge. In this shot I've already removed the hex nut holding the front of the hinge to the side of the engine compartment. Thank you, Deep Creep! (That stuff came in handy today).

Same hood hinge, but a shot of the rear end of it, from above. Passenger compartment is to the left. Just have to remove these nuts.

Hinge removed - this is a shot to show the bits on top and bottom of that area. Rounded caps over rubber pieces. The rubber seems to be in good shape, but I don't know how well they would hold up if I remove them. I'd like to get the hinges down to just the metal, so they can be cleaned off and repainted in time. I got the caps off one hinge, but am hesitant to start trying to work the rubber bits off, as they are fairly well stuck on. I fear destroying them. I'll be looking around to see if replacement bits are out there, and if they're not too pricy, then I'll just tear the existing ones off.

Driver's side, same area, after the hinge was removed. More small cover pieces have come out of these areas, in equally crappy condition and having left behind a lot of the attached padding. I feel like I ought to go get a hand-held vacuum to clean all this nasty stuff out.