Say "ahhhh"

Open wider.. there we go.

The thunderbird gets it's hood latch rod reinstalled. The only way to get at the hood latch was to remove the grille, the only way to remove the grille was to take the bumper loose.. and two out of four of the captured nuts inside of the frame rails came loose..

I went down to the parts store and purchased an assortment of snap locks to keep the rod affixed in it's hole on the latch.. and spent some time hammering on the rod to straighten it back out.. evidently it was a struggle to get it removed when it came unhinged. It works nice..

I spent allot of time laying under the car on the concrete with the bumper siting on my chest and my arms over my head trying to get those last two bolts out so I could replace the two clip-on nuts.. but i got them.. I did do some looking around town in various parts stores but haven't been able to find any replacements for the broken ones. I will try Fastenal next week.