Joe,

These cars are unibody construction and it’s no simple matter to remove the fenders.  It’s all welded together and the seam for the outer fenders is underneath the stainless trim that runs down the top of them.  You’d have to remove the trim and drill out/chisel all the welds in order to get them off.

You can, however, remove some of the inner fender panels with the front wheels & tires removed.

As for prepping things in the engine bay the easiest thing is remove all the things that will unbolt and then clean and refinish the sheet metal bits.