Classic/Antique Car Repair: Installation of H20 sending unit 54 Buick, gauge face, hollow tubing

Question
I have a broken mechanical sending unit for my 54 Buick Century and have a new nos oem unit.  the sending unit bolts into the left rear of the head and goes through the fireway and snakes its way to the back of the gauge face.  Is there an easy way to install this unit.  We have had to remove the radio plus the coiled wire goes into the face of the gauge and is not easily removed?  Do we have to remove the glass face of the unit and snake the unit from the front into the housing and down in front of the firewall and into the head?  It seems to me that the engineers didn't go a very good job regarding how to repair a broken temp sending unit on a 54 buick Century.  the shop manual is NO help either. Any advice would be greatly appreciated....thanks... Dr. K.

Answer
Yes, this situation is common in the cars that were built with V8 engine but using the old straight 8 body stampings - the access to things on the outer portions of the much wider V8 engines is very poor on most mid to late 50s V8 cars for that reason.  There is no easy way, sorry.  

DO NOT DISTURB the coiled "wire" - it is actually hollow tubing, and bending it sharply or disconnecting it will ruin the new gauge.   It may be possible to work around the problem, or it maybe too difficult.  The worst case would be the need to remove the left head from the engine to get enough clearance to do the job.

I don't know of any other way.

Dick