Gotta Dash
Gotta Dash
Gotta Dash
Well, not really. I no longer have a dash as of today...
I started tearing the dash apart yesterday and finished it today.Starting at the right side, I removed the glove compartment liner and with the large opening available started removing parts as it made it easy to get to a lot of the fasteners.
The vent came out, wood pieces, chrome trim strip, etc. The clock and cigarette lighter, bezel for the heater levers and so on. Sadly, the dash pad was in such bad shape from exposure to the elements I had to break it up in pieces. That was pretty sad to see. Here’s how it ended up.
To get the section around the binnacle I had to use aircraft shears to cut through the reinforcing metal inside the pad. However, it made things a lot easier, as it prevented me from having to remove the instrument cluster.
Speaking of the instrument cluster, it was pretty cruddy.
A few minutes with some detailing chemicals and it was greatly improved.
Much better!
So here is the right side of the dash.
And another view.
The last thing I had to remove that had me stumped was the shift indicator. Fortunately, I have access to a group of people who have done this before, so I made an inquiry and found out how to disconnect the shift indicator cable to free up the indicator. Of course I had to take the opportunity to clean it up, too.
And with that I was able to remove the remaining wood trim. From there I moved to a place where I could work on cleaning up the various bits and pieces I removed from the dash. For example, the vents from the sides of the dashboard.
A before and after shot. While a lot of people might not go to the trouble to clean and polish the whole piece, since a good part of it is out of sight and never seen by the occupants of the car, I clean it all. After all, I know it’s been cleaned!
Even the insides! I spent the remainder of the day polishing the remaining chrome pieces and collecting everything to keep it together. It will be a while before the pieces are reassembled, so I want to be sure it won’t get separated. Next, stripping the dash wood when the weather permits.
Sunday, February 3, 2019