Removing my dash . . .

I need the car to be drivable so doing it all with windshield in. It's cool in California so I don't really need the AC for now and we disconnected it a while back anyways. Got some great advice on how to do it so here it is.



I had some gauges we had put in which were easy to drop down. The AC box was my main concern. We aren't sure if the AC was installed in this car with the car being factory non AC, don't know.


The AC has one bolt on the upper right passenger side inside the cabin that needs to come out. There is 3 bolts on the firewall which come off pretty easy from the engine bay.



The other thing I had to do was the heater core tubes that go to the engine block. I looped them together which was super easy. Again, my AC was evacuated in the past so I had no AC lines hooked up.

Here is the AC unit out, came out much easier than I thought. Except for spilling some water in the floor pan, no complications.


These are the parts that stick into the engine bay. The 2 blue hoses are part of the heating that go to the heater core. The other stuff on the left goes to the AC lines. I had remove a bunch of vacuum hoses and a ground wire for the motor.

 

Here is the new empty void, like it.

oid,

The rest of the AC ducts and some vacuum lines.



I have some wires running to the battery in the back.



I don't know what the heck the previous owner did here but this might explain the massive gushing I've had of water getting in.





Next I pulled the instrument cluster out. Pretty easy, 2 screws on top, reach behind and unhook the speedo cable. Pull out the cluster a little and unhook the wiring harness.





These are the little nuts that hold the dash cover on, pretty easy to undo.




The AC switches come off easy as well. Remove the knobs with some pliers. There is 3 screws that come off from under the face plate and then reach behind and unhook all the wires and vacuum hoses from the switches.

 

Your taking the whole dash out?

 

I need the dash out to have rest of my rollcage done, to put in the new vintage air AC unit and to work on the dash to make my super duper custom dash.

 

I see. I'm sure you can do it. It will be a challenge to get those under the glass but it has been done. Merry Christmas.. time to go eat.
Oh, awsome pics as usual.

 

them steps are ALL going to seem easy compared to getting the little nuts out ,,,,,,,,,,
the ones at the windshield

 

Oh man I know, those nuts gonna be fun. Thanks for the encouragement. Merry christmas to everyone. Enjoy the food.

 

When did you do that to your dashpad?? Did I miss that? I like the look of it.

 

I actually like the look too. The PO used the same material as the seat cloth and just did a wrap job of the stock dash pad.

 

I was going to comment on the dash also. I don't know what is on it, blue jene material, or blue carbon fiber. I still don't know. It looks good though.

 

I think it kinda looks like panty hose material .. It is intresting.

 

ok some progress, I went from underneath and just loosened the 3 bolts that are so hard to get to from up on top. I used these vice grips and just turned the bolts from underneath, worked well. Then went from the top and finished it off.



Here you can see the bolt after I tuned it from the bottom, you can barely see it.


Then from the top I used a 1/4" wrench and removed the bolt on the driver's side. Haven't gotten to the passenger side yet but that's 4 down and 1 left.

 

this is the material the dash cover is made out of . . .

 

Damn that brings back memories. Painful memories. I was around 17 when I pulled my dash that way. Wouldnt even attempt it now. Your making great progress though. Be worth it when its all done.

 

thanks!
great news, the bolts are all out . It really isn't as hard as mentioned. I ONLY say that because I knew what to expect and you guys gave me a ton of great tricks. I recommend starting to unscrew the bolts from the bottom like mentioned and then going from the top and finishing it up. It took me 2 hours to get the crap from the bottom of the dash off and then the top bolts on my lunch breaks.

Now I gotta figure out how to take the dash out. Should be easy right? The steering column will stay in place I hope.