An exercise in masochism 101: Dashboard Removal
I have now successfully removed the dashboard (or fascia for you English folk)
from my '75 MGB, so I could pull the windshield out to put in my '74.
I had a few email conversations with Roger Garnett, since he said he had done
this before (his was a '65, though) and he asked that I keep him posted on
my progress. I thought perhaps others on the mailing list would be interested.
The following is a description of how I did it and how it
should be done ( unfortunately they often had nothing to do with each other:-)
Steps to removing a dashboard:
1. Reconsider.
2. Get a second job that pays $4/hr., work 40 hours, pay someone else to do it
with the money you earned, it might be money well spent.
3. Okay, you're cheap and stubborn like me, go for it.
4. The basic theory is there are six bolts that hold the dash to the frame.
All six run along the top edge of the dash near the back. There are
several things you need to do before you can get to them.
a. Remove the lower dash panels (if your car has them, mine didn't). I
think they are held on with screws.
b. Remove the heater controls (this is oh so much fun, I never did get
them completely out). You can live with them being in, but that
limits the amount of room.
i. There is one small phillips head screw that attaches each control
bracket to a bar that runs across under the dash. These MUST
BE REMOVED or your dash isn't going anywhere. The screws are
vertical with the head down. It helps to remove the center
console to get to one of them. (As fate would have it, I couldn't
get the center console out, but that's for another article.)
ii. Each unit pulls a cable (that's how they control :-) that needs
to be released to remove the unit. The cables are held on by
a small bolt. I couldn't get them. You need a little erecter
set wrench, which I don't have.
c. Remove the glove box. Just unscrew all of the screws and pull out.
d. You are supposed to remove the choke cable, but I didn't have too,
since someone has moved the cable to new location not in the dash.
5. Now, to remove the 6 bolts :-) the fun begins =:-)
The locations and how to get the nuts out are as follows:
a. The far left corner. This can be found by poking you head under the
dash and looking for it. It can be reached with an ordinary rachet
with an extension. BTW all the nuts are 7/16". Nothing special needs
to be removed to get to this one.
b. Just to the left of the tachometer. Remove the tach. There are two
brackets holding the tach in, each with a knurled nut holding it on,
which you remove to get the tach out. Remove the nut.
c. Just to the right of the speedo. Remove the speedo. This attached
the same way the tach is, but you also have to detach the trip
odometer reset knob. This goes through a little bracket that has a
hole in it. Unscrew the knurled nut holding the cable in place.
It is also helpful to disconnect the indicator lights.
Remove the nut.
d. Now over to the far right corner of the dash. With the glove box out
this should be fairly easy.
e. There is one towards the left edge of the glovebox hole. This one
should be fairly easy as well.
f. Now for the holy mother of dash board nuts. This last one is right
at the center of the "face lev air vents". It probably wouldn't
be too bad if you could get the vents out. I couldn't. There are
supposedly two screws holding a "retaining strap". I don't know
how anyone could get to these screws, since they are between the
two vents, with the screw heads facing the front of the car.
Anyway, what I finally did, and I am sure there must be a better
way, is using the closed end of a combination wrench turning
about 1/16" each turn before running out of room. I tried a rachet,
but at MOST I could get ONE click. I complicated matters when I
went from rachet to combination by turning the nut the WRONG #$@#!
way. Don't do this. Eventually it came loose enough so I could
cram my hand into a space much too small for it and turn the nut
by hand until it would bind, then wrench, then hand, then hand, etc.
It finally came off!!!!!
6. Lift off dash. I still couldn't get the dash off, because one of the heater
controls was still attached :-( Finally I was able to pull the dash out
about 3" and get to the windshield bolts :-)
All in all this took about 7 hours over three evenings, I learned a lot and
escaped with only minor scrapes on my hands. Getting the dash off the '74 will
be a snap, the former owner, or someone along the way removed the dash and
when they replaced it they didn't put ANY of the nuts back on. There is a
God. Once I swap windshields, I plan to put 5 nuts on, the last one is not
going back on, it's not worth it.
I also plan to swap speedos, then can get a definitive answer on Cable vs.
Speedo arguments (at least for this case.)
Well, this ended up being longer than I hoped, but maybe someone out there
can use this to benefit their project.
Bob "Boy it looks a lot easier on paper" Jones
bobj@meaddata.com
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