Dash replacement

[MadRiver]

Howdy all:

I've been planning on replacing my old cracked dash and crash pads for a while. Being a last-minute kind of person, there's a car show on Sunday and I'm thinking attempting beforehand (bearing in mind that today is Thursday and I'm going to work on Friday). I have all the stuff to do it already in hand.

Am I completely mad? I'd love an honest estimate of how much time the entire project would take?

Thanks as always.

 

[tomshobby]

If you are meaning the lower pads and not the top pad you could do it. If everything goes right and you do not find anything else that needs attention.

Remove the glove box and door first. This will give much better access to the back of the gages. Also a real good time to replace the heater hoses if needed.

And disconnect the tach cable from the distributor. After removing the tach and spedo retaining nuts having disconnected the tach cable will allow you to pull the dash back further for better access behind it.

And take special care to properly reattach the line to the oil gage or your radio will never rust!

 

[SCguy]

You could do it... if nothing goes wrong (and when does anything ever go wrong when working on a british car?).

The installation is straight forward. Just label your wires.

 

[MadRiver]

Thanks guys. Top pad not do-able in that span of time as well? I know it takes two to remove the windshield, but assuming I had help with that stage of the operation, would I be able to do it?

 

[kodanja]

label every wire !!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

but it's worth the effort! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/angel.gif

 

[MadRiver]

Wow, that photo makes me take notice! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[roofman]

Working alone it took me a couple or 3 evenings to replace the top dash pad. You need to loosen the bolts behind the wood dash to secure the top crash pad properly,as well as remove the windshield frame, so if you do not do it as part of the wood dash replacemant you may end up doing that twice. Do you have the new windshield base seal?

 

[2wrench]

May not be what you want to hear, but I'd save this
task of upper crash pad for a time when you have the
time. You'll be pulling every wire connection and
labeling them. Recommend some photos. You'll probably find
that you want to detail and paint parts (cause they're out)
and/or replace more stuff.

IMHO, you would be doing yourself a favor by not rushing this job. Probably should renew rubbers, etc, but maybe
not if they look really good.

I'm doing this now, very slowly.