I have a 72’ non ac car that I wish to swap a donor 76’ ac dash/box into. I believe this should mostly be a straight swap but my question is what is required to convert to the foot brake? Are there places in the 72’ it will bolt to or is fab required? Any other nuggets of advise?
Fuse panel is located on dash at left knee, requires using the complete wiring harness, doesn't unplug like the ones with fuse panel on firewall. Since the pedal type parking brake wasn't on any earlier models, I'll guess chances it's bolt in are zero & none.
If you are doing this to add AC, you might be able to use the upper portion of the '76 dash if you find an early AC package tray. I added AC to my '71 by keeping the original non-AC dash and blocking off the center AC outlet. Everything flows through the AC outlets on the package tray. Micah
I have a 72 as well. The foot operated parking brake would require you to source, cut out and weld in the panel behind the left kick panel so you could bolt up the brake mechanism. IIRC the exit on the firewall for the brake cable is different as well.
I have the donor car so if I need to do some slice and dice not the end of the world. Just looking for advice as to what to expect. I guess worst case I just don’t install the park brake.
You WILL want to install the parking brake. Converting to a foot pedal will not be a bolt in swap. It will require quite a bit of fabrication.
So looking a bit closer at this, it would seem it may be more trouble than it’s worth to swap in the foot pedal, mostly due to the cable routing. Adding the pedal would be fairly easy ( couple nutserts and weld in the lower bracket from the donor).Looking at pics of a 73’ lower dash, it would seem that the hand brake handle comes out where the fuse panel sits on the 76’. I’m keeping the 72’ fuse panel so no need for the fuses there. It looks like the only difference is the 73’ has trim in the opening of the lower dash for the handle where the 76’ would just be open. I can live with that if that’s the case.
