I'm having a difficult time removing the upper dash, which contains all the gauges and such. I've taken every imaginable screw out but it still stays firmly in place. Is there something I'm missing?
If all you need out is the instrument panel, there are two screws holding it in at the top, one in each gauge pod. Then you'll need to reach underneath the dash and disconnect the speedometer cable from the back of the speedo. The instrument panel should then tip forward (if you have column shift, this will be a bit easier if you move the shift lever down away from the park position). Then you should be able to reach in and disconnect the wiring harness connector that runs the rest of the gauges. That's it. Good luck.
I'm not having too much trouble getting the instrument panel out, I've done that a few times. I want to take off the entire upper dash for recovering purposes.
I'll have to look, but it seems there were 2-4 screws in the top that can only be removed after pulling the windsheild.
On my '72 Comet there are a number of studs (maybe eight) that fasten the pad to the dash. These run along the underside of the dash pad from one end to the other, look under the dash pad when you remove the gauge cluster they will be inline with those. There are also two screws (one at each end) that threads into each end. My heater is already out so that end is clear on mine, however I needed to remove the headlight switch to access the drivers side screw. The sheet metal that the dash pad mounts to is fastened with screws under the windshield rubber. Hope this helps! lbr
You have to take the windshield out of the car in order to reach the five screws that hold the dash on.
Removing the dash is a royal pain in the ass. There are screws under the lip of the windshield seal that you have to get out. They're difficult to get out, removing the windshield makes it much easier. To make matters worse, the windshield seal gets old and brittle and it WILL break and crack when you try and access those screws holding the dash on. Basically what I'm saying here is don't remove the dash unless you REALLY need to. If this is something you really want to do, do a search on removing the dash, you will find a link to mavmark's site documenting how to remove the dash. You could probably send him a PM as well. I have a leaky cowl in my car and I've been tempted to do it, but I just don't think it's a realistic project until I'm ready to do the final tear down when I restore it.
Sounds like your talking about the dash pad. As stated earlier, there are 9 nuts across the top and 1 bolt on each side. These pictures should help you locate them.
Well my weather strippings shot anyways, so why not? Eventually I'll get around to taking it off, but for now I'll leave it on because it sounds like a serious pain to get the whole dash off. Thanks alot guys!
