Dashboard replacement pieces

[MartinB]

Hello folks
Any suggestions about how I go about removing the individual pieces that make up the dashboard would be very welcome. I have new refurbished pieces ready and now want to swap them for the current tired ones.
Thanks in advance
Martin

[richardthestag]

Hi Martin

Somewhat surprised that nobody else has replied yet.

Been a long time but here goes; and assuming you are referring to the wood sections

Glovebox lid, just screws on one hinge on inside of the door and the check strap and then slide the door off the other hinge pin. You will need to keep on and remove the glove box insert so that you can gain access to the back of the passenger side eyeball vent. there are a pair of nuts on the back, may also be a frame to hold the eyeball into the wood. Once you see the back of the eyeball vent panel it will make sense.

Centre fresh air vent, roll the top vent around 90degrees and look into the void between it and the top of the vent housing and you should see two cross head screws, these attach into a metal plate that holds the vent panel in place. undo those screws completely, let the metal insert drop, remove the plastic vent which pivots from a spring clip at the lower edge and you can then remove the square surround.

Dash panel, obviously 4 screws on the 4 corners. Ideally you would want to remove the whole thing with gauges and loom. drop the steering column right down, pull off the dash light dimmer control, remove 4 screws, don't loose the metal dished cups that the counter sunk screws sit in. lean the dash panel forwards, reach up from below and undo the speedo drive, pull the wires off the dimmer, detach the speedo trip reset from the lower edge of the dash rail and disconnect the hose from the driver eyeball vent. you can then pull the panel forwards enough to find the chunky loom connectors that connect the entire dash loom to the bulkhead loom. Dash panel can be removed complete..

Coin tray below the ashtray, lift it from the edge nearest the gear selector, held in by friction.

Gearstick surround, under the coin tray panel you will see the forward edge of the gearstick surround, 2 cross head screws old that panel to the top of the gearbox tunnel. remove them, lift the rear edge slight and move it forwards, there is a spring clip at the end closest to the handbrake

[jbuckl]

Was going to reply.

didn’t have time to type all that…. Kudos Richard

better than the ROM!

[Philip Wardle]

The person doing the refurb may have removed the two studs from the rear of the LHS air vent veneer. This sketch may be useful if you need to replace them, the studs should penetrate no more that 1/4 inch from the rear

fixings for lhs dash veneer.png

[Simon Rivers]

Very useful Richard - I shall need that shortly. Have bookmarked!

[MartinB]

Brilliant detail Richard. Thank you so much. And nice sketch Philip too.
I feel totally at ease tackling this now and Id have struggled to work out all the above sequence.

Getting the instrument panel out all intact looks like the best way so I can swap all the dials over in an easy working position.

Thanks again folks.

Martin
A very grateful amateur who is learning fast.

[MartinB]

PS - Any hints about the piece that holds the heater controls etc would also be really appreciated.

[Philip Wardle]

To replace this piece first remove the ashtray and pull the three heater control knobs off their levers, being careful not to loose the small spring fixing inside each knob which may (or may not) come out of the knob in the process. With all knobs removed remove the four small screws which hold the heater controls escutcheon in place, there's one at each end of the slot for the horizontal lever and one at the bottom of each slot for the vertical levers. You should be able to withdraw the escutcheon and put it to one side. The spire clips that the screws fix into shouldn't fall off the heater metalwork if they're original ones, but if someone has installed replacements and they don't fit properly they might have done.

If you have a radio fitted its front panel will probably need to come off. There are quite a few variations of radios and how people mount them, you will probably need to look carefully at the particular arrangements but if its an original FM/AM type e.g. Radiomobile1085, then the starting point is to pull off the rotary control knobs to reveal the fixing nuts, undoing these will allow the radio front panel to be removed.

At this point you will have five items to deal with, these are the small pilot lamp for the heated rear windscreen, the cigar lighter, and three controls. You need to have rear access in order to deal with these, so you'll need to undo the parcel shelf support brackets and other fixings to allow the centre console to come forward. You should be able to see how to remove each in turn.

In the case of the choke knob you may run into complications, it may be held on in one of three ways depending on whether the original choke cable has been replaced or repaired, i.e. using a spring clip which is released by pushing a thin tool into a small hole on the side of the knob, by undoing a screw in the small hole (could be a slot head, cross head, or hex socket), or it may be glued-on. If glued-on, you may need to release the choke cables at the engine end so that you can feed them all the way through and pull the choke knob out from the front and I seem to remember you have to remove the switch for the choke warnng light first as this won't go through the mounting hole.

As you go through this process watch out for any elecrical wires that fall off their spade terminals.

[Col70n]

If it's a glued on choke knob, it may be easier to use a nut splitter to remove the knob then you can withdraw the choke cable assembly in one piece. Obviously you will need to get a new glue on knob though....

[richardthestag]

I would be very wary of damaging the choke cable or it's knob / pull, have you seen the price of a replacement?

[Rigid]

And it goes without saying only do any of the above with the battery disconnected.

[MartinB]

Brilliant stuff again Phil, Richard, Col and Rigid........That should keep me busy for a good while.

Many thanks
Martin

[MartinB]

By the way Richard....are you the Richard of Church House Classics fame?

[richardthestag]

By the way Richard....are you the Richard of Church House Classics fame?

eek, you spotted me

[jbuckl]

eek, you spotted me

Fame, at last!