Category Archives: Car Restoration

70 Mustang Dash Pad replacement Final Chapter

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So let me finish this up.  After replacing the bulbs and clean up a little it was time to put the new pad back in place.

But before I want to touch on point I made in a previous entry.  It was about planning and how important it can be to a project in both saving time and $$$.  Unfortunately for this project I planned too late. (OK…fine…just trying to soften blow to my ego.)  I remembered that I needed to order the two interior moldings for the A pillar (the post on either side of the windshield).

See pic

It now the ugliest thing on the Mustang.  If I planned properly I would have ordered the molding when I ordered the dash pad,  remembering that these actually lay underneath the that pad. So I did remember the other day…and figure..I’d order them and rush the postage.  Well  that didn’t work out too well..they are now on back other for 10 days or so.  Since I couldn’t keep my average garage tied up that long I when head and put the pad back on.

eeerrrrrkkk…..a couple words about replacement parts.  If you remember I said if you can get the part that are reproduced using the original tooling do so and that is good advice (or else I would have typed it  🙂  )   Quick story, I purchase some interior door handles re-enforcement for my C4 and found them to be ill-fitting unless I re-drilled the screw holes…which I did and they worked fine. …end of eeerrrrrk.  But even the original tooling isn’t perfect.  This dash pad was no different..you’ll see in a second.

I had originally planned to replace the front speaker (under the dash pad) but the speakers I had wouldn’t fit the frame work.  The old speaker was so dried out that when I touched the cone it fell part.

First thing I notices was that the covering on the back of the new pad was coming up in places.  I’m guessing the adhesive was missed in that spot.  I was concerned that it would start peeling so I decided to glue it down. It would take over night to dry so I lost an evening there.  Here are some pics.

Here you can see the covering did not adhere to the pad.

Some clear Liquid Nails and two clamp held it nicely and left overnight to dry

I placed the new dash pad in place and checked to see how well the holes lined up.  If you recall there were two brackets (hidden behind trim) on the font of the pad.  On the new pad they had to be “adjusted” to line up the existing screw holes. 

 Next two issues were annoying but easily remedies.  The was extra material block the holes on the on the bracket on the front and there were no holes punched in the upper screw holes.

Screw holes missing.

I trimmed the excess the covering over the brackets and for the missing screw  holes I came in from the back side and punched them through.

The final assembly was easy enough.

Here is the final few picks.

Final Pic 1

 

Final Pic 2

 

And

Final Pic 3

 and the before:

Before Pic 1

 

Ok..it wasn’t rocket surgery or brain science but a necessary job, when restoring a car.

Thanks for ready..your comments and feedback are always desired.

Tim

70 Mustang Dash Gage Removal Bulb replaced 3/24/2010

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Well after the bout of bad video uploads I decided to stick with photos for the rest of this project.

This blog entry (I like the sound of that…’blog entry’) I’ll show some pic of the area behind the dash and the removal of the gage panel and bulb replacement.

As I suspected and as to be expected, the dash and gages have been out of this car before.  No big deal, it 40 years!!!  Clearing you can tell that because the screws are not matching that hold the gages in.

Right side of the gage cluster had philips screw with washer.

After the dash pad was removed there were really only 2 screw left that held the panel/cluster in place – seen above and below.

The Left side was not a philips

After these were removed the gage panel/cluster (ok….I’m just going to call it a gage panel…if you like cluster…read as “cluster”).  The only thing holding it in were two connections to the wiring harness.  Those just clip together..sorry….I had those on video… and pull off easily.

Part of the wiring harness

As you can see other than just being dusty, all the wiring was in good shape.  I had expected some issue due to age, but nope..not a one. (That’s not a complaint…no way…I hate electrical work…..I had a bad experience 🙁             )

This pic is of the panel on the right side of the and there is a LOT of space behind there.  A cd changer should slide back there as well as adding a dvd player to the plastic panel.  No I don’t believe I would, actually add one…..hmmmm…..I guess if someone donated an item I might consider putting it in…..or not.

The right side panel...lots of empty space.

 

Look at that room...for a donated dvd player....:)

So I did blew that out to get rid of some of the dust and wiped it down with citrus cleaner.

As I removed the two screws from the panel I thought it would pull right out but nope..the cover for the steering column had to be removed first.  Simple enough.

Cover for the steering column

Then……( insert…dooms day music)…a piece fell out!!!!! See below

queue the dooms day music...the loose piece.

Ok..not really a big deal.  It was just a clip that held the to pieces of the  steering column cover together.  It screwed back in slide of the two ends.

Now I didn’t take the gage panel out of the car didn’t really need to since the wiring was all fine. I pulled it out enough to allow my had to go behind and pull out the bulbs.

The position of one bulb.

Here is what the bulb and socket look like, together and apart.

Bulb and Socket

Bulb removed from socket

They come out of the housing by a simple twist. The socket has two copper conductors (you can see them in the pic above…one on each side) that come into contact with the electrical ribbon and provide the power to the bulb.  Most of the bulbs were still functional, very dusty..but I replaced them all. 

Ok that’s about if this “blog entry”  (come on..you like it too!!!…say it with me “blog entry”….I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!!….BLOG ENTRY!!)

I’ve actually placed it all back together today and I’ll post more tomorrow.  But you want to see it before that, I’m driving it to work tomorrow…it not that long of a drive to Tucson…come down…I’ll spring for lunch…..            🙂

Thanks for reading.

70 Mustang Dash Removal Videos

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Sorry for the technical issues with the videos. It seems that WordPress has issues with longer videos, so I’ll have to keep them a bit shorter.

These next links will take you to the videos, but you’ll have to click the back button to get back to the blog.

This first video is when my son and I discovered that there was an additional bracket under the lower trim pieces.

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/?action=view&current=MVI_6869.flv

This next video is view of the partial removal.

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/?action=view&current=MVI_6876.flv

This last is the rest of the removal.  I tossed a little humor in there about feed my son Ryan only if we worked for the meal.  Not sure he thought that was too humorous..but I’m his Dad..he has to deal with me.  🙂

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/?action=view&current=MVI_6877.flv

Again, sorry these take you out of the site, I will work on this for the next video uploads.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Reminder:  PROJECT CAR CONTEST..GET YOU PROJECTS IN!!!!

70 Mustang Dash Replacement – Removal

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So the process was fairly straight forward.  Only thing not obvious was the removal of two trim pieces that hid the front bracket.     

Philips screw..wow how ugly was that old dash???

Top screw removal

There were 3 philips screws along the dash next to the windshield.  A nice long screw driver worked nicely.  The holes in the dash cover for the screw were pretty deteriorated, but it was good do know that the dash was really metal covered with the padded vinyl so the screw would hold forever.     

passenger side screws – remove and done!

There were 4 more screw on the passenger’s side.  Now if this were a Mach I it would have a clock located there, but instead there is just a plastic panel.  You could actually place a LCD monitor there for  DVD player.   The panel is below:     

passenger’s Side Panel

The next set of two screws that needed to come up were located above the radio.   These were a bit awkward to remove. But they weren’t philips screws..that pieced together with what we found after taking the dash pad out led to a conclusion of…well I’ll hold off mentioning that until I give you the other piece.      

Arrows show the position of the two screws

After removing these two “non-philips” screws (flat) the dash pad would lean forward and you’d think it would pop right off …but nope!!!  The next photos show why.     

Dash Pad leaning forward.

Additional Trim piece that needed to be removed.

One screw and off it came.

Caption is wrong here the side screw was removed but there was still one below.     

Bottom screw had to just be loosened and the pieces sliped off

One this pieces of trim was removed you can see the screw/bolt that need to be removed.     

Not a great pic..but you get the idea.

One on each side and the dash pad was ready to go.  Check out the videos.  If the videos don’t work..let me know.     

I enlisted the help of my son Ryan.  He was over for dinner and he lent me hand, so I could film as well.    

This first video shows us discovering the front brace hidden under the trim piece.     

  

Here is the backside of dash pad.     

The paper tag on the bottom of the dash pad.

Reading that you can see the date of 1972 on the tag. Since the Mustang is a 1970, the date doesn’t make sense. Adding that the screws near the radio that don’t match (straight vs. philip for the rest) I wondering if the dash wasn’t replaced.  The original owners didn’t mention it, but there was no real reason too.  This could mean that the dash was replaced with what appears to be NOS (new old stock) (from 1972)..that’s a possibility.  I’ll do some more research just to find out.     

The last few pics are of the other markings.     

The two eights – one upper in maker and the one in the glue.

Parts code perhaps 3 24 (d) 2

Sorry..that one’s upside down. 🙂     

The original Ford speaker.     

Speaker with part number.

So what’s next?  I’ll check out the wiring and pull the gages if I need to for repair (although all the gages are working fine). Oh..yeah..do a bulb replacement.     

More to come     

Thanks for reading.     

Tim

1970 Mustang Dash Replacement – Old one is out!!

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Spend the last part of today taking the dash out of the Mustang.  It went very smoothly.

I was originally worried about rust up near the windshield.  But a quick check showed nothing major.  I’ll be giving it a good look tomorrow.

I still have to go through the videos and pics, so I’ll post them up late this evening or tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Wrenchin’ Tip Restoring emblems 03/18/2010

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Many of our cars have worn out emblems that were once painted…Ok..I’m a lucky average guy…the Mustang’s emblems are all chrome and my Corvettes are mostly plastic.  

But what about some those that need painting.  Look for a flow  pencil.  

Flow Pencil for paint your emblems.

 

These are pretty reasonable and make painting small areas a bit easier.  

Thanks for reading

Project Car Contest

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Don’t forget to get your entry in for the Project car of the Week/Month.

$100.00 Gift card to an online Auto Parts site, like Summit Racing.

1970 Mustang Dash Replacement – Part Arrives!!!

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Ok now I’m excited.  The dash pad replacement arrived and it looks great. 

Here are some pics: 

Dashboard Pic1 1970 Mustang no A/C

 

Dashboard Pic2 Perfect placement of the defrost vents

 

Backside of the new dash Pic 3 1970 Mustang

 

Speaker Mount Pic4 1970 Mustang

 

I ordered this part from Dallas Mustang, but I thinking I should have ordered directly from DashesDirect.com I’ll check the web site and see if it was cheaper there.  When you have an average guy’s budget every penny counts.  PLEASE HOLD…..(MUSIC…MUSIC…MUSIC)..thanks for holding…ok  DashesDirect.com doesn’t sell directly (get it????….do ya????) so you have to order through a 3rd party.  So this worked out ok.  Got 10% off on sale at Dallas Mustang and free shipping.  

This is really nicely done. The key is getting parts that are created with the original tooling.  That means the makee owns or has access to the original (recreated) molds (in this case) that Ford used. 

The key to a good fitting part!!!

 

I can’t wait to get started….errk….but I have to wait until next week.  I have things already scheduled for this weekend.  You don’t want to rush projects and I lean toward wanting to start things right way.  This will take some time to complete, especially with photographing (still and video) and all the cleaning, bulb replacement and any electrical work it might need. 

If I can squeeze some time off the first of next week. I’ll start it. Stay tuned and you’ll see every bit of the good stuff and what ever I screw up…oh..don’t worry..there is always something.  

My biggest fear is getting the old one off and find ‘rust’…yeah…that can happen here in AZ. 

Thanks for reading.  Don’t for get I’m looking for your project pics for the Project Car of the Week/Month.  $100.00 gift card at stake. 

Tim