Dash pad photos

[dmjlambert]

Well it was quite difficult to get this dash pad off of my 69 CST/10. My objective was to remove the dash pad without destroying it, and wrap it with new vinyl leftover from my bench seat upholstery. I believe part of my difficulty removing the pad was because information I could find about the dash pad was not clear. There are many posts that say there are a few nuts, 5 nuts, 6, 7, who knows. And there are no photos that I could find of the underside of the dash pad so I can tell what I'm dealing with, and what is the hardware used. So, here it is on the Internet for the first time. Documentation. And high resolution photo of the under side of the stock dash pad. The stock dash pad is quite substantial, it is made of a large piece of sheet metal that takes the curve around the dash edge.

Next time will not be that hard to remove.

There are 4 Phillips screws on the front, visible from just sitting in the seat in the truck and looking up under that pad. I had one that would not come out, it would just spin, although the u-nut in the dash was OK. I think the screw was missing some threads. Even pushing on the tip of the screw from the back, while turning the screw with a screwdriver would not allow it to get started on fresh threads and come out. I had to put a chisel on the screw where it joins the nut, and whack it with a hammer in order to beat some sense into it. I did that by holding the chisel and hammer inside the glove box area. Then I was able to push on it from inside the dash while unscrewing it, and it came out.

I believe it would not be possible to remove the dash pad without first removing these things:
instrument cluster
headlight switch
glove box
air conditioning center vent (take this off by removing 2 nuts behind the duct, firewall side of the duct)

On the under side of the dash pad are 5 ea. #10-24 studs that poke down into the dash top, that are secured by 3/8" nuts. And at the ends of the dash pad there are 2 studs that poke into the dash front. They are secured by a different looking 3/8" nut, looks like an acorn.

After all the nuts and screws were out, the pad was somewhat loose and moving around, but I needed to use a small pry bar to gently pry the middle of the pad up in the area of the speaker, because the stud threads scraping in the dash top hole were giving me resistance. The back of the dash pad (part near the windshield) lifts up first to clear the studs out of the dash top holes, then I pulled the pad straight toward me.

Pictures: