Removing a dashboard from 50's car for other application - how to?

Nope. 53 in regular cars... 54 in ambulances and he****s.

 

No problem. I think as a general rule Chevy and Olds weld in, most others unbolt. I've never pulled a Stude Hawk dash but I have loose ones from about a '60 and a '55 and both appear to have been unbolted from the car. The later one is a fibergl*** piece.

Late '30's GM unbolt, too, at least Buick (but I've seen others out loose) but these the dash forms part of the seam under the windshield molding, so it has to come out of the car to get the dash out. I think even ones welded at the bottom will come free from the bracing - sort of a shallow U-channel, maybe flat with a J-shaped bend on each side - but you'd have to remove about 50 bolts/screws to do it and you need the brace anyways.

If someone really wanted a late model dash in their ride, most everything '63 or '64 on will unbolt. It took me about 10 minutes to pull a '72 Pontiac fullsize dash a few weeks ago.

 

37 Chevys were welded in, at least mine was.

 

mid/late 50s mopar unbolt. And are mostly pot metal instead of something weldable

 

I stand corrected!

~Jason

 

Here's Rashy giving a demonstration on the removal of a 59 Chevy Dash.
Two sawzall blades and a bunch of braces to unbolt.

We went a little further after the dash came out.

 

I've heard this works, too.

 

That looks great! I've been considering putting aa 61-66 T-bird dash in mu Hudson.

 

chopper99,your interior is gorgeous..love that dash

 

Torch will work.
That's what I did with a 60 comet on the way to the crusher.
Basically torched all the way around, across the cowl near the wipers and down both sides near the doors.
A simple hatchet will work for the windshield if it's still there.
Heavy as hell but got everything.
Glove box, heating/blower setup, attached brake pedals, wiper motor and arms, instrument cluster and all the knobs and switches.
Cool when you need a bulb or relay etc. and can go out to the spare dash and get one.
If you're gonna shorten it anyway, you can cut less out and save some weight.

 

57 Buick unbolt plus they come out in 4 pieces making them easy to handle.
TwoChops

 

I did it the easy way. Just bought a 41 Chevy pickup dash off ebay for $25 from some guy in Montana that I will cut and modify for the 29 sedan.

 

Not necessarily true. My dad has a DeWalt 18v cordless sawzall, and that thing will run forever with plenty of power. The only drawback is you have to lay out some cash. Find somebody that has one and start cutting. You'll probably still need a lot of blades.

 

A friend of mine has a bunch of dewalt 18v stuff including a cutoff wheel! He uses it a lot and loves it, it would be just the ticket for your situation.
I like Rustynewyorker's idea of a generator too.

 

I used a sawzall to get this out of a 56 Nomad in a local, private yard..It was welded as has been mentioned about Chevy's..I cut it in the defrost area and through the door jam to get as much as i could..

getting this one out was easy, the car had no roof anymore...
But putting it in an A/D Chevy truck is a whole different situation ...
As much as i dig the different dash, i don't think i'd do another anytime soon.

Tony

 

I did a '58 Chevy yesterday and they're easy -

Slice around the top; slice both sides at an angle (they may unbolt down there, I just didn't take the time), you can cut and miss the dash face using a long blade. Then cut all 4 braces off - two on the left to the column support, one in the middle, one on the right... then...

If you go under the hood and unbolt the steering column below the flexible coupler (one bolt), slide that apart, and remove the master cylinder and the reinforcement bracket that's bolted over the left side of it (two more bolts) you can pull the entire column, wheel, dash and pedals out as one big piece.

(soon to be seen in the cl***ifieds!)