This may end up being a pie in the sky idea I have but, I have been considering swapping the dash in my 58 wagon with that of a 58 Edsel Pacer. If done right, it could make a few people scratch their heads. My question is, has anyone ever done such a swap? Would it be a fairly easy interchange as far as mounting the dash to the existing wagon body structure? I found a dash that is missing gauges locally. I haven't taken the dash on my wagon apart yet nor I have I purchased the Edsel dash.
Depends on if it's a bolt in or was welded in. If it bolts in, then it shouldn't be too terrible of a swap, provided your Edsel dash is from the small body (same as Ford) and not the big body (Mercury) car, I suspect they may differ.
Paul, Did you try from the senior series or junior series edsel? My thinking is that the Edsel wagons were the same from the firewall back as the Ford's. So that would include the dash... Also, the Pacer is the junior series which shared with the Ford, so it might fit.
I see that you are from MO. I have a '58 Edsel Villager wagon in St Louis if you want to come by and take a look for comparason purposes. Let me know if this will help. From what I know, the dash from a junior Edsel will fit Ford structure.
Both the Ford and the Edsel dash are bolt in units and since the windshields are the same I would think it should be an easy swap, that being said you well have to think about your heater controls ?? the Edsel uses cables to drive a motor that drives other cables, its a pain in the ass and mounts by the driver side A pillar, you might want to modify the dash to use your Ford heater controls, I used the heater and controls from a 1970 F-250. Good luck Edsel
Clean Cut Creations, Thank you for your offer and I will probably take you up on it. I am a little over an hour west of St. Louis, just need to find some time to get out into the big city. I'll PM you in the near future to work something out. Edsel, Thanks for the tip on the heater controls. My heater controls on my current dash are kinda messed up so it's something I need to tackle regardless of the dash swap. Basicly they work fine as long as I want super hot defrost and nothing else. Again, this is a long term project for me, I would like to get the dash and figure out how to get a Vintage Air unit to mount to it, get gauges that actually work (mine don't right now) and work on everything on my bench.
The dash swap is a cool idea. I saw Evel did one in his hot rod build on the Mad Fab 5.5 (I think). He centered his in the dash board. Also check out Studebaker truck owned by John Saltsman called the Atomitron. His dash is Edsel, too. I know there are photos on the Edsel Lovers thread of Tracy Ledfords 58 Ranger Roadster and he centered the dash and used SW gauged to fill the 4 holes. Looks like it could have been designed perfect for the round guages and the colors look good with the factory speedo. Just a few ideas. The heater control is something I would not have thought about but he is right. The far right dial/guage in the dash spins to control the HVAC.
Just brought home a 58 Edsel dash will be mocking it up into my 57 next day or two will let you guys know how it goes. Guy I bought it from has had about 30 Edsels and claims to have done it. On another board one guy has crash books and he states not only are all Edsel dashes the same width (irregardless if built on Ford or Merc platform) but are the same width as the 57/58 ford. I'll be able to confirm it all soon.
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