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

All right, so I've seen a lot of guys using the dashboards from 50's cars in their Model A's and similars, severely cut down, etc.
I know from my experience that these are usually welded in stock, so does that mean you guys remover them with a sawzall or something similar? Is there a preferred method?
Thanks.

p.s. Anyone know what 51 and 57 Cadillacs had for engines.

As you might have guessed, some guy online is willing to part out some pretty far gone Caddys and I wanted to know if the engines are worth saving.
I know a lot of rodders here love the Caddy engine, but I wasn't sure what years.

 

Okay, so it has a 331. Any suggestions on the best way to remove a dashboard without destroying it completely?

 

I take it you've seen what Maine does to cars before?

 

Dashboard is probably bolted in, most older ones are, 61 Cadillacs did. Frank

 

sawzall just took the dash out of a 50 chevy cut along where the trim for the windshield used to sit and make sure ya take the vents and wiper stuff out if ya wanna save it.

 

Cool - I know the dash is welded in my 50 Chevy and was welded in my 57 too, so I figured it was a safe bet that the 51 Caddy was welded also.

 

It's a *****, man. Seriously.

When a guy redoes one of these, it's commonplace to leave 'em in, remove the gauges, wiring, and dash pas, and just blast * paint 'em in place. You've got to be one determined mofo to get one out... and they're heavy.

Plan on a 3-day weekend, several alcoholic beverages, band-aids, and curse words.

If you don't care about the rest of the car, and it's getting crushed or something anyway because it's pretty far gone, feel free to use a Dremel Multi-Tool and some cutoff wheels and just cut through some bolt heads. It saves a lot of time, and sometimes it's not worth arguing for 30 minutes over a .05 cent bolt, you know?

Don't forget the goggles.

~Jason

 

I figured it'd be a pain in the ***. From the pics I can see the car is shot, AND in the middle of nowhere (too far from a power source) - might be more trouble than it's worth.

 

I found a 30 something chevy flatbed in the junk yard one day. The fricken dash was so complete, I had to have it! With limited tools on hand and a lot of determination. I used a hammer and chissel. Yeah, it took me some time, but the best part was takeing her home for only $15.00. I then shortened it and fitted it onto a model A.

 

The motors are worth at least a couple hundred bucks regardless of how good of shape they're in.

Anything with a standard transmission is worth a PILE.

 

Yep.

They kept the standard transmission 'til, what was it, '53 in regular Cadillacs as an option, and 'til '57 on the Commercial Ch***is?

~Jason

 

tried to get a mid 50s Olds dash,the cool one, out of a junker far away from any tools once..it was welded in,the owner wouldn't let me cut his "virgin" car..On the other hand,at least some of the same year Buicks had bolt-in dashes,pretty easy to remove

 

Dude!

Head down to the hardware store of your choice - they make some bad*** cordless ones!

Don't waste an opportunity to buy a new tool, man!!!

~Jason

 

Just cut it out as far along the edges. cause you will be cutting it down even smaller to fit into whatever rod. the time that will save is wayyyy worth it. i hardly ever seen anyone take the time to unbolt a dash.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44141

 

I have a friend who just bought a cordless sawzall - he'd let me borrow it, I'm sure. Now to get in touch with the owner of that Caddy ...

 

Bring extra batteries (well, and blades, too). Seriously - the cordless ones don't last very long at ALL. If they had a voltmeter, you could just watch it drop as you used it...

~Jason

 

Yeah, I HATE cordless sawzalls, they're way more power hungry than the drills, but they sure beat the hell out of hacksaw. I was talking to my friend the other day and told him I'd buy a couple more batteries, since I found out one of the main reasons he bought it was to help me harvest some parts off a car he has on his property WAY out on the back 40. Nice guy, huh?

 

I unbolted the '55 Merc dash to put in my '31. Pulled out the steering column and box, and wiring too. Only thing I cut was the tie rod. Didn't break a single bolt, and this was on a midwest car that's been sitting outside for 40 years.
Don't think it took more than 30 minutes.

 

Sure beats a generator and a real sawzall!

Wait a minute - that would RULE!!!

~Jason

 

I'm slowly becoming an expert at dashboard removal.

#1 - remove the windshield carefully if the car still has one. You don't have to worry about breaking it if it's seperated or if it's already broken, you just want it out of the way (but hardtop gl*** is worth hanging onto, someone's liable to need it).

#2, if there is any trim around the top of the dash, remove that. GM cars use phillips screws, as do the couple Mopars I've messed with. A cordless drill and a bunch of bits speeds this work up a bunch, and the torque of one seems to pop them loose easier. '59-'60 GM, pull the covers over the windshield doglegs too.

#3 drop the column, unbolt and make sure it's loose from the dash.

#4 now it's examination time. Determine how and where it's attached. Most dashboards have bar braces bolted to the cowl that run to the bottom rail of the dash. You can unbolt them, or sawzall them. Generally there are two, one each side of the column support, and one or two more on the right side of the dash.

Some cars have the e-brake bracket bolted to the dash, some don't. That all depends on where it's located too. A cutoff wheel in a grinder makes fast work of things like that - plus any vent cables or heater cables if you don't want to try to find where they attach and remove them. (heater cables can sometimes be removed easier from the heater once the dash is loose, too).

Most 55-up dashes seem to have a bottom rail that the skin attaches to, which bolts in. We just did a '59 Impala the other day and it bolted on the bottom the same as a Pontiac (and probably all 59-60 GMs). The '49 Chevy we did last week, may have bolted, but it was rotty so we just cut it all out.

5. Now, on welded dashes you can sawzall around the top. I like to go just inside the pinch-weld, if the car has a defroster vent you can cut from there out and across the middle. It saves work on the saw. Use care as you cut because you will probably hit things underneath the metal you can't see. If it's an early dash and welded all around, cut down the sides and cut the bottom brace free, too.

6. Without fail the two braces that attach into the column support have to be cut. Either there is a second bolt in there you need to have the hands of a 4 year old and two extra elbows to reach, or they point at each other so the dash can't just drop. You should be able to move the dash enough to get in there with a sawzall and cut them.

7. All that should be left is the speedometer cable to unscrew and whatever wires you missed. As before, a cutoff wheel cuts through a thick harness a lot easier than a sawzall (the sawzall tends to shake the wires back and forth and not cut them, you could try holding it with pliers if the sawzall is all you have).


Now to go the full 9 yards, some cars have column trim to match the dash. With the dash out, you can unbolt the firewall flange and pull the column on those cars. The ones old enough the column and box are one piece don't often seem to have that kind of trim. Also, in hard to reach situations or where bolts wouldn't come loose, I've been known to just sawzall around the firewall opening to get it apart.


I know these dashes unbolt:

'55-'56 Mercury
'58 Buick
'59-'60 Pontiac
'60-'62 Chrysler
'57-'60 Imperial

Chevy seems to without fail be welded in at least across the top, have pulled '58 and '59 both. (for that matter, '80's Suburbans are welded across the top, too). The 59 was pretty easy as the bottom unbolts.



Out in the field it was much easier to bring in a 1200-watt generator so I could cut for a couple hours if I needed to, than to try to use batteries. Given you can buy the 1200-watt jobs for around $150, it wasn't really a lot more money than to buy a decent cordless tool set, either. The 1200 watt job is enough to run one tool at a time - there's only one of me, so that's good - and weighs only 48 lbs or so, so it's not bad to handle. It fit nice in an old Radio Flyer wagon, too.

 

Rusty,

As always, thanks for taking the time for that explanation. Nice to hear from first hand experience than from 3 and 4 hand experience. Thanks for the list, very useful


Fryguy

 

Bill K. - you're the man. Thanks.

 

The trickiest bolts are the ones hidden under the moulding at the dash/windshield joint. There's one on each side. Other than that, just a bunch of bolts.

Yeah, also, I forgot you also need to be a contortionist to get a wrench on some of the bolts.

 

I've got a 53 Olds dash in my Hudson. When I pulled the dash out of the Olds, the windshield was out, so it was a pretty easy operation to cut the thing out of the car. I think it took me all of 10 minutes or so. Cut all the wires under the dash, cut out along the windshield, and the side, removed the steering column support, and pulled it out.

 

I KNEW it would be awesome!

~Jason

 

Early Corvairs unbolt


so do '46 and '52 Fords, so I ***ume that 52-54 Fords and '41-'48 Ford do too.

 

I wonder how long you could run an air nibbler or cut off wheel tool using a 20 cu ft compressed air tank and a pressure regulator?

 

I put a 56 Olds dash in my shoebox, not exactly a bolt-in. Bought the olds dash on Egay, so I didn't have to remove it from the car, but it was welded in, I got half the cowl with it.

 

57-8-9 Fords, like Galaxies, and probably all the way to 64 as well unbolt.

57 OLDS do not unbolt..