The original steering wheel is large to help with the manual steering. With the new power steering installed, the large wheel is no longer needed and is in the way. Our friend decided to downsize to a smaller wheel to make getting into the car easier. Note the tach off to the right of the wheel. The owner is tall and kept bumping his right knee on that old school tachometer, which is often referred to as a "knee-knocker". With the new digital dash, the tach is no longer needed, so we are removing it and welding up the hole in the dash.
|
The plan is to repaint the dash and to do that I had to prep it first. Note the flaking paint on the ash tray cover. This ash tray was originally chrome. As I stripped the dash for paint, I found chrome under the paint on both this ash tray cover and the glove box lid. Someone had taken the effort to replace the originals with chrome, then another owner scuffed them lightly and sprayed them black. They did not scuff them well enough, which is why the black is flaking off. These could be rechromed, but that would be too much shiny for this dash. For now, we will scuff the chrome better and respray black to match the rest of the interior.
|
The hole for the old-school tach. Time to remove paint so that we can put in a plug and weld up this unnecessary hole.
|
The dash is two main structures welded together. One part of the structure has the original sealer, then white, a gray sealer, then the final black.
|
The other structure has ruddy brown primer, then black, a green sealer, a gray sealer, then the final black. Someone has repaired or replaced part of this dash before.
|
Ok, so I'm a bit of a perfectionist. The bottom of the dash was warbled from being pulled on, banged against, and who knows what else over the years. Most of these areas were large, shallow dents. And yes, I measled the dash to be sure I fixed all the little imperfections.
|
We managed to catch a descent day and prepped to spray the primer on the dash.
|
Kurt sprayed the gray primer. To be sure the dash is flat, since it will be black and black highlights all imperfections, he gave me 4 coats to sand on.
|
The dash in primer.
|
The back of the dash had several bare metal areas, so we sprayed that as well to seal the metal.
|
Ok, oops. We got so excited to get another good day to spray the black that we forgot to take pictures until the dash was reassembled. The bottom is all smooth now.
|
Father and son installed the reassembled dash.
|
The new tilt column and smaller steering wheel were installed just before the test drive.
|
The test drive found a few issues, including the alignment and a minor leak. We kept the Chevelle another week to set the alignment closer and do a few more shakedown drives. After another bath, she will go home.
|
Kurt and the owner discuss the alignment changes as the owner prepares to take her home before her bath. We still have the glove box lid and the ash tray cover for painting, but this gives him a chance to get the alignment done and enjoy the car while we wait on acceptable weather with low pollen count to spray those last 2 pieces.
|
