58-62 dash insert tool
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,359
Likes: 116
From: AUSTIN Tx
58-62 dash insert tool
Someone was asking about how to install the dash insert a while back, and was having a problem getting the nuts started. I said that I had made a tool for this job and would post a pic of it, next time I ran across it. Well, here it is:
I just took a long, all-thread nut, and turned it down so it would fit through the hole on the fiberglass, and installed a washer over it to act as a thrust washer. You stick the turned down section through the hole, and it is long enough to engage the stud on the insert, and pull it forward, compressing the foam behind the insert. Once you get the center stud pulled in, you can install the two outer nuts, and then you can remove the tool and install the center nut. For those that have never preformed this task, it can be incredibly frustrating and time consuming, without this tool. I did not use any high tech machine tool to make this. I just screwed a 1/4-20 threaded stud into one end of the nut, locked it in place with a locknut, and then put it in the chuck of my cordless drill. I then ran the drill with the nut against a running bench grinder. I just continued until it was the right diameter.
It only took a few minutes to make, and it has saved me much time over the years!
Regards, John McGraw
I just took a long, all-thread nut, and turned it down so it would fit through the hole on the fiberglass, and installed a washer over it to act as a thrust washer. You stick the turned down section through the hole, and it is long enough to engage the stud on the insert, and pull it forward, compressing the foam behind the insert. Once you get the center stud pulled in, you can install the two outer nuts, and then you can remove the tool and install the center nut. For those that have never preformed this task, it can be incredibly frustrating and time consuming, without this tool. I did not use any high tech machine tool to make this. I just screwed a 1/4-20 threaded stud into one end of the nut, locked it in place with a locknut, and then put it in the chuck of my cordless drill. I then ran the drill with the nut against a running bench grinder. I just continued until it was the right diameter.
It only took a few minutes to make, and it has saved me much time over the years!
Regards, John McGraw
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 789
Likes: 10
From: Las Vegas NV
Excellent tip John..... 
Hopefully my project will resume and I can make use of this tool sometime before all my new parts deteriorate while still in their boxes... 
Hopefully my project will resume and I can make use of this tool sometime before all my new parts deteriorate while still in their boxes...
Last edited by kwkenuf; May 6, 2013 at 10:59 AM.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 58,061
Likes: 7,145
Army
I swear...I had NO issues putting my dash insert in. None of this seating in the passenger seat and pushing on it with your feet or removing massive amounts of dash pad foam.
Went right in lickety-split - lucky I guess.
Went right in lickety-split - lucky I guess.
