For those of you that have had to work on the drivers side dashes of the early C3's , you know that it will try your religious faith. I had to pull the dash again to install two new dash speakers and wasn't looking forward to it. It lived up to what I remembered and expected. I realize that to get the beautiful styling of these dashes GM had to cram everything into a very tight space but I hope mine never has to come apart again . I have a lot of experience restoring cars and have never seen any other car that is this difficult to work on the dashes so someone doing it for the first time will surely pull their hair out trying to do this job , especially when they try to put the drivers side panel back into place . The most important thing is to make sure the wiring harnesses are in their proper place held in with their clips or they will interfere with the dash going back into place . I didn't pull the dash all of the way out just enough to get to the drivers side speaker but I had to disconnect the steering column under the dash and at the rag joint so I could lower the steering column to give me enough room. It's not a fun job but now I can hear the radio when I am driving down the road. All I had before was the footwell speakers and with loud exhaust couldn't hear much. I never had to work on the dashes of the later C3's so I don't know if they have the same problems . Can anyone comment ?

 

I've done all three pieces of the dash a few times. It is a pain. The worst jobs to do, IMHO, in the C3 is the brake booster, and the heater core. Both of which I've done too. I have no idea how they got they much "crap" in one small space


I have a 69, and have never done the later ones. And, for the record, I'm with you, I hope I never have to pull any piece of the dash again

 

I just finished a full restoration on my 72 last summer and the brake booster was working good at the time so I didn't replace it when the dash was out but later in the summer it stopped working and had to be replaced . It's a terrible back breaking job trying to get up in there to remove the bolts . One bolt in the top is almost impossible to get at . Then all you have to worry about is getting a defective booster that will have to go back under warranty .
So far so good !

 

I broke my back in a sand car about 6 years ago, so I have no choice but to remove the drivers seat to do that job. Even then, I'm closed to being crippled the next day. BTW, I've done it 4 times now, just like you worried, I got a defective booster.....

 

I've removed the dash of my '79 more times than I care to admit. It's not a particularly bad job.

 

My wife's 78 dash is almost a joy to work on compared to my 69. I always seem to get the trip odometer reset cable snagged in front of the support and bent which causes it to fail to work and removal of the dash again to fix the now bent cable. I just cringe every time I even glance at the brake booster....

 

I have highly modified the dash/wiring of my '72 so no sweat....out and in in about the same 15 minit time span.....I cheated, and put a 4 pin molex plug on all the lighting circuits....and just ONE gray to the plug, divided out for the lights....cuts the time down to nothing, hardest thing is plugging in the '75? electric tach...I have the speedo cable run across the driver foot well, under the rug/padding...forward and up/over into the speedo direct.....

GOD, I"m lazy.....

 

Your idea for the lighting circuit behind the drivers side dash sounds like a good idea too . How many times do you finally get the dash back in with the stock light plugs and find out after night that some of the light sockets fell out when trying to get the dash back in place ? Now it has to come back out . I always liked the metal light sockets that they used in other early GM cars . These plastic sockets want to fall out when you bump them. Do you have any pictures of your setup ?

 

I'm not familiar with anything about the dashes after 1972 so what year did they change to the newer C3 dash style ? I would guess that 1977 would start the newer style. Yes/No ?

 

I'm retired so I have time to do most repairs on my 72. Having said that there are a few jobs my body will no longer allow me to do:

shingle rooftops

shovel heavy wet snow

remove and replace 72 dash assemblies

There are more but, well, you get it............

 

Last time was this past winter to install LED strip lighting for speed & tach.

One thing I did different this last time was that I REMOVED the steering column. That just made everything SO much easier.

And now with the LED Strip lighting installed I don't have to worry about knocking those plastic lamp holders off anymore. I also took the time to extend any electrical lead that would make installation difficult.
(see here for LED strip lighting thread: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-and-tach.html )

So, actually now, with the LED lamps strips, the appropriately extended electrical leads, and the removal of the steering column --- I would not even dread it if I had to go do it tomorrow. It would just be another job. A little tedious, but not dreadful anymore.

 

I changed the dash speakers in my 72 as well....Not a fun job but to me getting the center gauge console back in correctly was the hardest part.

Toughest job so far I have tackled is the trailing arm rebuild....I'm still working on that one....It's been up on jackstands for over 4 months.

Brian

 

I thought the TA wa easier than the dash and heater core but worse than the break booster.

I can assure you, the later years suck too.

 

I had a car stereo shop for ten years in the '80's, under a thousand dashes. A 73 and earlier c3 is the toughest dash I've been under! ...including lexus sc400 etc...

 

Now this is a custom dash- however I did keep the OEM gauges-so the wires are the same.

A multi-pinned connector and then a 3 pin connector so I can pull the tach board if needed



For the center console-

 

Whenever I work on the dash the first thing I do is pull the seats. If you don't you need to be made of rubber. The routine is seats out, tops off, column dropped or out.

 

Wow! I was just contemplating adding new speakers and radio setup to my '70 vert, but now I may put that further down the to-do list. Now, I have had several dashes apart over the years, but not yet on my C3.

How many hours can I realistically expect to spend?

Nevermind, I will just plan for the entire next winter and go with an A/C install at the same time. That will give me time to plan for some of those dash/wiring mods/fixes. And you know how things go when you start taking things apart-- "while I got the dash out, I might as well...."

Thanks for sharing Mrvette, carilljc, Richard454, et al

 

Viagra will help the "MORE " but won't do a thing for working under the dashes .

 

I would have thrown my tools down and walked out !

 

Thanks for showing the pictures.