When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
trying to fix the shifter console that bubba screwed 9 ways to sunday, cant get the reinforcement to come even close to the mounting points, maybe an inch plus short 😑
When I bought this car the center console wasn't screwed to anything, it was just loose.
I bought the center console front bracket, it fits perfect and my center console + parking brake console are rock solid where they should be.
Problem is now my dash panels don't fit to the center console, the gauge bezel seems to fit properly but the right and left dash are nowhere near a fit at the bottom corners of the gauge bezel.
The left and right dashes (1 dash 2 dashes ? sorry ENG not my 1st language) seem to fit correctly on the door side of things, as well as the upper dash is where it should be.
(disclamer: the car has been rebuilt in 2008, before I bought it, I stripped the whole dash when I installed Vintage Air to clean it up and put some dynamat)
- Do you think the dashes are the old CorvetteAmerica "dash that doesn't fit" ?
- Is there any point in trying to heat form the dashes into place ?
- should I just cut a 2m x 1/2m plywood and call it a day ? nahhh kidding
Thanks for your input
It looks to me like the inside edges of the the lower dash pads need to move back about 1/2 inch or so for the screws on the gauge bezel to engage...can you show a pic of the right and left lower dash panels, as shot straight at them?
I know this is an old thread but I found it while installing my interior on my 69. It also has Vintage Air. I was having the exact same problem as you. Hopefully you fixed yours by now but here’s what I found. This is the first attempt to install:
You can see the left hand side of the lower dash look ‘bent’. I tried pushing in the right hand side to line up with the shifter console but the whole dash wasn’t moving as one piece. I crawled under there and noticed the speedo and tach lower housing was catching the steering column brace just a little.
I loosened up the steering column bolts to let it come down just enough and then tried to push the dash in. It moved but was stiff so I used some cabinet jacks to slowly push it in and it popped right in. I still have to try the passenger side dash. I dry fitted it and it hits the Vintage Air even with the plastic area cut out. I will trim some of the foam and continue fitting.
hi Kansas123, thanks for the tip, no my dash is still not fitted properly, I kinda gave up on it even though every now and then it bugs me and I try something..
I had a look at the tach lower housing is past the column brace, it doesn't touch on either side..
Your looks better although, given how that corner is trying to push itself into the shifter housing, I can see it has a lot of stress "stored".. might not be good in the long term..
Same issue though
Still needs to be adjusted though its not pushing on the shifter console. That pic was after I took off the braces and it left an indent that I removed with a heat gun on low. I got the passenger side in now trying to see if the ears on the LH and R.H. lower dash sides are supposed to sit on top of the shifter column or off to the side of it?
I had a very similar issue on my 69 convertible. The console piece that attaches below the steering column was fine on the right side but the left side would not push back far enough to align properly. Under the dash I could see the metal portion of the speedo cable was routed between the 2 braces and was hitting the bottom of the top brace. This blocked the lower left side from being pushed back any further. I re-routed the Speedo cable AND the trip meter reset cable over the top of the top brace and it all went back perfectly.
I hope this save some one from the pulling the dash as i did at least 10 times to try and find what works. BTW my wiring harness is routed below the tach and speedometer as shown in the AIM. I tried routing it over the top as some suggested but it was caused other issue on the right side due to AC vents.
Last edited by bacevedo; Nov 17, 2023 at 06:55 PM.
