79 Dash Replacement
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 215
Likes: 86
Bird is having exactly the same issues that I am having. That dash is not seated properly it needs to go further back in but the opening is too small and to try heat it over such a large span is asking a lot, odds are it will come out all wavy and look a mess. The wiper escutcheon is the same and my speaker grills were doing the same thing. I took a broad flat chisel, heated it with a heat gun and try to deepen the slots that the grill fits into. The chisel was really hot but I had very limited success getting the grills to sit flat. How hot are you supposed to go 200 deg 300deg who can tell us. It wouldn’t take much to go too hot and wreck a $500 dash. At the end of the day the tooling for these is wrong or the manufacturing process is allowing to much shrinkage. I still blame the manufacturers as they know what the dimensions need to be so what is the big deal, at least get the majority of them correct and sell a decent product. Had my rant but this is so frustrating and the dash is a major part of our cars appearance.
Last edited by Pzark; Jan 28, 2019 at 01:08 AM.
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,850
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,850
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
Okay... Sadly we had a computer tank in the service department and I believe the picture I'm looking for was on that machine. Today I'm going to pull the hard drive out of that machine and I have a tool at home that I can plug the old drive into and hopefully read the drive. (and find the pictures).
But... (and I'm only going from memory which these day's is fading fast), It seems to me is that about five years or so ago CA had an issue with this dash pad not having a reinforcement or V reinforcement in the dash pad toward the passenger side. I've spoke with Kevin who does the installations here and it seems that when both argree that we discovered this issue and then sent detailed photos to CA so that the issue would be corrected. I feel pretty certain that this issue was corrected after we discovered it and supplied them detailed pictures (the one's I'm looking for and can't fine).
So.. basically what I need to do is either find the pictures, find the original dash pad (which has probably been trashed) and/or hopefully someone will have a picture of the backside of an original dash pad showing what I'm talking about. Again, my memory makes me thing that we installed a V bracket on the passenger side by using plastic fusion.. we ran this from the top of the pad to the vertical portion about 3" in size and this held the upper pad from pulling upward or being weird once installed.
I'm sorry.. I'll keep digging.
Again I think the speaker issue could be solved by heating it to a point where the vinyl gets soft, then push the grill in place and slap some cold to it.
I did post up the pictures from this installation today, but I've not added the text to it yet. I'll try to do this so that others will see how to beat some of the issues, hopefully later today. http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/1...-installation/
Willcox
But... (and I'm only going from memory which these day's is fading fast), It seems to me is that about five years or so ago CA had an issue with this dash pad not having a reinforcement or V reinforcement in the dash pad toward the passenger side. I've spoke with Kevin who does the installations here and it seems that when both argree that we discovered this issue and then sent detailed photos to CA so that the issue would be corrected. I feel pretty certain that this issue was corrected after we discovered it and supplied them detailed pictures (the one's I'm looking for and can't fine).
So.. basically what I need to do is either find the pictures, find the original dash pad (which has probably been trashed) and/or hopefully someone will have a picture of the backside of an original dash pad showing what I'm talking about. Again, my memory makes me thing that we installed a V bracket on the passenger side by using plastic fusion.. we ran this from the top of the pad to the vertical portion about 3" in size and this held the upper pad from pulling upward or being weird once installed.
I'm sorry.. I'll keep digging.
Again I think the speaker issue could be solved by heating it to a point where the vinyl gets soft, then push the grill in place and slap some cold to it.
I did post up the pictures from this installation today, but I've not added the text to it yet. I'll try to do this so that others will see how to beat some of the issues, hopefully later today. http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/1...-installation/
Willcox
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; Jan 29, 2019 at 11:42 AM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,837
Likes: 1,028
We had success doing this to all the components, but them grills just won't go in.
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,850
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
Okay... just so you guys didn't think I gave up.... I found the pictures 
I'll post them later today to the tech site if I get time, I've got a meeting today at noon with the IT guys and then I'm heading out of town to Cinn.
So don't bail on this just yet, I think I can show Bird what his issue is with the upper pad portion. The speaker grill's I'm miffed on though. So.... The first question I have is was this pad purchased before 7-27-2013 ?
E
I'll post them later today to the tech site if I get time, I've got a meeting today at noon with the IT guys and then I'm heading out of town to Cinn.
So don't bail on this just yet, I think I can show Bird what his issue is with the upper pad portion. The speaker grill's I'm miffed on though. So.... The first question I have is was this pad purchased before 7-27-2013 ?
E
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,850
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
Instead of editing my original post on the tech site, I'm doing a write up in a pdf... it'll take me a few days to get this where I want it and then you guys will be able to see what we did on this installation. This is what I have done so far, I'll add to this later.
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...all-tricks.pdf
I've already revised this today since my initial posting, and I will continue to do so. I've not posted the newest version but will do so soon. Buy.... Bird, I think this might be part of your forward dash issue and again that might be determined on when you purchased the pad. It took me three days to isolate when we did this installation and that narrowed it down to a particular time so I could search the old hard drive on the crashed machine. I did manage to pull all the old pics off this machine so hopefully this will give you some insight as to the issue with the upper pad issue... or at least I hope it will. I'll post the update to this PDF on Monday or Tuesday.
Ernie
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...all-tricks.pdf
I've already revised this today since my initial posting, and I will continue to do so. I've not posted the newest version but will do so soon. Buy.... Bird, I think this might be part of your forward dash issue and again that might be determined on when you purchased the pad. It took me three days to isolate when we did this installation and that narrowed it down to a particular time so I could search the old hard drive on the crashed machine. I did manage to pull all the old pics off this machine so hopefully this will give you some insight as to the issue with the upper pad issue... or at least I hope it will. I'll post the update to this PDF on Monday or Tuesday.
Ernie
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; Feb 1, 2019 at 09:57 PM.
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Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,850
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
Monday I'll take a look at my original 78 and see how the grills fit on it. I've not looked at the car in years but it's a 35k all original car that's been indoor stored since day one. I inherited this car from a good friend of mine that died of cancer five years ago and while it's a very interesting story (and moving), I stored the car for him for years... When he died he left me the car... but it is 100 percent original and I'm not sure how well the grills fit.
But the other thing is the missing V bracket in the dash pad. You can remove the glove box door insert and be able to see if this is in the car. If it's not in there then this may answer you upper dash pad issue. I'm still working on the PDF that I posted the other day, and will continue to add to this as I get time.
E
But the other thing is the missing V bracket in the dash pad. You can remove the glove box door insert and be able to see if this is in the car. If it's not in there then this may answer you upper dash pad issue. I'm still working on the PDF that I posted the other day, and will continue to add to this as I get time.
E