Dash Pad Delete Project

[Foxtrot]

I decided it was time to take out the dash pad in Big Wood due to it being such an eye sore after completely re-doing the rest of the interior. Figured since I was on here for a good hour searching for project photos of this task being done I would make it a little easier for others to find something similar. I'll update this thread as I complete the project.

Night 1:
-Uninstalled all nuts (There are 14 to be exact)
-Removed the dash pad and vents unintentionally
-Sanded the dash down

- To get to all 14 nuts two things must be done. First, remove your gauge bezel. After removing the bezel you should be able to easily reach 7 of the 14 nuts. 3 are on the back wall, 3 are on the front portion of the dash and one is tucked away in the front left corner of the dash (This one is a slight annoyance, or was for me.) After removing those 7 take out the glove box sleeve. After removing the sleeve you can reach 7 easily but can access up to 9 (I'd stick with removing the 7 if you don't want cut marks all over your arms. Lesson learned for me!) This side has nuts in the exact locations as the bezel side except you have to deal with getting behind your stereo. There are two nuts behind the stereo unit that can be easily reached by hand but are a slight annoyance when trying to use a 1/4" ratchet. (I'd suggest trying to loosen the nuts by hand first since most are hand tight).

Photos of this step:

Nuts you are looking for:


Slots Nuts are located in:
Back-Side slot

Front-Side slot

Slots behind the radio

Shot of corner slot (Make sure you dont miss this. I tore my dash pad trying to take it off due to not seeing this)


Once all 14 nuts have been removed it is time to remove the dash pad. This step is slightly tricky. Since I was not concerned with damaging the dash pad or not I removed it from the front first and then slid the back out. I would not recommend that if you are planning on putting the pad back in or selling it (It caused a lot of damage to the warn out pad.) Although it is 10x harder to do it this way I would suggest removing it from the back first and then sliding out the front. If your dash is stuck to the metal I'd suggest using something flexible and flat to slide under the dash around the edges to break apart the stuck areas if at all possible. Once the dash is removed you will have a beautiful looking metal dash with (hopefully) no rust since it was protected all those years!

Photos of the dash off:

Dash on still:


Dash off:


Clean metal Dash:


As you can see I demolished my old dash. The vent holes for the heater stayed stuck to the dash when I tore it off! On that note, make sure if you are planning on keeping an all metal dash and not placing the pad back on to take the two vents that are on the pad off so you can use them later on. They already have pre-drilled holes in them to screw into the dash they just have to be heavily cleaned due to the vinyl from the dash melting to them over 40 years.

To complete those steps takes about an hour at max if you don't run into snagging problems or stripped nuts or anything else that is bound to happen to a project that should be so simple! The next step is to fill in all of the holes that the dash pad was bolted to. I will update the project in the next two days with what has been done. Hope this helps the few people that plan to go with a metal dash!

EDIT: This project is for a 1971 Ford F-100 I do not know if dash's are different for other years.

[Foxtrot]

I also had a question for those of you that have already completed this project. How did you fill in your holes. I've only heard of people welding in the holes but I have no skill in welding and if I did I don't have a welder. Anyways, I was planning on using fiberglass on the back side of the holes and then filling everything else with metal fill. I think that should work fine but I hate to use fiberglass. Anyone know of another good way of filling the holes?

I was thinking about using that mesh metal they use to patch small holes on cars but not sure if the holes on the mesh is going to be small enough to be something the metal fill can grab to. Any help with this would be grateful, Thanks!

[garner67]

Yes, welding would be the best method, but you'd really need to remove a lot of the under dash equipment... wipers, heater/ac, etc to have good access... it'd probably be best to remove the windshield too.

With that said, if I were going to fill those holes without welding, I'd probably use some Auto Body Panel Adhesive, and glue some backing plates on the under side of the holes. Then, I'd use some Evercoat's Metal-to-Metal filler to fill the hole. Finally, I'd finish it off with some quality filler like Evercoat's Rage; followed by primer and paint. There's definitely a bit of work to do a nice clean job, but I think it'll look great when you're done.

I've been redoing my interior this month, too, and I thought about getting rid of my crappy old dash pad. However, I came across an original dash pad that was in great condition, so I went with the replacement pad.

Good luck, and thanks for documenting the process.

[Foxtrot]

Looks like I'll have to try that. Need to see if my local auto store sells some decent adhesive first! Thanks and I'll post the progress in the new day or two depending on how far I get.

Thanks,
Foxtrot

[Florian]

Excellent post! If I ever get tired of looking over my old dash pad I´ll remember this thread

[NinJaaaaaaaaaah]

ha i wish i would of found this thread a couple hours ago, would of saved me some time.

[Foxtrot]

Ha! That's what it is here for!

Thanks for all the compliments, glad I could help some of you out!

UPDATE: Just purchased all the supplies I need to full in the holes so I will be working on that, polishing my grille some more, and installing a manual choke tonight and tomorrow so look for another update soon!

Thanks,
Foxtrot

[Kansas 72 Ford]

Yeah keep us updated I'm going padless soon and want to how yours turns out so I know if I should do it exactly like you do or weld em. Thanks for the post is very helpful for us shade tree mechanics.

[Calfdemon]

I saw one today that was padless and he did not have his holes filled. It still looked pretty good. I could see how it would just look a lot nicer with them filled properly, but even with them left exposed, as long as the dash is painted and looking nice, the holes do not make the dash look ugly..

[AK F100]

I know I have seen a picture somewhere that someone filled the holes with nice rounded head carriage bolts and it looked pretty nice.

[Foxtrot]

UPDATE: Filled in all large holes and learn some very important lessons...

I finally got around to filling in the dash holes today and decided to start with all the long holes and to save the small holes for later. I ran into a few problems. First, the metal "mesh" I was using did not bend well to the curve of the dash and would not stick without me holding it there for about 15 minutes. (Doing this twice made me change my game plan.

The initial plan was to use metal "mesh" on the underside of the dash as a backing for the metal fill to act as an adhesive. Problems arose quickly:



First, the metal "mesh" like I said did not bend very well. I also forgot that metal fill (until dried) has a very thin texture which did not work well with the "mesh" causing it to drip through and make a mess. I did something I normally would not have done but in a dire situation for wanting to get the project moving I resorted to Duct Tape!



This ended up working wonders beyond belief. I got rid of even using the metal "mesh" and just placed a piece of duct tape over the hole. Then another problem arose after the first set of metal fill was applied and drying. The metal fill would not dry in a smooth finish like I applied it. The fill bunches up together for some reason and was causing small holes in the fill.

Small holes in the metal fill: (Sorry it is hard to see, was getting dark)


I ended up applying a second coat of filling of just regular Bondo to fill the holes and that worked great!

One hole completed:


After fixing those two problems the process went on without any hitches till night time fell. Unfortunately the bugs kept me from completing the project today but hopefully it will be done tomorrow! Here are some photos of the progress:



The lady helping out clean my vents!!!

Right side of the dash completed (stopping point):


i am also stuck on deciding if I want to fill all the little holes in the middle of the dash or to keep them visible...What do you guys think?

[Caseys71]

, Looks good! I've had my dash-pad off for a while now, and am still undecided as to what I'm going to do to fill in the dash holes. So far I'm really liking how your transformation is coming though, can't wait for the next update!

[dablack00]

Not to give you a hard time but if you only have duct tape under that metal fill stuff I don't think it is going to last. Like someone above said, you should have glued a larger piece of metal under the hole and then treated the hole (it isn't a hole once the piece is glued under it) like a dent.

Filler isn't made to fill in a hole. With out support for it, it will eventually crack and fall out of the hole you put it in.

I hope it works out for you, but I really don't think it will.

[72stepside]

I thought about trying Bondo Fiberglass from the backside when I had my dash pad off. I found a perfect replacement at the yard the following weekend so I used it instead.

[Mackie1969]

Thank you so much! With your tutorial, I managed to remove my dash pad in under two hours with barely any scrapes or scratches. Went without a hitch! I appreciate it!