The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Tootsie Roll question of the day...

How many bolts does it take to get the dash out of a '53 Chevy truck? Where are they located and is it worthwhile when rewiring the entire truck and reworking the wiper motor?

The dash is welded in and is an intregal part of the cab.

Thanks Cletis,

Sounds like the contortionists life for anyone trying to work on the dash then. I guess that also explains why I couldn't really find any bolts that looked like good candidates. Any advice for rewiring the gauges? Or just grab a drop light and hunker down?

Shane, it might be easier to just unscrew the nuts that hold the gauges on, and work on them loose.

You can get at it all from the front and underneath... it does help to be a bit of a contortionist! When we were totally rewiring, we pulled the panel off of the front and worked from the front and underneath. Not simple but doable. The rewire came with all new guage bulbs so we took a couple of the old ones and hooked them up to the turnsingle arrows which were there but not used as the truck had no turn signals.

Biggest pain was popping panel back in place. The new bulbs aren't quite sung so kept popping out.

In retrospect, shoul dhave put in a new odometer while it was out... oh well.

thanks guys, interior is already in paint and the engine is in the bay, wiring is the only thing holding me up. Appreciate all the advice.

A hot tip when you put the guages back in.......

Go to the hardware store and get some 10-32 brass knurled thumb nuts. They're a lot easier to tighten, and un-screw next time, than the hex nuts.

thanks cletis,

that makes a lot of sense...funny how a person can come up with ways to alleviate difficult problems.

Shane listen to Cletis he knows his stuff. I did just this (knurled nuts) and it does make things alot easier!!!!!
Good luck