At 12:06 PM 9/21/99 -0500, Rick Pleczko wrote:
>
>I am about to remove the dash from my 57 A. .... Does anybody have any
hints/tricks/tips/watchouts.
Absolutely, yes. The very first thing to remove is the analog
temperature/oil gauge. The small tube for the oil pressure can be
unscrewed from the back of the gauge, being attached there with a flare nut
fitting. You may want to tie a bit of paper towel on the loose end of the
oil line to prevent dripping on the carpet.
Next you have to liberate the temperature probe from the right front corner
of the engine cylinder head. This is mounted with a tube nut having a male
thread which screws into the head to hold the brass bulb in place, clamping
a flange on the brass bulb against a shoulder in the head to seal in the
engine coolant. To avoin a wet mess on the floor you may want to drain
about a half gallon of coolant out of the system first. You have to
unscrew this tube nut from the cylinder head, hopefully without turning the
brass bulb, which would twist or break the tiny fluid pipe. Do not attempt
to remove this fitting with an open end wrench or adjustable wrench, as you
will most assuredly crush the thin tube nut. Use only a proper five-sided
5/8 inch flare nut wrench (looks like a thick box end wrench with the end
cut open). If this fitting has not been removed for a long time, a liberal
dose of penetrating oil and some patience may be in order. A damaged tube
nut cannot be raplaced without breaking the the tube connection, so the
penalty for screwing up on this little task is a about a hundred dollar
repair bill to replace the capillary tube and the volitile fluid inside.
After releasing the temperature probe from the cylinder head you need to
unscrew any clip fasteners holding the small wire wound tube to the engine
or to the body. Then you can undo the clamp holding the temperature gauge
in the dash, carefully withdraw the gauge from the dash, and then use about
five hands to carefully guide the small tube and the thermal probe bulb
past all obstacles, through the hole in the bulkhead, and finally out
through the mounting hole in the dash. For further handling and/or
storage, carefully form the small tube into a coil at least a few inches in
diameter, and avoid kinking or cracking the tube so as to avoid loss of the
volitile fluid inside. Oh by the way, did I warn you not to break the
tube? Well, DON'T BREAK THE TUBE.
Now you can get on to removing the dash. There are four small for/aft
angle brackets bracing the bottom edge of the dash. Remove one screw from
each of these brackets to disconnect them from the dash. Optionally remove
the other screw from each bracket to remove the bracket from the edge of
the heater shelf. In the process, two of those first screws will also
liberate the heater control panel (if so equipped), and drop some tube
spacers on the carpet. You might look first to see whether the short or
long spacer goes on top. Otherwise you can figure it out for yourself at
reassembly time.
Next, lying on your back, disconnect the tach and speedo cables, all of the
wires from the instruments and switches, and the illumination bulbs from
their sockets, and also the screenwasher hoses if so equipped. Then from
below remove three screws holding the top edge of the dash to the steel
tonneau above, and you can remove the dash together with all of the
instruments and switches still in it without disturbing the steering wheel
or steering column.
If there is a radio mounted in the dash you probably need to remove a rear
hanger bracket and disconnect the antenna, power, ground and speaker wires,
and the radio may also remain mounted and be removed with the dash.
Otherwise as a matter of choice you may like to remove the radio from the
dash first. For any other aftermarket optional equipment mounted in, on,
or under the dash, I'm afraid you're on your own, so just wing it as you
go. Once the dash is out of the car the brackets that hold the devices in
the dash are quite obvious and easy to undo. And as they say, reassembly
is the reverse of disassembly.
>Also any ideas as to how I could recondition the face of my instruments
would be greatly appreciated.
After removal from the dash, give the front bezel a twist to unlock it from
the housing of the instrument, and pull off the bezel and front lense.
This works the same for all four instruments. Cleaning the lenses inside
and out makes a huge improvement in itself. A little chrome polish does
wonders for the appearance of the trim ring. For the printed faceplates,
window cleaner and a cotton swab or Q-tip would be pretty safe, but be
careful not to bend, fold, spindle or mutilate the indicator needles. Use
alcohol or lacquer thinnner at your own risk, test on a small spot first,
as these solvents may affect the finish or printing on the faceplate. If
the faceplates are rusted, or the paint is chipping, or the numbers are
fading or discolored or yellowing, I dunno, as I rather enjoy that vintage
look. Mine were never so bad that I thought they needed any fixing. I
don't have a steady enough hand to ever attempt repainting of the numbers
myself. I seem to recall that there is someone on this list who actually
does that sort of thing professionally.
Further disassembly is at your discretion, so if the instruments are
otherwise working well you might not want to go digging around inside. If
you should choose to accept this opportunity, this is a good time to remove
the case from the instrument, clean it well, and paint the inside of the
shell with a high gloss white enamel (or silver metalic), especially for
the tach and speedo. This (and replacing the old silvered light bulbs)
makes a phenomenal improvement in the illumination of the instrument for
night viewing.
When reinstalling the instruments in the dash, each instrument has a thin
rubber o-ring that fits around the outside of the case and gets sandwiched
between the back of the bezel and the face of the dash. These are cheap
enough to replace with new parts, make for a nice anti-rattle mounting,
prevent the instruments from rotating from vibration, and seal the gap to
prevent any light leakage around the edge of the instruments. When
reinstalling the temperature probe in the cylinder head, by all means use a
spot of antiseize compound on the threads, but otherwise no sealant is
required to seal the brass bulb to the shoulder in the cylinder head.
Have fun. A freshly painted dash is a marvelous endowment for your
favorite LBC.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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