Dash-B-Gone

 After a looong pause thanks to weather, I'm back to working on Alice.  This time, it's the dashboard.

Not everything works.  Most things do, but there's some funky behaviors that can only mean one thing- the ghost of Joe Lucas!  I decided the best thing to do was to pull the dashboard and take a look.

Boy, I'm a masochist.

The first thing I did was remove the console and center console.  Those went surprisingly easily - a few screws, some delicate maneuvering, and out they came.  The center console is pretty fragile and will require some reinforcement with glue to keep it intact until I can replace it, if I ever do...

But my fears were not alleviated when I got the consoles out... the PO didn't do me any favors...

Not all of these wires actually go anywhere.

After a little work to remove the dead wiring and a couple of easy patches, it looks much better.

All of these wires go to something.  I hope I can remember what...

On to the dash board itself.  Ugh.  This was held in place by being cobbled together, and not well.  The most difficult part is the nuts under the top of the dash that you need to be Ant-Man to get to, and one of the studs was twisted when the PO (or his mechanic) tried to install the nut and it didn't fit.  I spent two hours in various body configurations trying to get those nuts off... nevertheless, I persisted, and the dash came out after disconnecting and removing the tach and speedo.

It doesn't look so bad from here.  But it's not good.

Here's why I think I have a case of Lucas-itis.

"Well, there's your problem."

So I have a new dash harness on order.

I also pulled the heat and vent controls, and they're functional but gummed up.  At least, they were.  They work great now!  The cables don't, of course - so they're on order too.  Lots of stuff is on order.

I did get the dash dimmer switch unstuck too, but I don't know if it actually works.

Once I get the new harness, I'll test things and if successfully will reinstall the dash (properly). I will also be replacing the radio with something a little more modern, and running the speaker wires properly.  And that will take care of the interior wiring--but there's some more patch work to address under the car, namely for the fuel pump and brake lights, that I have to spend some quality time addressing.  Later.