[jdstefan66]

Just to document the process to “92%” done- here is where we pick up from the last lengthy entry.

I prepped the metal part of the dash, where the former pad had sat, and got off the old glue and any remnants of foam padding that were left stuck on it. I found that Goo Gone, the spray version, sprayed very gently without splashing all over your interior, was the best remover to use.

I used a simple putty knife and some elbow grease, and got enough of the old glue and all of the old foam remnants off metal dash. It need not be perfectly spotless, just remember enough that the new glue will adhere to the bottom of the new long pad and the metal surface. After I got all that Goo Gone and remnants off, I then wiped down the entire metal part that I would be gluing to down with rubbing alcohol, as you want to have any Goo Gone off there to not cause an adhesion issue.

So, now here is where things got interesting. It was about a 45 degree and sunny day. A bit windy outside the car, but with the windows up in the car, the greenhouse effect had the inside of the car nice and warm, or at least about 55 degrees. I decided to use 3M Super Yellow adhesive for the dash long pad adhesion, as I read that it was good stuff and set up well.

You have about 3 to 4 minutes to get the pad adhered to the dash. So, knowing that, I would need to work quickly. I first decided to spread a thin film of the 3m across the metal dash, it spread out nicely, in a thin coat across the area where it was to meet the long pad. I had the long pad on the hood of the car, on a piece of cardboard, turned upside down, ready to go.

I start to squeeze out the 3M adhesive, it is now coming out like silly string, and as I tried to spread it across the dash pad underside, it basically became a big glue glop ball on my blue rubber work glove! Being I had limited time, I kept trying, and eventually got enough to stick to the underside of the dash pad and brought the pad into the car.

I quickly fitted the pad to the dash then realized that I forgot to put a couple of screws into the instrument cluster to get that situated, as that helps you align the pad. No biggie, I worked around that. I then place the three nuts onto the pad from underneath the glove box. Then I pressed down gently with the palm of my hand and luckily had enough glue on both surfaces to get the thin part of the long pad that goes over the instrument cluster secured. I pressed down with my palms back and forth between the passenger side for about 10 mins, to make sure I had initial adhesion.

I then took a couple small rolled up pieces of carpet padding, maybe 12 inches in length, and pushed them between the pad and the windshield, in effect this was applying downward force, which is what I wanted while the 3M Yellow setup and cured overnight.

If I was to do this step again, I would have waited for a warmer day, I think that would have saved me some trauma! (I saw $400 pad going up in smoke in my vision before I was able to recover!) I also wonder if the bottom of the dash pad, the foam material that the ABS lays on, maybe that material is not suited for 3M yellow, and hence my issue. That answer I don’t know, but I did get adhesion after the overnight cure.
Also, do not make the almost mistake I made and press down with the pad with just your fingers. You may end up with finger indentations in your pad that may not rebound and come out- effectively ruining your pad. I was lucky the slight one I did popped back up. You need to use something soft, but with good surface area to stuff in between the pad and windshield. Even a rolled up towel would probably work to press down the pad overnight.

Next day, I put the L bracket/clips in, affixing them to the cage nuts that have been discussed previously. Again, some trickery is involved to get the screws into the cage nuts. I used a small pair of needle nose pliers, and some tape on my finger to get the screw anchored. And a phillips head driver with a 90 degree bend to tighten them down. Remember, between the windshield and the L bracket, you have very little room to work with, so you need to be creative, see the pics I have attached.

Once the L brackets were secure, I moved to starting to put back some distengrating sound padding that had been behind the glove box and instrument cluster. I am not sure if this is an LTD thing, or Galaxie also, as the LTD sound proofing is what gave it the “Quieter than a Rolls Royce” marketing angle, but my sound proofing, which was more like 1 inch insulation, was totally spent and had been flaking from under my dash onto my feet for the 2 years of ownership. After seeing the condition of it when I took everything apart, I knew I would have to replace it.
I acquired some soft, almost a hybrid of 1 inch thick packaging padding from work. I cut it to size and used some spray glue to recreate the padding under the glove box area and also behind the instrument cluster. (which is why I had left it unbolted in the first place). See pictures for some examples.

After that, I then moved to reassembly of the glove box, ashtray and speaker. I put the speaker in first, and had tested the speaker prior to assembly on my bench, to make sure it still worked. I actually somewhat refurbished the AM speaker, gluing the mesh cover and adding the foam seal padding back to it that had fallen off. (See my Flickr page for a pic of that).
After the speaker, I put the ashtray assembly back in. I was happy I took disassembly pics, as it was somewhat tricky, but I got through it. I also replaced the light for the ashtray, so now every accessory light works again in the car.

The glove box liner was next. While the glove box liner is in your laptop, snake thought the Emergency Flasher wires and then screw on the bracket to the top side of the liner box. There also is a bracket for the emergency flasher can to sit in, that also gets screwed to the top of the glove box liner.

Place the glove box liner in the hole and secure with the phillps head screws. Next, line up the glove box door and place the 3 screws under it to secure. Then attach the rod that controls the open and close of the glove box with 2 screws to that. And, as a side note, before you put the liner in place, check the operation of your glove box light, so if you have issues, you won’t need to take the liner out again. Check the door of the glove box for alignment with the rest of the trim. Also, adjust the catch mechanism if needed for proper open close button operation. The catch is adjusted by loosening 2 Philips screws above the catch and moving the bracket forward or backward as necessary.

Next, bolt the instrument cluster back on. Before you do that, check that all your instrument bulbs are working, this is the time to do that while you have access. If it is daylight out, just put a towel over the cluster and make it dark in there and you can see what works or not.

Then screw on your instrument cluster plastic trim that goes over the entire cluster/blinkers, etc. At this point, you are ready to work on the Instrument cluster Pod fitment.
The new Pod has hole markers that need to be punched out through the ABS. Carefully puncture the ABS and make the hole big enough to fit the head of the Philips screw into the hole. Slide the Pod onto the three metal fingers that protrude from the instrument cluster. I noticed that everything did not line up without some gently pushing and prodding of long pad and Pod against the three fingers.

Next, is the metal trim that attaches to the L brackets with the 5 long phillips screws. This is the piece that has the defroster vents and covers the area of the intersection of the long pad/windshield. Be careful, real careful, putting it in, it has sharp edges and can scrape the pad. No, I did not have that happen, almost!

Remember to put the foam block, two of them, under this trim piece where they were when you disasembled. Again, pics helped here, somewhat. I had trouble with the fitment of one foam block on the passenger side blocking the trim piece from sitting correctly. So, again, adjust where necessary and screw down the trim.

Then, move onto the pillar chrome trim. This stuff is a bit tricky to reassemble also, and be careful of scratching the side of the long pad. Secure it down with the screws that it needs.

Moving to the Pod installation next.

Secure the Pod long lower edges with the two smaller Philips screws to the instrument cluster. Again, I had to do some gentle persuasion to get this part of the Pod to fit correctly and screw in. The Pod edges here should fit over the nub your screwing into, so I had to gently push up on that nub to get the Pod to sit right.

Then, the 3 screws that go into the Pod hood that is right above the instrument cluster are tricky also. So tricky, that I have yet to finish this step. The 3 holes that you make have to be big enough to get the screw into, and also line up with the screw hole that is on each of the 3 metal fingers that come off the instrument cluster. This essentially secures the Pod to the cluster. My plan here is to place something very thing up through this hole and make sure that I am lined up with the screw hole of the metal finger, yet I don’t push enough to puncture the ABS on top of the Pod. A very careful procedure that I am going to do soon. All this is hard to describe in writing, but if you are doing this job in the future, this writeup will make sense during that time.

Also, I am not totally thrilled with how the Pod sits against the long pad in the front, I feel there is the smallest of gaps, a gap that most would not see, but I have to wait until I get the Pod fully secured to see if that gap goes away, If not, I already have a plan to address that.

So, that is where things sit, “92%” done!

 

[expolice]

Wow! What a great post. I’m about to start on this journey on my 66 Custom 500.
I’ve got the entire dash assembly out of the car and on a bench so I’m hoping that it will be easier to get the clips out and the cage nuts in with out a problem.
I’m nervous about the required trimming and fitting as were you and others as I don’t want to eff it up!

 

[expolice]

So I’m starting to install the small eyebrow pad. How did you figure out where to place the 3 screws that go in from below the pad into the horns that protrude from the speedometer bracket?
Also you mentioned you had a plan to take care of any gaps between the long pad and the eyebrow pad. What did that require?

That’s all I know for know…
Steve in Flat Rock MI

 

[jdstefan66]

Hi expolice, apologize for the late delay, I was on vacation.

Regarding your questions- if you bought the long pad and dash pod, which I am calling the Pod the thing that goes over the 3 forks(horns as you call them), those three screws are placed up into the pod from underneath the pod. The pod is not a great reproduction of the original, but good enough. If you have the original pod, you will see the three holes underneath. The are fairly large, large enough for the head of that phillips screw to go through. I actually snipped a bit of the vinyl from the holes, a tiny bit, and used a heated(with a heat gun) round file to enlarge the holes and melt some of the poly under the vinyl. BE CAREFUL when doing that, you dont want to go too deep through the pad with a hot file, as if you do, you will poke through the top of the pod, ruining it! Just enough to enlarge the hole and go through the metal piece they have buried in the pod which also is a round hole- which the phillips head will go through when you screw down the pod.

Now, the gap between the long pad and the "eyebrow" pad (Pod). I trimmed off the excess off the long pad before I installed that. The excess vinyl material was of course, dyed the color of my interior along with the rest of the long pad and Pod when I first purchased them. I knew enough to save that extra vinyl scrap that was dyed the perfect color, and I am glad I did.

I have found the Pod does not come down to a tight fit to the long pad. The original pod from Ford had a much weightier construction and a nice metal frame on the bottom where the pod meets the long pad. That beefy original extra metal frame adds the weight and better fit to keep that gap from not being there.

The replacement Pod, while a decent reproduction, has it's flaws. It is fairly lightweight and flimsy, alot of care has to be taken when handling or installing it to not damage it. Also, the three fingers that hold the pod to the dash right above the speedometer, while they fit, the metal strips they bury inside the pod is pretty flimsy and after you get those three screws in (and you will be doing lots of cursing trying to find the 3 screw holes when that pod is installed, use a smallish round metal pick to feel your way around to find the hole first, being careful to again not poke through the top of the pod. That will give you the angle you need to put the phillips screw it to actually get it secured. Once you do that, sure the pod wont come off, but it wont be very tight at the front either.

So, we come to the gap. I took that piece of vinyl and put it right under the long pad, where it meets the pod at the front. See the pic I have attached, it says it all. Now that gap, while still there, is pretty much harder to notice with a same color piece of filler there.

If I could have gone back in time, I would have found a better original Pod, and purchased that and re dyed it to my color. But, good luck finding an unwarped, uncracked 57 year old pod. You are pretty much stuck buying the repro one, which while not great, is good enough. I even toyed with the idea of taking the vinyl skin from the repro pod and putting it on my original, but decided the risk of ruining a $300 repro pod was not worth that risk. Another note, after a few years now, the repro Pod vinyl had started to peel off the pvc foam, so I had to take it off and re glue it and even put some staples into it where you cannot see them to re attach. The vinyl was basically starting to sag down and cover the top of my speedo numbers, not exactly quality construction of the Pod for the money.

Attached are a couple of pics that show the issue well. The one from outside the car, I had a flashlight up behind the dash, and you can clearly see the gap that the light is coming through, not something that looks right and your dash lights will emit enough for that to be visible outside of the car at night, again, not a good look. So, that is the size of the gap. The other pic, from inside the car, is that vinyl filler piece I put in, which covers the areas and hides light from coming through that gap.

Anyway, I hope that helps you. The Pod is easily the worst part of the repro. The phillips screws and the holes you have to enlarge and locate are borderline nightmare to work with . Once you get that pod on, and the filler piece in, hope you dont have to take it off too often, as you will spend too much time trying to get it back on- best to you, and your back and neck after this job!

 

[expolice]

Thanks for the added input JD. I've been struggling to locate the long pad o the IP panel. When I have it positioned rearward enough to reduce the gap between the two pieces, it doesn't fit along the windshield edge very well. Even with the additional material that would be along the edge of the windshield. I'm hoping the defroster grill trim is going to cover everything nicely when assemble. Also, there seems to be a height difference between the long pad and the pod pad that looks like it might require some padding from underneath the long pad. I've been using some 6mm closed cell neoprene padding from Hobby Lobby to help build up the underside, but I'm not sure I like where its headed, but it might work.
I was able to locate the middle screw in the pod pad after much anxiety and many stressful moments and swearing. I used a large sewing needle to help me find the hole in the cluster prong that protrude. By the time I got a screw in the hole, the hole in the pod pad got a little larger and is starting to look ugly. A couple on/off cycles while checking fit and I'm not sure I want to install the other two screws for fear Ill make it all look worse!
There a guy on YouTube that installs the same IP pads on a 66 Galaxie. Here's the link;

In his comments back to me regarding how he located those three screws was, he didn't install them. I'm assuming he install the pad onto the three "prongs" and just installed the two lower screws and everything stayed in place. he indicated that he added some padding under the long pad to fill in the gap between it and the pod pad.

I have the luxury of having my IP out of the car. I can see all sides of the dash and pads without standing on my head like you had to with it in the car. I have been considering adding a Velcro strap to the pod pad, and routing it thru the cluster assembly, right above the clip that is positioned above the 10MPH hash mark. Then I could attach it to the corresponding piece of Velcro that is attached to the underside of the metal IP. I think there is room for a second Velcro strip just to the right of the middle pod "prong". I think I could pull the Velcro tight enough forward that it would pull the pod pad forward and perhaps downward to close up the gaps. This is Industrial strength Velcro except I have it in black.

I haven't tried it yet as I'm trying think thru which adhesive to use to attach the Velcro to the pod pad. and if it doesn't pan out, did I just ruin my pod pad (YIKES!!). If the Velcro strap idea works out, I'll have to get a vinyl repair kit to fix the screw hole I made for the middle pod pad screw before I dye the new pads.

We all strive for a perfect fit and look and sometimes we have to settled for what we can get out of the product. In this case the pod pad and the long pad could use some improvements from the manufacturer but that is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Your pad in blue (or turquoise) is the same color I'm going with. I hope it looks good after its dyed and re-installed. I'll take photos when I get it reassembled, on the bench.

 

[jdstefan66]

Nice write up expolice! That fellow on YouTube, Old Car Alley, he did a great job with that 66 Galaxie he restored, and he is a go to source for visual stuff that I often need help with. My next project is tackling the weatherstrip for the door windows, and he has a pretty good YouTube on how he grinded the rivets off, etc, to do that.

Back to the dash pad- it absolutely is a major coup to be doing that work with the assembly outside of the car, I only wish! Regarding the holes you are making on the under side of the pod. If you have an original pod, take a look at the size of those hole, they are fairly large, large enough to allow the entire phillips screw head. That is what I realized last time I took off the pod. I then kicked myself for struggling for so long trying to stick that phillips in and blindly feel around for the hole in the prong(I used a thin sharp object also as you did with the needle). I found a larger round metal file, about the same size as the OEM hole in the original pod would do it. I snipped a tiny bit of vinyl and heated up the round file and gently rounded out those holes, the actually look like factory now, even though the pod is far from factory.

I like having all 5 of the pod screws in, even if the 3 on the prongs arent doing much.

Let us know how that velcro idea goes, I would like to try to get a tighter fit of pod to long pad also, but my workaround is ok for now.

Good luck, take your time dying the pad, it will come out just fine if you follow the steps and keep things clean.

 

[expolice]

Well it may be a major coup to have the dash out of the car, but so is everything else so I have a big job ahead. The body is an empty shell but I need to get the instrument panel and dash pads worked out.

 

[Touring919]

Wow that looks good. Really impressed with the coverage of paint in the trunk, hinges and interior panels. I assume this sedan is the expolice reference or is that you?

 

[expolice]

The expolice reference is a nickname I got in college. My fraternity brothers gave me the name after a long night of “training” and it stuck. The car is a plain jane 66 Custom 500 2 door. It has some bright body trim which others have suggested it was probably part of a Ford White Sale special. Here’s a picture of an ad from back in the day. The copy at the bottom describes what I have, in Wimbledon White with a blue interior.

 

[Touring919]

That is a cool history on that car. I’m a big fan of base models.

 

[expolice]

After a lot of anxiety and with hand-holding and guidance from a friend, we were able to find the holes in the pod pad-to-instrument cluster prongs using a long pin and awl. It took some time to find them and it took us walking away from it for a night since we could only find the center screw and one of the side screws, but for a while, not all at the same time. Once we had it finally on, we played around with the location of the long pad, making sure we could move it “rearward” enough to cover the ugly gap between the two pads. My friend and I came to the conclusion that we should be able to glue in some closed cell/neoprene to shim up the long pad along edge with the small pad.
I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to melt the vinyl around the small pad attachment holes like you mentioned. In getting the screws in, the vinyl got a little messed up. I trying to decide if a vinyl repair kit from Joanne Fabric will make it look any better. I also had some screw head covers that will help hide the small tears in the vinyl. Paint them to match and maybe you don’t see them. However, melting the holes does make the screw heads recessed and thus not visible. I need to resolve this soon.
We removed the pads and I’m prepping the steel instrument panel, defroster grill, glovebox and ashtray doors for a fresh coat of paint. I also have been preparing the remaining metal trim for the A pillar and around the backseat side glass.
I hope to have all this resolved and prepped and to the painter by the end of the week. Hopefully I have pictures of the painted parts in a couple of weeks.
This is a picture of my basement shop, setup for painting (rattle can) primer. I have a fan blowing out the basement window. The sheets from Goodwill hang from the floor joists and help control the overspray dust. Definitely NOT the setup for spraying color.