Graham’s Corvette Blog and Studebaker bits ‘n’ bobs

I have transferred the various bits from the old board to the new console board. Here I am doing a careful comparison of the location of the mounting holes. I tried to mount the console, but I couldn’t push the console far enough ahead for the mounting holes to line up without putting undo stress on the lower dash and the console itself. It looks like I will have to modify the mounting holes. A bit tricky because the console has to be far enough ahead so that the back matches up with the parking brake cover.

In the end I had to ‘oval’ the mounting holes. The rear one was the worst and is apparent in the photos. I used washers to help hold the console plate in place. Worked out OK – the parking brake cover/arm rest fitted fine.

The new shift boot is made of nice soft leather. Too bad it doesn’t fit the shift shaft very well. I’ll put a couple of stitches in it to tighten it up some. Also the ash tary was a super tight fit to the console. It will be difficult to remove. All in all the console plate was a bit of a disappointment.

Another disappointment was the light switch. There is a slight variation of the mounting holes. The switches are upside down here to compare the position of the mounting hole. The old switch on the left is slightly lower than the new one (or slightly higher if the switches are turned over to their normal mounting position). This slight difference means that the new switch couldn’t be mounted in the dash. The fit is tight and the new switch can’t be fited flush with the dash opening. I’ll be sending photos and emails to the sellers to let them know that their aftermarket product fitments are less than perfect.

All back in place finally. Just have to rel-install the seats. I still need to paint the rocker panels, rear window trim and steering wheel.

I decided to pull the shifter mechanism and clean it up. At some point water got into the console and sat in the bottom of the shifter.

With the shifter mechanism out I had to clean a lot of rust scale from the metal mounting plate. The result of earlier water intrusion was a a couple of holes. Fortunately the overall plate is still solid.

With the console out I took the opportunity to put down a layer of sound and heat deadener. Lots of wires, but not too messy. four pairs of speaker wires were needed to connect up the radio. I tag wires so I don’t have to trace them all over again later.

This is an amateur restoration so I’m perfectly happy to use fibreglass to repair the damage to the shifter mounting plate. I didn’t use sound/heat deadener where the shifter is located as I didn’t want to raise the mechanism from it’s original position.

Cleaned and painted shift mechanism back in place.

Gauge pod went in OK, but something shorted and the fuse blew and the clock stopped.

The clock contact is at the lower right. It is loose from the circuit board backing and I probably pushed the connector in crooked and caused the clock tab to contact the tab above it which is a ground. Most of the tabs on the right side and one on the left were loose from the circuit board backing. I used a small drop of crazy glue on each and it held them to the plastic of the board nicely.

Gauges and radio are all working OK now. Time to tackle the new console cover.

The circuit board that came with the used tach is on the right. I transferred my unit from the original tach. I had installed a new tach board sometime ago and since I knew it worked …

The new Tach came with a dash pod and a circuit board on the back. It has better connections than my original unit so I’m going to use it. It was a bit tricky getting the tach contact springs out from the pod.

These are the three tach contact springs They are a bit touchy to remove (with long nose pliers) without damaging the circuit board. They went back in quite easily, but needed a sharp tap for then to seat tight to the circuit board.

The next job was to replace all the dash lights with brighter LED units. I picked up the white LED units on line. Amazon has lots for sale for good prices. The only problem with LED bulbs is that they are light emitting diodes. That means they only light if the current is going one way. Using my radio tube tester – it can provide 12 volts DC for testing – I put in the LED lights one at a time and put 12 volts to the proper circuit board contacts. I first had to figure out which board contacts were negative and which were positive. I tested them one at a time since I couldn’t see the front of the dash while holding the tester contacts on the circuit board – doing one at a time it was easy to see if the LED lighted. As I tested each light I marked how each was fitted so that when I put all the bulbs in they would be in the right location. Each bulb can be mounted one way or 180 degrees the other way. I got them all right except one that I had to turn when re-installing the dash.

The steering wheel was already removed and I went on the take out the two large screws holding the steering column to the underside of the dash.

To get the steering column to lower I had to remove the two nuts holding the column to the firewall. This only allowed me to hold the column down maybe an inch, but that was plenty for easy dash removal.

Dash out. Only needed to remove 4 screws holding the clear cover and only six screws hold the gauge pod in place.

My main goal was to replace the tach face (left) which had become pitted and dull.

In between time I did some clean up on the old volt and oil pressure gauges. The needles had become dull and didn’t match the needle on the new fuel gauge. So I used a very fine brush and some ultra white enamel to brighten things up.

Ditto on the new tach.

You really need to have the dash out to do work on the lighting and/or wiper switches.

I picked up these used pulse wiper components from a local Corvette used parts supplier. I planned to install them while the dash and console were out, but….

When I checked the wiper mechanism I found this pink wire. In a pulse system this wire is plugged into the wiper. The wiper mechanisms for the standard and pulse are different – bummer. I’ll just have to pick up that component and do the switch the next time I’m doing dash work. In the Maritimes where I live pulse wipers are a real plus.

I decided to go with local instead of buying off the web. So went to Canadian Tire and picked up this CD radio for $159+tax. I have 30 days to test it out.

The original radio slot in the gauge panel wasn’t the right shape for a newer style single DIN radio. I used dremel tool with a small grinding wheel and a couple of files to cut away to excess plastic. Just enough to squeeze in the radio mounting bracket without distorting it. I kept the lower straight edge from the original hole and took the extra from the top. The radio is a tad longer than the original so I wanted it as high a possible as it is a tight fit between the back of the radio and transmission hump.

Fits nicely in the gauge panel. I’ll test it out before doing the final install.

Next: time to remove the dash.

I’m getting used to removing the seats. The seats need to be removed to do any of the console work. When I get to the dash I’ll have to remove the steering wheel too.

The gauges weren’t too hard to remove once the console and radio were taken out. Only 4 screws to remove – the manual says five? It was a bit tight getting it out from behind the dash panels. I was happy to find out the gauges have a circuit board. So only one nice big plug to detach – see the hole in the centre.

I carefully removed the circuit board exposing the gauges – I removed the clock earlier.

Often times it’s a problem getting the clock setting knob off so you can remove the device. It was a headache in the Studebaker, but GM had a better idea this time and made the knob screw-fitted. You can just see the tiny blade screw driver slot in the centre of the knob.

The gauge panel has gotten itself rusted in spots. Another sign that this car was left outside and rain got in to damage various console components. I’ll clean this unit up and put on a bit of paint. I’ll leave the blue as it’s not too bad and it will be a bother to find a matching colour for a spray bomb.

I sprayed the circuit board contacts and each of the dash bulb connectors with electrical contact cleaner just to be sure to get a good contact on re-assembly. When I removed the gauge assembly someone had been in there before and used black electrical tape to hold a couple of the dash bulbs tight against the circuit board.

Next: more console work.

Driver’s seat in place. I used 3/4″ hardwood blocks to get the seat level and up a bit. I found Studebaker kept the seats lower – maybe to accommodate drivers with hats as they did back in the ’50s.

Passenger seat in place and sure enough I realized that I made an error with the drivers seat. I started with the seat rails in the same adjustment notch, but somehow one rail jumped a couple of notches in the installation. I’ve left off the adjuster covers. I have to paint the levers to finish the job.

Both seats and console in place. I’ll actually have to drive the car to be sure I didn’t raise the seats too much or too little.

Back seat went in OK once I realized I needed to position the seat belt attaching brackets in the upward position.

That’s about all for the ’66. It is now pretty well ready for the road 🙂

Lots of stuff for the Chevy. New console, antenna, gas and temp gauges, upper console AC vents, shift boot, and other rubber parts. I also have a used intermittent wiper switch and tach face to install. Lots to do and I’m keen to start.

These seats come from a GT Hawk and don’t fit in the same location on a Lark type body. The outer attachment locations on the body don’t match up with the seat rails. Also the angle of the floor is different so I need to use lifting block under the outside rails. This is the type of problem street rod builders also have only they have to face many more fitment issues in building their modified car/truck.

All the while I’m working on the Commander I’m thinking that soon it will be the Chevy’s turn for attention 🙂 Shot taken at a local cruise in last summer.

Painting done. Not my favourite old car job. Doing this will simplify the whole car paint and reduce the cost, I hope, when the time comes.

Door panel, windlace and carpet re-installed.

The new console test fitted. Now the doors are done I can get the new seats installed. Switching to buckets means I had to install a special body pan over the transmission hump. This pan has slots for the bolts that hold the console in place and also nuts in slots to hold the inside of the seat frame – the two bolts beside the console are where the inside bucket seat rail is attached.

Looking forward to getting the seats in place. Once that’s done it will be time to start my winter work on the Chevy 🙂

Finally the first coat of sandable primer. I sanded the primer down in an uneven spots then used spot putty to fill any small holes. I then gave it another coat of primer.

After over two years and two upholstery shops I finally have the new seats for the ’66. The buckets and console come from a Studebaker GT Hawk and the back seat is the original frame. I had the work done by the 2nd upholster Jody Noble and he got it out sooner than he estimated. He did a nice job of the light teal vinyl with darker teal cloth inserts and he used the original dark teal vinyl from the old seats to make up the piping and the top of the console. That helped to match up with the original dark teal vinyl on the doors, dash, etc. Happy day!

Three coats of satin black and the door is ready to be installed. I’ll leave it for a couple of days to let the paint cure a bit.

News on the Chevy front – a Caprice with a carburetted 305 has come available. If the engine has some life left in it I’ll swap it into the Chevy and then I can take my time to rebuild the original engine.