Mustang; The Dash Is Gutted

Brian and Colin made it down yesterday for a joint attack on the Mustang.  After some final cleanup of the carpet and pad under the dash, we started taking out the instrumentation, wind shield wiper mechanism, heater, glove box, and radio.  First, though, was getting the padding material off of the padded dash.  As I recall, the padded dash that we take for granted now was a relatively new saftey feature in the early 60s.  There were lap seat belts in the car, but passengers were still smacking their faces on the dash in an accident.  Obviously, the colapsable, padded steering wheel was yet to come.    here's a shot of Brian scraping the padding off the dash:

I've always disliked working behind the dash on a car.  It always seems to involve working in a cramped, dark space with poor access to what you are working on, and all the time having to contort your body into uncomfortable positions.  And it gets worse when you get older.  Fortunately, Brian did most of that work.  What I was working on was trying to get the steering wheel off.  According to the service manual, it requires a special tool, a steering wheel puller, and I still had one from when I owned the car and needed to take the steering wheel off to fix the turn signals.  The problem was, there was a broken-off bolt in one of the holes that the steering wheel puller bolts into.  I tried a couple of  moves to get this broken bolt out......vice grips on the small part protruding from the hole, and then heat plus vice grips, and finally, the Hail Mary last ditch effort of an Easy Out.  Nothing worked. 

Meanwhile, Brian was also doing some more clean-up on the floor pan; removing the caulking that seals seams from leaks.  It was in this process that he discovered the first bit of rust that looked like it might be serious enough to require some welding.  The worst of it was on the passenger side floor. 

Here is Brian scraping some of the caulk from the trunk area:

Before we took a break for dinner, the dash area looked like this:

After dinner, Steve, the guy who is going to get the car sandblasted and then do the paint and body work, came over to consult with us about what still needed to be done and who was going to do what.  We ended up talking about this and that for a couple of hours, but during that time I told him about my problem getting the steering wheel off.  He suggested tapping on the steering shaft with a hammer and then whacking the steering wheel with your hand from the side.  He tried it, but without the hammer tapping phase, and it didn't come off. 

Brian and Colin had to leave early today to get to one of Brendan's baseball games back up in Tacoma, so we really didn't get any work done today.  After they left, though, I thought I might as well try some more on the steering wheel.  I thought that maybe I could completely drill out the broken bolt and re-tap the hole to accept another bolt.  I got my set of taps and dies out and started to get to work.......with dred, because it meant a lot of work and not a great chance of success.  Before I got started, I thought just for the hell of it, to give Steve's suggestion one more try, but with the hammer tapping step included.  I got one of my old motorcycle swing arm bolts that I use for a drift and gave it a few hearty taps.  Then a healthy whack with my hand on the side of the steering wheel and.........oh my, I think I felt it loosen.  Another whack with my hand and sure enough, it came right off.  Big, big sigh of relief.  Nothing beats expert advice, especially when its free.  So here she is as of this morning:

Meanwhile we have generated two full 30 gal trash cans of discarded "stuff":

This is probably all the work that is going to be done until early July when Brian plans to come down for a couple of days and then we will turn the car over to Steve.  Still needing to be done is window removal on the passenger side, some under-dash stuff (wires, clutch and brake pedal brackets, etc.), door handles and locks, and then pulling the engine and transmission. 

Are we having fun yet?