Has anybody ever gone to this extent. Is the dash welded, rivited or whatever inside the cab? Has someone ever replaced the whole think for another because of rust or some other brutalization done by previous owners?

 

Years ago I attempted to remove a dash from a truck at a wrecking yard. It is fairly involved and I had to give up (there was no way to get power tools to where the truck was at) the dash is part of the whole front panel and window frame, it is spot welded in place.
I'm sure it can be cut out and a new one put in. Everyonce in awhile you wil see a dash on Ebay

Good luck
Bobby

 

The dash is welded in, it runs from the place where the upper hing goes and all the way up the pillar. I've got a cab that's rust free, but the dash and firewall is swiss cheese. Some first class hackers went at it on mine! I have a dash from another truck and I'm going to cut the pillar above the dash and weld it back in place. Then I get to put the firewall in!!

Barry

50 F-1

 

I don't think it would be too hard to replace the entire dash. The way I would do it is cut the old dash and the replacement dash at the same locations, just inside of the door posts on the sides and drill out the spot welds on the lower windshield lip. Line the replacement dash and butt weld the sides and spot weld the windshield lip. There are a couple of braces under the dash that would have to be worked with but if you took your time and measured everything twice and then two more times before cutting it should work out. This is basically the technique I used when I replaced the roof on my panel. Good luck.

Bob