Front of dash removal... Help please!

Hi.
Hope you can help, I am going through my 1975 landy and have stumbled across a fair bit of rust behind the front lower dash panel.
I haven't managed to remove the panel yet as it seems to be secured really well!
But the rust is just falling out from underneath the panel.
Has anyone had the panel off? Anyone got pictures? Just to see what repairs I have waiting for me....

Dave

its only a few self tappers, easy to remove.

Most likely the panel rotting than the bulkhead!

So is the panel rubber one side and steel the other?

yep, and the steel loves to rot

The dash is this weekends job. I'll post my findings and some pics.

Dave, you will find some commentary on how to get the bits off here. I removed mine last week - same problem as you no demisting becasue the ducts had rusted away. Four self tapping screws - two on the wiper motor cover and two the other side and then two bolts into the bulkhead along the top edge accessible after I had removed the tray.
regards, Justin

Ahh interesting! The panel is alot bigger than I thought! And looking at the pictures there may not be any point rescuing it. But I will take it off next week and see the extent of damage.
Good luck Dave (davebeccles) hope yours is in better condition! And it would be interesting to see what you find.

I'll be removing mine soon, replacing the entire ensemble with a custom one for my king cab build so standard one will be for sale

Well thats good to know because I can't find one for sale on famous four website but think I found one on paddockspares website. Original panel including Vat comes to over £1000!
I may well just repair what I have.....

1.2mm steel or thinner IIRC, be fun to weld that without a very good mig or a tig set up

Just taken mine out of my 109 took me ages the bottom part is fecked so will be interested to see how you get on. Definitely a weak point!

I am thinking of leaving mine off and just connecting the driver's side demisting duct to the heater outlet directly. I never liked the look of the S3 lower dash. The other idea I am considering is buying a defender dash - which can easily be found on ebay for reasonable money such as this one [link] . The Series 3 bulkhead has a bulge which the Defender doesn't, but there seems to be an indented section on the Defender dash, just where the Series 3 bulge is, so I wondered whether it might be easy enough to trim it to shape. Anybody tried?

Got mine off yesterday. Full of rust. Various bits cracked and split. Like the idea of using a Defender dash......

Next issue is replacements for the mesh in the vents. They seem like gold dust?

Series 3 vent screens you are after PM me with an address and I will send you two for the postage and packing.
Doug

Attempted to remove mine again tonight. What a mess!! Gave up with it as I was having no luck with it as even the ammeter all rusted into one little mess! All the screws are just spinning in the metal.. or should I say rust.
So what im thinking just leave it. The bulkhead looks ok. Not ideal I know but it will do for this winter...

Tip for removing it, take off the wiper motor cover first then you can get a little leverage to pull it towards you while unscrewing

Then again you could just go round the front of the bulkhead and give the little plastic screw holders a tap so the thing falls off complete

Dr_evil said:

1.2mm steel or thinner IIRC, be fun to weld that without a very good mig or a tig set up

Click to expand...

i could stick weld that no problem haha. :mil82:

Someone really needs to market a moulded plastic replacement for these.

I'm sure they would sell, and no rust problems of course.

Feel bad saying this after all the previous comments but I've now got all the dash off in all the proper bits and the bulkhead looks nice and clean.

Looks good! Bet that's a relief the bulk head is Good! So now whats the plan?