Cutting dash pad for courtesy light installation?

[Rob Edwards]

This is for a '62. I need to cut the opening for re-installing the courtesy light and am wondering about the finer points of doing so. Does one just take an X-acto knife and cut out the perimeter?, or do you do an "x" from corner to corner and fold the cutouts thru the hole? (The clips to which the coverplate and lens assembly is screwed look like they would only slip over the fiberglass dash panel itself, so I'm assuming that one also has to make small pinholes for the mounting screws to go thru?)
I also need to cut the keyhole for the (non-existant) power folding top. I presume this 'keyhole' is as close to a perfect circle as possible?

Thanks for any been-there-done-that sort of advice- I'm trying to do this as correctly as possible.

[Mike E.]

Re: Cutting dash pad for courtesy light installati

You're on target with the courtesy light hole. However, the "keyhole" is an old keyhole shape, and not a perfect circle. Feel the shape of the fiberglass dash underneath that--that is what you need to duplicate.

[Tim E.]

Re: Cutting dash pad for courtesy light installati

If you don't mind searching the archives, there was a discussion on the courtesy light cutout on January 11 & 12, 2004. Search for "dash cutout" in Archives 4 and you'll find some additional information!

[Rob Edwards]

Re: Cutting dash pad for courtesy light installati

Tim-

Thanks for the tip- I never seem to get quite the right combination of keywords for the search function! Much appreciated!

-Rob Edwards

[Tim E.]

Re: Cutting dash pad for courtesy light installati

In almost all my searches, I select "all terms" instead of "any terms" to narrow down the number of messages returned. In our example searching for "dash cutout", both "dash" and "cutout" must appear in a message for it to be on the list.

If you can't locate the thread, reply back and I'll email you the text.