1962 underdash

[Terry D.]

Looking up under the dash at the defrost outlets, in front of and towards the inside of the outlets there are two bolts sticking down on each side. Can someone tell me what these are supposed to be holding? Mine have no nuts on them. Are they suppose to hold the body to that brace?
Thanks
Terry

[Richard M.]

Re: 1962 underdash

Terry, If they're 1/4-20, those are small carriage bolts that pass through the side reinforcement, a pair on each side, heads face the sky. What should be attached to those is a long reinforcement, whose ends get attached to those 4 carriage bolts. The carriage bolts are "held" in position by pressure against the underdash cowl when installed. Normally, there are small Phillips screws attached from the topside, in the channel of the windshield frame area to hold it in place. You may see small screw tips up there.

Here's a photo of pieces on a '59. I had to dismantle them to do some grinding of a PM nose to get the wiper transmissions mounted. They were not screwed in from the topside.
P5070004.jpg
The piece on the right in the photo is for the driver's side. It mounts to the hinge pillar and then the underdash cowl. On that piece in the photo you can see the square holes for the small carriage bolts.

The left piece in the photo is the long reinforcement which attaches to both ends of the other piece. Once the end pieces are mounted, the center piece is held on by attaching with washers and 1/4-20 nuts.

Maybe yours are just missing the nuts? I hope you are not missing the center reinforcement as they are not available except used.

Note that those larger holes are where the windshield T-bolts pass.


Rich
p.s. Here's a photo of a '60 I had, similar arrangement. You can see the 1/4-20 nut just between the wiper cables. The other is hidden by the defroster vent.

P9250002.jpg

[Larry C.]

Re: 1962 underdash

DSC00949.JPGDSC00950.JPGTerry,

There is a thin metal strip/brace that forms part of the framework that supports the windshield which has 12 bolts. I think the four middle windshield bolts go thru this metal strip which you can see from my photos. The metal strip varies in width, about 1.5" in the middle part, with the outer ends tappered down to about 1.25" and is about 30" in length. Also, this metal strip provides bracing for the cowl vent hinges. You can also see in the photos that two 1/4" metal rods about 7" long with flattened ends extend down from this metal strip at about 45 degree angles and bolt to the firewall to further support the vent hinge mechanism. I believe the outer bolt on each end of the metal strip simply bolt the metal strip to the metal bracing that comes across from the side bracing in the kick panel areas.

My description may not be all that understandable, but the photos should help.

Larry

[Terry D.]

Re: 1962 underdash

Thanks guys, the brace is there, the rods are there, everything seems to be there but the nuts. Am I correct in assuming nothing is attached to these bolts? No wire hangers or anything?
Thanks
Terry

[Richard M.]

Re: 1962 underdash

Thanks guys, the brace is there, the rods are there, everything seems to be there but the nuts. Am I correct in assuming nothing is attached to these bolts? No wire hangers or anything?
Thanks
Terry

Correct, just washers and nuts. The AIM tells what type of washers..... I forget.

[Larry C.]

Re: 1962 underdash

Since I removed my cowl vent several years ago, may have forgotten some things; however, since the inboard bolts on each side have the nuts removed on mine, am assuming that the inboard bolts with nuts and washers held the hinges for the cowl vent. You can see this from the photo above.

Larry