Under Dash Trims

Show me yours... and I'll show you mine...

Seriously though, it may be beneficial for us to see what you're talking about. Can you post a pic or two?

Michael 1424: If you are describing the area directly above where one would place their feet in the foot wells of the passenger and driver's side, to the best of my knowledge, no trim pieces ever existed. The only trim pieces associated with the dash are two plastic pieces that mount on each side of the console going forward to the trunk bulkhead. There is a hinged trim piece (metal, covered with vinyl trim) covering the fuse panel. In my vehicle, the passenger foot well has a vented metal box containing various relays.
The dash wiring, for the most part, is bundled together, running from the fuse box, and mounted along the upper dash bulkhead with metal tabs, and is tucked in behind and above the A/C evaporator. Branch looms come off the main loom for the instrumentation. The ground wires, for essentially the entire vehicle, are within the loom and connect to a ground post in the upper left corner behind the dash.
From what you are describing, someone may have removed the wiring harness for easier access, thereby leaving the wires "exposed" or removed from the mounting tabs.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael 1424:
Digging around under the dash of the car the other day I noticed that all of the wiring in the passenger footwell is exposed and it got me wondering if there should be a trim piece there to cover all that up? and I guess the same goes for the drivers side.

Can anyone share a couple of photo's of the under dash trims if there are any so I can get an idea of what I'm missing and need to be making?

Cheers!

If you are talking about this area http://www.panteraplace.com/Te...ys%201971%20main.jpg there is a box like cover that goes over it and is attached to the stud in the picture. The box like cover has a bunch of large vent holes in it.

Mike

Thanks - Rob. Here's mine!!!

Jag, the wiring on this has been "modified" for ease of access - so it's all over the place.

Pantera 1887 thanks - yours looks way neater than mine... but it gives a good idea of what I'm meant to be shooting for in the end.

So this is what I have.

The loom is all over the place - and the whole car will need a significant re-wire at some point to get it tidied up. I was hoping that would wait until I do the complete strip down.

I have the hinged fuse box cover and the two pieces that run down either side of the central tunnel area.

I dont have the drilled cover over the relay area so I'll need to fab or find one (thinking a nice powder coated 50% perf might be a nice way to do it)

But the two main areas on the passenger side are the two areas shown on the photo.

On the drivers side is there a panel like the fused box cover normally there? I have seen a couple of photo's with a cover there but don't know if that's normal or not.

Cheers,

Michael.

Hi Michael,
Yours looks like all the ones I've worked on. Other than the harness hanging low and loose...

No fuse type door on driver's side.

Thanks Rob - Much appreciated!

Without having seen under there in a complete car ever it's hard to know what you do and don't have...

One less thing to worry about in the shorter term at least .

Michael.

keep in mind, I've never had a car that I can say was in bone stock OE condition.

If anyone has contradicting info... let's hear it.

quote:

If anyone has contradicting info... let's hear it.

Well, actually....

This a case of the differences between early and late cars.

Early cars had the relays,flasher unit mounted on a panel, under a hole-perforated cover, mounted in the RH footwell in a gawd-awful-to-get-to position.

THEN, it was moved for the L models to the outer LH footwell area.

Larry

While in this under-dash discussion, let me share how I resolved the gawd-awful-to-get-to RH footwell relay panel problem on 2511.

I did this while redoing the interior so I had nothing in my way, but it should not be too hard to do with carpet still in place.

I removed the panel and took all the components off.

I then carefully unwrapped-straightened-routed all the wiring that went to the panel to maximize its length.

I was then able to re-position the panel components on the panel in such a manner that they all fit and no wires needed to be lengthened.

I then added two new threaded-stud mounts to re-mount the panel at the far front of the footwell.

Secured the wiring as needed and put the perforated cover on the panel.

The new position seems to not be a problem for passenger foot room. The cover protects everything, anyways.

And accessing the panel is now a LOT easier than it was when it was mounted to the underside of the dash area.

LOT easier.

Larry

more....

Thats brilliant, the original position is awful and so difficult to work on.
my car is a 72 car, could I do the same to mine?

Must say that I would love to renew the wiring loom, but the cost is too much presently but its so old!!!

If anyone has a scrap one I could copy and make a new one, just a thought.

LF-TP2511: Very nice! Really like the "clean" layout of the box. Just finished restoration and became contortionist while reinstalling relay box.

Hey LF -TP 2511 that's an excellent bit of work to solve the problem. I like it.

I guess the good news is I have no trim panels to make other than a relay cover - and there's a great change to the wiring I can make when I do the full strip down later.

Thanks everyone!

Michael.

Larry, our '72 #4366 is an 'L' so it has the fuses behind the right side door and the relays behind the left one. The only variant I've seen on pre-Ls is the use of a stud with a wing-nut to hold the under-dash box cover on. Any owners of pre-Ls know if this was an owner-mod or factory? At least the owner doesn't need a wrench to get the cover off!

I have it on my pushbutton and I think it is factory.

Stud w wing nut on #4134.

Larry, good point about the "L" config change. Didn't think to mention this. Here is a pic of 06001 driver's side panel.


4042 and 2605 both had perf cover and wing nuts.

here is what I pulled from 4042... (sorry for crappy pic, I had to crop it out of a larger pic)

That at least answers the reason why I have seen in some car photo's the cover in the drivers side as well.

The more you dig, the more you find to ask, the more you ask, the more you learn with these things it seems .