Our 1956 Buick Super Riviera Hardtop, Model 53


Getting the Dash in shape


After getting the roof re painted and the headliner replaced we said the interior needed some more work. At the time we were not ready to completely re do the seats and carpet but decided the dash needed work as well. Although the chrome trim was nice, the plastic of the instrument panel face itself was cracked very bad, The numbers were dull, and it just looked old.

Having not done this before I started by reading the manual. Not much there on dash removal, sunrise! looking up from under the dash did not reveal much so I removed the radio to see more, not much help. I remembered when I had the windshield trim off I saw a few bolts that looked like they would contribute to holding the dash in. I removed the trim and the bolts and was on my way. Under the lip of the padded dash cover I located the screws that held it in place and removed them. I had to crawl under the dash to remove the defrost vents before I could take off the pad. Once the pad was off it was easy to access the wiring and the rest of the bolts that held the dash to the body. I was surprised at how heavy the dash was but got it onto my work bench where I removed the remainder of the trim and the instrument cluster.

We sent the instrument cluster to a person that advertises on the internet to restore gauges. It took a while to get back but they did an excellent job. He calibrated the speedometer, checked the AMP and Fuel gauges and re did all of the numbers and needles. The plastic face was replaced with one that looked new. Since we did not know the actual mileage of the car we had them set the odometer to zero at that point.

While the gauge cluster was out for a rebuild I cleaned and re painted the dash frame using the same paint that was used on the roof. Once we had all of the pieces back I put everything back together and it looked great. Before putting it back in I decided to re do the wiring under the dash and re paint the steering column as well.


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