66 Dart 270 Convertible
I';m new here so hope I don't rain on someone else's parade.
1) My Dart was a Florida car and the dash pad is cracked and really crappy.
I picked up a used in fair condition pad at MoParFest last week, so now how in blazes do I replace it???? There are 5 (bolts?) on the back but are VERY difficult to access. Suggestions please.
2) how difficult is it to replace the top? Can someone with some ability do it or should I go to an upholstry shop?
Ok folks - that a start. All suggestions would be appreciated.
66reddarft
Welcome to FABO
I have a 66 dart convertible.
I had to take out the dash pad on the dart by taking out
the instrument cluster, radio heater bezel and poped out a little the heater control 's (no radio in it then or now ) and glove box liner. I was able to reach them all. not easily but I was able to reach them. Of course I then noticed rust in the cowl and thing went downhill from there, I'm going to redo the whole car to get things right.
as for doing the top I'm doing mine (with a lot of help from a professional telling me what to do when I get that far). And I've seen Members on here do their own that look AWESOME!
everyone that I've talked to said 1st was to TAKE plenty of Picture's and measurements of the back window screw locations and distance from the back bow and the back edge of the car (ie back of car to last bow and that bow to the middle one).
if you have a top on it now and it's just rotted or worn out your ahead of the game(I wasn't that lucky on one car and the other top was put back on by someone that did not take any pictures or measure anything by the looks of it). if not you can use the measurements in the service manual as a general starting point. he said that if you just rip the top off without any measurements you WILL have one of the worst looking tops ever put on, He showed me some pictures of other peoples attempts to do that very thing, their before (sort of like the top that's on the second dart I just purchased) and his after pic's were awesome from a top looking like a 100+year old full of wrinkles to a smooth slick new top. It's all in taking your time and (1)measure, (2)take pictures.
repeat steps 1 & 2 as many times as needed to get all angles and measurements . there is a convertible top installation guide on the web, I think it's convertible top specialty's web site or a link on it, but I'm not to sure about that and can't swear it's that particular site , I do know that you can google it and it's show up in their search
hope this helps
Kurt