Steel Dash Removal

[Doppleganger]

Got rid of the old windshield today - want to remove the steel dash frame before media stripping. Looks to be somewhere around 25-30 tack welds. No idea where they thought it was going. Five plus the 2 bolts each side would have sufficed. Also found a little bit of heavier surface rust in the corners. The mastic was plugging the drain hole on each lower corner - seen that alot on older cars.

Anyways, is it easier to chisel or drill the spot welds out? I tried to just separate the 2 metals to get a grinder or chisel in there but they're pretty tight. Was going to take a 1/4" carbide ball mill in a drill and remove them unless there is an easier way.

Thx.

 

[Turbo4whl]

You can buy a miniature hole saw to use in your drill. Center it up on the spot weld and only drill through the top panel. Then a touch with the grinder keeps the second panel flat and no holes.

I don't know if you have enough room to get your drill in where the spot welds are.

 

[Doppleganger]

Cab is on a dolly so the welds are at about chest level. Everything (doors, glass, interior) is all off.

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[bucket]

Last time I removed one, I drilled the welds with a Blair spot weld cutter (hole saw type) all in maybe 10 minutes.

 

[eskimomann209]

Like what everyone’s saying there’s a spot weld cutter. I think HF has one too. When I did mine ... I just drilled all the way through.
When I welded it... I just MIG welded it up and filled up the cavity. Then sanded the lip where the windshield sits.

 

[Rudy Mienert]

Blair spot weld removal tool. Use an automatic center punch, take your time. Quality tools make a huge difference....no HF in my box...
Good luck!!

 

[bucket]

Blair spot weld removal tool. Use an automatic center punch, take your time. Quality tools make a huge difference....no HF in my box...
Good luck!!

I forgot to mention it, and it's largely just a personal preference, but I always drill a 1/8" pilot hole for the Blair cutter. I find it works better than relying on the spring loaded center pin to stay put.

 

[Doppleganger]

I forgot to mention it, and it's largely just a personal preference, but I always drill a 1/8" pilot hole for the Blair cutter. I find it works better than relying on the spring loaded center pin to stay put.

Funny - a buddy out west used to have a body shop. We were talking today and I mentioned looking for a spot weld drill and he said exactly what you just did.

 

[Ricko1966]

I bought my spot weld hole saw off the tool truck forever ago and it uses removable double ended 1/8 in bits so you always have a sharp pilot.

 

[bucket]

I bought my spot weld hole saw off the tool truck forever ago and it uses removable double ended 1/8 in bits so you always have a sharp pilot.

Those double ended 1/8" bits are what I always use for the pilot holes and also for screw holes used while fitting panels. You can really get a lot of use out of them! Besides being twice usable, the short length keeps them from bottoming and breaking when you drill your hundreds of little holes. It's a rare occasion when I use a "regular" 1/8" bit, lol.

 

[Ricko1966]

Yep those short double ended bits rock.

 

[Raider L]

@Doppleganger,

Did you find ten tons of leaf debris and sticks and actual dirt from all that rotting over the many years, acorns, bug bodies and no telling what else was found down in the bottom of the cab corners, when I was doing my frame off. It wasn't as bad as the back bottom of the front fenders though.

Of course that was the reason why I was replacing all the sheet metal except the cab and one door when I rebuilt my truck. All that front fender back bottoms, and both sides of the bed fenders were rusted out over the wheel wells, the '74-'75 year C10's were bad about it. What a mess. I got a chance to see why and what was done to the '75-'76 and on to stop the rust in those areas. The cab door bottom corners rusted and the engineers stopped that by opening up the inner sheet metal to let more air in the door from rain falling down inside.

I didn't find any rust or bubbles or anything when we took the dash and the fenders off the cab. I was surprised there wasn't any. What's more the part of the lower cab when we took the fenders off, behind them was like new. We actually saw what the paint must have looked like when new. It was sparkly. It was kinda nice. I looked at my body man and he said, "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?" "We are NOT going to paint this thing back it's original colors, no way!" Ha, ha, ha.

 

[Raider L]

@Doppleganger,

And why are you taking the dash backing metal out again? And is that the original windshield, the thick one like mine was from '74? If it's in good shape I may want it but depends on the shape it's in, no scratches, crazing, cracks, deep pits, a lot of pits, wiper scratches or hazing from worn, dried out wiper blades, etc.?
I don't want much do I?

It's just it's been a very hard hunt to find the old kind of windshields like from my year. The one that replaced my old one was thin and soft. It didn't take much of an impact to put a hole nearly all the way through it and busted a bit of glass out of the hole. The windshield repairman said, "I can't replace glass that's gone from this hole. So he filled it with glue and cooked it with ultraviolet light and that was it. I still had a hole in my windshield. And the slightest little piece of rock will pit the dang thing. And I've been looking around that hole ever since. It happen about a year after I rebuilt my truck. That has sucked for the last 25 years! Hell, it cost me $250 back then and that was in '96!

 

[Doppleganger]

I want open access to the firewall for painting and the new AC/heat setup. Besides being sandblasted/pitted, my windshield had 4 small cracks - 3 on the drivers side and one in the bottom-middle right next to the antenna. I think it had been replaced at some time as the corner drain holes were totally plugged with mastic and had heavy surface rust. So I'm glad I pulled it.

Everything on the truck was stupid-clean. No rust. Areas where debris had collected - leaves, pine needles, etc. If I had the $ I would have had the cab dipped and then e-coated. The place that does it for Detroit is 2 miles from me. Have to know someone there to do it on the side (e-coat).....which I do. The dipping part though is absurd price wise.

 

[Ken B]

Resurrection an old thread...
So I have all the spot welds cut out, 4 bolts (2 on each side) steering column is out what else needs removed to get the dash out....