12-20-09 Wiring and dash removal

More relatively unexciting disassembly. Didn't get quite as far as I'd hoped with the wiring since I attacked the carpet...some of the wiring harnesses aren't going to come out neatly without taking apart the footbox aluminum panels. I did manage to get all the carpet and insulation all removed.

A lot of the carpet was lifting up anyway, so I started yanking the rest out. Wasn't difficult at all...as I learned on 4760, the foil-backed insulation used for HVAC ducting in homes does not allow good adhesion. Won't go that route again:

Using a little scraper it was clear it would be several hours of scraping, with tons of residue still left. Went and picked up a heat gun from the hardware store, and kept it nice and warm. Had all the insulation peeled out in an hour.

And removed the dask from the support hoop to get a good look. What a mess...yikes! The donor gauges will work if you need to use them, but this is about as neat as your wiring will look. Kinda redneck-y. Cutting the guage panel apart and then having to run all those blue jumper wires just is not a good solution if you wanna do this neatly.

After quite a bit of cutting, unscrewing, and scraping stubborn silicone beads, I was able to peel off the vinyl dash covering and put it over the shiny new blank dash panel from Factory Five to trace the steering wheel hole location. (The new dash panels are for the Mark III kits, which move the steering column a little further outboard to accomodate the larger 4.6 modular motors.)

And the barely bare firewall after removal of the ugly wiring mess and heater unit:

I was able to remove the computer and front chassis harnesses, but I'll need to disassemble the footbox aluminum panels to get them out in one piece. (Not that I have to get them out in one piece, but I need to take apart the footboxes anyway)

And a view from the front, just a little bit neater:

And the mess of wiring and gauges removed so far...