Interior: 1959 Dash in a 1962?

[irish]

Curious, will a 1959 Lark dash fit in a 1962 Lark without any modifications? I'm not concerned with every bolt hole lining up, but is the contour of the dash the same?

Joe

[r1lark]

Joe, I haven't tried this, but I would think it would be really close. [WRONG - see below comments! ] They both had deep wrap-around windshields although the '59 doesn't interchange with the '62 (and vice versa).

Not that it matters in this discussion, but Jim Geary put a '55 Ultra Vista dashboard into a Champ pickup many years ago. It looked really neat.

[Ross]

No, the crown of the cowl was reduced after 1960, and the curve of the windshield at the outer edges was greatly altered.

[StudeRich]

A '55 in a '60 would be no big deal at all, and '56 to '58's are a bolt-into a '60, but a '60 into a '62 would definitely be a very poor fit without serious alterations.

[GrumpyOne]

Curious, will a 1959 Lark dash fit in a 1962 Lark without any modifications? I'm not concerned with every bolt hole lining up, but is the contour of the dash the same?

Joe

I did the opposite fitting a '62 dash into a '64 T-cab. No, it's not a direct fit but doable. For the upper, (dash pad area), I spliced the '62 to the '59 base with pop rivets then removed the assembly and welded it as a unit. (You have to use pieces of both given that the windshield curve is different)

As an aside, I think the 1961/62 dashes were the best of the Lark series especially when you used gauge clusters from 1963 up...

[StarDiero75]

Do the dashes in these cars really just unbolt? My 61 Lark needs the white spaces repainted, and i thought itd be easier to pull it out rather doing it in car.

Thanks,
Ryan

[63t-cab]

Yes they do.

Do the dashes in these cars really just unbolt? My 61 Lark needs the white spaces repainted, and i thought itd be easier to pull it out rather doing it in car.

Thanks,
Ryan

[Warren Webb]

Do the dashes in these cars really just unbolt? My 61 Lark needs the white spaces repainted, and i thought itd be easier to pull it out rather doing it in car.

Thanks,
Ryan

The only thing that makes this more work is the wiring since by this time most others went to a printed circuit board & simplified wiring alot while Studebaker still wired everything separate. I started to play with a 62 dash into a 60 Lark cowl section & found it wasn't a direct bolt in fit & stopped.

[StarDiero75]

The only thing that makes this more work is the wiring since by this time most others went to a printed circuit board & simplified wiring alot while Studebaker still wired everything separate. I started to play with a 62 dash into a 60 Lark cowl section & found it wasn't a direct bolt in fit & stopped.

Yeah ive noticed that when comparing the Lark to my 65 Ranchero. I almost kind of like the straight wire, i thinks its not as hard to figure out crazy crap rather than with the circuit boards. But hey, im 19, what do i know?

[irish]

I knew the windshields were different in the 62's compared to the 59's so the dash being different wasn't a surprise.