A removed but otherwise-untouched instrument panel shows every
hobbyist’s worst nightmare — a mess of old, broken or cracked
wires mixed with vacuum hoses.“Also, the most important thing is to get a harness with complete
instructions, read them over, and lay it out and study it up before it is
installed in the car,” Travis said. “That way if you find anything strange
you can ask questions.”
Since Kopecky normally undertakes complete restorations, he pulls the
instrument panel so that it can be refinished. When behind the wheel of
a restored car, its straight sides, perfectly painted air cleaner and
rechromed parts can’t be seen, but its gauges, instrument panel and
other instrument panel components stare the driver square in the eye.
Therefore, making this part of the car look like new is a task he feels is
equally important to the exterior restoration. Removing the instrument
panel also makes wiring the car that much easier, Kopecky notes. As on
several other types of cars, reaching the instrument panel wiring on the
subject Chrysler is nearly impossible while the instrument panel is in the
car. Therefore, he assembles and completely wires the instrument panel
out of the car.
“It’s how the factory did it, so that’s how I do it,” Kopecky added. He’s
seen instrument panels filled with sand from being media blasted during