Imperial Home Page -> Repair -> Interior -> Dash -> Interchange
Question from Ben (1967 to 1968):
We've got a 4 door hard top 68 imperial. The first thing is my dad has a hard time looking under the dash lip of the 68 and the other thing is that the previous owner of the car sat a bottle of brake fluid on the dash on the drivers side and left it there. the bottle expanded and pushed the lip even further down...
So I guess I'm asking if anyone has tried fitting a 67 dash in a 68. And if not possible does any one have a 68 dash to spare. if possible I hope to just change the top upper piece of the dash. If it comes apart from the rest..
Replies:
From Brad:
Yes and Yes. The 67 and 68 dashes are the same except that the 67 had wood inserts and the 68 had bronze inserts. I have an entire dash that has been cleaned of all its accessories hanging in my shed. It is from a 68 Imperial LeBaron 4-door HT. Its not perfect though. I don't believe the upper portion comes apart from the lower portion however.
Follow-up From Bob:
Yes they do. When I tour down my 68 parts car the dash is in 3 pieces. The top pad comes off with a bunch of little nuts. And then the frame is made up of 2 pieces.
From Chris:
Actually, it's Yes and No. I know of no reason you cannot put a 67 dash into a 68 Imperial, but they are different. The dash pad protrudes substantially further toward the passengers in a 68, and it is missing the grab handle that's integrated into the far right side of the 67's. I don't think the door panels were redesigned to change this, so the installation should be straightforward (well, as straightforward as replacing a 67 dash with another 67 dash), but you never know what running changes took places behind the scenes, so to speak.
For those asking why it changed, it was all for safety. The more prominent visor in 68, though less attractive to my 67-trained eyes, makes it less likely that a passenger would make contact with the hard dash surfaces and the protruding knobs in a frontal collision. The 68 door handles were also redesigned to be more flush and less likely to catch on a pant-leg or hoop skirt.
The rocker switches and left-handed ignition key in 1969 took the safety drive even further (the key theory was to keep it where the curious hands of children couldn't reach it... it went away when locking steering columns became standard).
From Mark:
The only problem I can think of is that the lower lip, or edge, of the '67 dash is shorter than the lower lip in the 68, and that this piece is supposed to align up with the door panels and may not. (This is the vinyl & foam rubber piece that juts out at the bottom of the dash. In the '68 it is deeper by about 1/2".)
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