I bought one of the first Covan dashes for a 70 Chevelle after seeing pictures here. Thought I'd post some information for others. First, it looks great sitting on a bench. Comes with a diagram showing where to cut your existing dash. I received no other instructions but figured how bad can it be...
I cut the heck out of my existing dash so now there is no turning back. What I found is that there are several areas that don't appear as if they will ever line up. The most notable is the vent on the lower left side of the dash. The Covan hole is a good 5/8" to the left of the existing vent. Second is the depth of certain areas of the Covan part. It is essentially an overlay and isn't thick enough to support the weight of switches and heater controls. The problem is in the shape of the Covan part. For example, when the lower edge is bottomed out on the existing dash, the hole in the Covan dash for the wiper switch and heater controls is way too far out. I will be contacting Covan but thought I'd run it by you guys and see if anyone else has installed one yet. I'm going to try cutting more areas on my dash to try and get this thing to seat flush. Doesn't look good so far.
I cut the heck out of my existing dash so now there is no turning back. What I found is that there are several areas that don't appear as if they will ever line up. The most notable is the vent on the lower left side of the dash. The Covan hole is a good 5/8" to the left of the existing vent. Second is the depth of certain areas of the Covan part. It is essentially an overlay and isn't thick enough to support the weight of switches and heater controls. The problem is in the shape of the Covan part. For example, when the lower edge is bottomed out on the existing dash, the hole in the Covan dash for the wiper switch and heater controls is way too far out. I will be contacting Covan but thought I'd run it by you guys and see if anyone else has installed one yet. I'm going to try cutting more areas on my dash to try and get this thing to seat flush. Doesn't look good so far.