Removing the Dash without Taking the Windsheild out?

Any of you guys ever take your dash out without removing your windsheild?, is it possible? I'm gonna start taking the dash apart on the 74 Comet.

 

Possible yes. I did it. That was 20 plus years ago. I was young,foolish and flexible. I removed the cluster and dash pad so I could see the screws. Used small vise grips from the bottom to remove the screws. Was a long time ago and I still remember thinking afterwards what a dumb idea. Would have been way easier to remove the window.
I cant see how you could get the screws back in. I pulled the window out of the other shell before I swapped the dash. It was a lot less work.

 

I had nothing better to do with my time I guess. Spent every waking moment working on cars. I can remember looking through those slots under the dash pad like it was yesterday. I have a picture somewhere of the interior bare, no dash. I thought it looked pretty cool stripped bare then re-assembled with the black interior. I did it as a color change but the bigger factor was my good bodied car had no title. Pulled the black dash out of my factory 71 302 car and swapped it with all the black interior into the good shell. It was an interesting swap since the good shell had the old 69.5 ignition and rim blow wheel. I loved the switch on the dash. Wish I had those parts now.
Yeh, I know VIN swaps a no no. Who cares when your a teenager with an old Maverick. They werent worth much back then and got even less respect than they do now. Most guys laughed at me till they disappeared past my tail lights. I have a long history and love for these cars. Hell I spent most of my teenage years building mine out of 4 cars and spent countless hours sitting in it listening to the radio having a smoke or two sitting in the driveway.
Also made a great place to Ummm... sit and chat with the girlfriend.

 

I've pulled two of them without taking the windshield out. Major PITA. Would probably be impossible to put it back in, don't see how you could get the screws started.

 

After stripping my car, I couldn't imagine removing a dash without taking out that windshield. I would think that, at the least, you would do some seal damage.

I just wondering now if it would be possible at all to tap in screws from underneath instead of from up above to hold the dash in. You would have to drill the holes in the firewall oversized and find some screws to thread into the existing screw holes in the dash. Don't know if anything would be accessable from underneath or not.

Just thinking out loud and causing trouble

 

Thank You Guys, sounds to me like I better just wait til I have a new window seal and maybe even find a better window than the one I got. Still thinking of a way to put an oil pressure gauge and a water temp gauge.

 

I removed mine without removing the glass. I was able to get the screws back in. I believe it involved a phillips bit and Duct Seal (dum dum). Used the phillips bit and a 1/4" wrench 1/4 turn at a time. Big pain.

 

I'm thinking of tackling this over the next few days (weeks?). Any other suggestions for tools to try? I don't want to take the window out right now until I'm ready to have body work done on the car.

 

Speaking of VIN's are they hidden anywhere on these cars like they are on the GM models or is it just the stampings on the aprons. ( I'm not ripping off your car I just got to thinking about that while reading this post )....

 

On right frame rail just right of the idler arm bolts.

 

Inside or outside frame rail? Never seen it before.

 

When I cleaned my front frame rails, I found a set of numbers stamped upside down on the outside of the right side frame rail behind the suspension. I never gave the a second look to see if they matched any part of my VIN number. I'll take a look tomorrow.

 

I removed as much as possible from under the dash first (AC steering column, pedals, etc...) and then used my dremel with cutoff wheel to cut the screw off from the bottom then used a small punch to get the last thread out. Going back in was easy. Like mentioned before, just drill out the fire wall flange holes for a larger screw and screw it in from underneith. I think I used #4 3/4" sheet metal screws.

 

thanks, that's very helpful, I will try that.