Dash Bolts

I am replacing my dash on my 1961 CJ-5 and am curious about what type of bolts people are using and how they are keeping the paint from getting all scratched up. I removed my weld on dash that was pretty beat up and want to use the bolt-on to better work on things behind the dash. Thinking about stainless bolts with a special contoured washer and lock nut. They make allen head, internal torques and hex .

 

I just used stainless steel 1/4 - 20 hex head bolt with a stainless steel #10 flat washer

 

I used stove bolts, painted black.

 

X2

 

Grade 8 shiney yellow bolts here

 

mine ain't got no bolts nor holes...
Factory welded the dash on and put a hard top over it. A Removable dash is cheating .

 

I think we had this discussion before and decided that OEM was cadmium plated, IIRC, with the rimmed heads.

 

I used stainless recessed/rimmed hex-head bolts with stainless internal tooth lockwashers, and small stainless flat washers under those (against the paint):

 

I also cringe at the thought of bare fasteners against fresh paint. Perhaps there's a paper or fiber washer that can be used between the bolt and dash?

I've seen paper and then a reddish fiber type that's stiffer. Not sure what they're actually used for. Use blue Loctite to keep the bolts from loosening up since you don't want a lockwasher marring the paint in the same fashion.

 

I think a local hardware store would carry nylon washers. A translucent white color from what I remember. They also make black rubber washers but they tend to deform under load and would look uneven.

 

My 62 was welded on. Someone said it came with a factory hard top if the dash was welded

 

I used some stainless steel philips screws with nylon washers. Here is a picture when I was mocking up the gauges.

 

SS Philips head bolt.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!!

 

Could be, but I have never heard this - I don't see any reason for it. Certainly there are some examples that are welded from the factory. I know that by the time I was around Jeeps, those Jeeps delivered with hard tops had plates instead of the catches, but the dash and the plates were bolted on. In my experience, most CJs with hard tops had them dealer installed at time of sale. This allowed the dealership to configure the Jeep to the customer's needs (and the factory did a sloppy job typically). Possible factory installation was more common for smaller dealerships in snow country.

 

from my build thread when i posted the same question:

 

Maybe, but I don't see any reason for it. Jeep would not have changed it without a reason. Seems more likely they welded the dashes for a while, and then reverted to the bolt-on style when it either slowed assembly too much or they decided the service accessibility was worth the extra assembly.

The M38A1 dash was bolted. Seems more likely that Jeep eliminated the bolts like they did other vestigial features of the M38A1, and later recognized the need for them at assembly time and put them back.

 

I use only Stainless bolts on my Jeep, unless there is hardened bolts required, I think of my Jeep like a Boat, it gets wet a lot. Stainless is forever, you may want to take it apart at a later date. I have some hard stainless bolts, but most are just machine grade. Good Luck

 

Any one ever replaced a welded dash with bolted version? How hard would this be? Havnt cut mine off yet but will have to in the future.