Re: Henry's 55 Constellation

Posted by HH56 On 2016/7/27 10:29:39

If I understand your thinking, removing the bracket to overlay and cut it out will not be the easiest thing to do if working alone. IIRC, it has bolts and nuts holding it so could be difficult to work both sides of dash unless the brake assy or vent tube is removed to be able to reach thru.

I would measure your bracket from the edge of the vent opening to the far edge of the bracket and allow another 1/4". Do the same for height which from the photo looks like the top of bracket may be slightly lower than the height of opening and allow another 1/4". I don't have one to measure but looking at the photos I think if there was a knockout in the pad to extend the right slot two or three inches making it a rectangular opening that would suffice. Even if the opening was larger than the bracket is not a big deal. In senior cars the pads are covered by carpet in that area so any small oversize would not be seen. On non carpeted cars oversize would be a bit more noticeable but with the pedal hanging down and opening being above the dash edge maybe not too bad.

I am also concerned about the round openings for the wiring. I could be wrong and don't have any good 55 firewall photos to confirm but does your car not have the same 2 or 3 fairly large grommeted openings in the firewall as the 56. One is used for the main loom, another is for common accessories and the third is typically for other options. One large hole is shown immediately to the right of the lower grayed out area in your drawing but from the looks of the pad design the other openings are going to be covered by the pad in the grayed areas where you have it marked as not cut out. In the 56 pad the openings are in those two grayed out notched areas.