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Drove home today from a show and got caught in a monsoon, the upshot of which was that I discovered that while I have blowers, I do not seem to have defrost activity. Got completely fogged up.

Air blows out on the floor but does not redirect out the windshield louvers.

What am I looking for under the dash? Suggestions?

Look to see if the cardboard "elbows" are still connected to the dash vent.

And in addition to the elbows (labeled DEF in picture) there is a cable operated swing arm or lever on the right side (VALVE) which moves the defroster/heater flap inside the plenum. Check to see when you are in heater it is all the way one direction and when the lever is moved to defrost, the lever moves all the way the other direction. It is about a 1 1/2" or so swing

While not very likely, one other thing to check. If the elbows and valve seem OK, how much gap is there between the chrome molding at rear of dash and windshield. If that has somehow been mounted too close or the pad has stretched and covered things, the air is very restricted. You should be able to stand outside and look inside at the bottom of windshield-back of dash area and see a nice gap and the air slots.

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Chrome molding?

My car has a deteriorated padded dash which I have not changed (and frankly probably will not, due to cost).

The vinyl (?) is pulled up under the trim metal on the window. Is there normally a vent moulding of some kind for the defrosters? As it stands, nothing is visible that looks like a defroster outlet......

This is similar to what you should see standing by the driver door and looking down at dash front. You can see the gap which is anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 wide and the air slots across the width. My molding is chrome but Patricians may not have been. I have seen deteriorated foam under the padding. In an effort to reduce the dash pad wrinkles that causes, the vinyl is pulled tightly forward and actually covers the slot where air is supposed to blow from.

NOTE: This gap is a bit more pronounced than would normally be seen because it is painted white. I think it would normally be dark primer or blend in closer to dash color but since it was painted body color at the time, haven't gotten around to redoing it.

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Windshield garnish mouldings on 55-56 convertible and 2-door hardtop models were chrome-plated; equivalent pieces on 4-door sedans were painted to match instrument panel color.

IIRC, the slotted sheet metal area on my cars exhibits body-colored paint, but with a lot of primer showing through.

I understand that the top of the dash can be removed, which would seem necessary to fix the problem, although it doesn;t really resolve it perfectly.

How hard is it to remove the dash top.....and put it back together....

Last time I looked, just dashes figured out to over $1000; it is hard to believe that there isn't a workable, less expensive answer to this problem. Anyone?

The vinyl looks salvageable, though definitely deteriorated....

It is a large project to replace the dash pad because it is sandwiched between the bottom and top half of the dash. They have to separate just above the gold screen and chrome surround trim. To do that pretty much requires complete removal of the dash because of the location of some of the attachment screws.

IF the dash pad has not deteriorated bad enough to have gotten stiff and brittle, it is possible to remove the windshield garnish molding and you or an upholstery shop can carefully fold it back enough to remove the old and slide new padding under far enough to make it look decent again. If the pad has dried and stiffened, then the manipulation may well make it split or tear. It is one of those take a chance things. It has been done successfully though.

If that is the problem and the pad is only covering the slotted area, then you could probably remove the molding and fold the pad under and maybe tape it to hold just a slight bit of the excess pad to clear. Again, depends on how stiff it is. I would not cut it in case you decided to try and repad at some point--then it would be too short.

EDIT: Clarified a couple of points and added the fact that O_D and other have successfully repadded since I had forgotten that. I do think it really depends on how the car was treated in past as to how successful you will be. Garaged and taken care of, maybe better chances than outside storage in the hot sun. On mine, the pad had been subjected to a heavy smoker and lots of sun time. Don't know if either was responsible but that pad was so hard and deteriorated it was even discolored in spots. Upon trying to remove it, the thing literally broke apart.

Patgreen asks: it is hard to believe that there isn't a workable, less expensive answer to this problem. Anyone?

Sure there is, if the vinyl skin is still intact and reasonably pliable, or can be warmed a bit with an air gun and made pliable. Quite a few of us (myself included) have "repadded" our 56 senior dashes quite successfully. Does it look as good as a $1000 new dash - of course not. But it can be very presentable, see picture of mine after I did it. No, not perfect - but it looks better thant he picture shows; the reflection from the hood into the windshield distorts the pad - it is very uniform and flat. Material cost was about $30 to purchase closed cell urethane foam padding.

If you search around this forum you'll find a description of how many of us have done this, along with some pictures. If you can't find it, I'll describe it again.

As far as the defroster elbows goes, IIRC someone on this Forum was toying with the idea of reproducing them - did that ever come to fruition? If not, they are easy enough to make from cardboard with a little glue and staples.

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When I got the car the trim around the windows was loose and missing screws and the previous owner allowed that he just hadn't got to the padding. For the moment I just replaced the missing screws, being more concerned about the mechanical elements of the car. I thought the padding just tucked under the window trim, but that is obviously incorrect.

I think mine could be carefully restuffed..... but what do you do to finish things without covering the defrost parts? Is there room to push the vinyl in between the dash and the defrost part? How have others tackled this part of the job?