1940 LaSalle instrument panel removal

[wheikkila]

I would like to know how to pull the instrument panel from my model 52. I currently have the radio removed. So I have plenty of room at the moment.
                             Thanks Wayne

[Tom Boehm]

Hello Wayne, somebody else asked this question a while back and I took a picture of my dashboard. It is out of the car now. The blue tape indicates where the nuts are that hold it on.
The brass fitting on the left is for the oil pressure gauge.
There are 6 terminals for wires
Three holes at top are for clip on bulb sockets
The armored cable is for the trip odometer setting and needs to be disconnected at the bottom of the dashboard.
The speedometer cable needs to be disconnected in the center.
The two hooks at the top hold a thick wiring harness.

[wheikkila]

So it pulls out from the back side.
  Thanks Wayne

[LaSalle5019]

The problem I have on my 1939 is that the “rubber” gaskets that go between the dashboard glass and metal trim have bonded those two components together so I was unable to disassemble mine without the fear of breaking the glass bezels.

[Tom Boehm]

Wayne, the chrome frame around the gauges comes out with the gauge cluster. In other words the chrome frame is attached to the gauge cluster. On a 1940 Cadillac and Lasalle the outer glass in the gauge cluster is just a flat rectangular piece. Breakage is unlikely but a lot less critical than on a 1939 where the glass is convex and not reproduced. (very hard to find an original replacement). On both, the numbers are silk screened onto a flat second piece of glass inside the cluster. There used to be a vendor who sold reproduction glass with the numbers newly silkscreened on. That guy stopped doing that a few years back and I am not aware of anyone else doing it. I do know of a source for new radio glass with the numbers.

[wheikkila]

Thanks Everyone
I pulled all the nuts and the panel is loose. But I can't pull it out. Could it be hanging up on the rubber?
                     Thanks Wayne

[Tom Boehm]

Could it be the wiring harness in the hooks at the top? Did you forget to disconnect one of the items in my list?

[39LaSalleDriver]

When I pulled mine the hardest parts were hanging upside down like a bat for hours on end and getting all the wires out of the way 

The problem I have on my 1939 is that the “rubber” gaskets that go between the dashboard glass and metal trim have bonded those two components together so I was unable to disassemble mine without the fear of breaking the glass bezels.

I was fortunate to not have this problem, but I wonder if WD40 or judicious use of a heat gun would help?

[wheikkila]

I did disconnect everything. It is loose. It just feels like something is keeping it from coming out. Next week I will go back out to the shop and see if I can work it out.
                      Thanks Wayne 

[wheikkila]

Well I went back and I could not get the . instrument panel out. So I just removed the speedo. It is what I wanted anyway. All my gauges work and it looks good. So I'm just going to send it out to be repaired.
                  Thanks Wayne