The Mid-Atlantic Pagoda Group recently organized a group purchase of the (reproduction) rosette that surrounds the arm of the glove box door. The vendor, pagode-markt.de, offered a decent discount and combined shipping for twenty units. This is a piece that is missing from a lot of cars, including mine.
Here are my notes on installation.
Disconnect the battery ground.
Disconnect the glove box lamp wires from the connection on the side of the heater box under the dash.
Remove the six screws holding the glove box to the dash (two on top, four on the bottom)
Remove the glove box. This requires a sort of twisting motion to get the spring and arm to clear the left side of the dash.
On a work surface, separate the door from the glove box body by unfastening the spring assembly and removing the four screws.
Prepare the opening on the left side of the glove box for the rosette. The rosette fits very snugly into the opening in the metal frame of the box. If there is any lining folded over the opening (common), this will need to be cut out with a razor or an Xacto knife. Also, there should not be any material or adhesive where the tabs of the rosette will be bent. Do a trial fit of the rosette as needed.
Put the rosette on the arm and re-attach the door to the glove box with the screws. Put the rosette in place, but don’t fasten the tabs. While there is an adjustment, you may have to do some un-gentle bending of the arm to get it to not scrape the rosette.
Put the rosette in place, making sure that it is flush with the covering and correctly aligned, and firmly bend the tabs to secure it.
Install the spring between the arm and box.
Attach the door to the box but leave the screws loose enough that you can adjust the door’s alignment once installed.
Re-assemble, following the reverse of the first four steps.
Adjust the alignment as needed, tighten the screws that hold the door to the box.
This is a good opportunity to replace incorrect hardware and assembly, and to adjust the alignment of the door, fix a non-working light, etc. Some suggestions based on what I have seen:
Re-glue the glove box liner (or replace it) as needed.
Get the correct hardware for the spring assembly.
Replace the burned out light bulb.
Replace missing speed nuts that secure the sheet metal screws.
All of the six sheet metal screws that secure the glove box to the dash are chrome and all have cup washers. The two screws on the top are flat-headed, the four on the bottom are oval-headed.
The hinge goes inside the door, not on top of it. The sheet metal screws that secure it should be matching pan-head, shiny metal (chrome if possible). The MB replacements are black.
The rubber bumpers at the top should be replaced if they are missing. If the MB replacements make the door stick out, you can cut them with a razor blade and glue them on.
A rewarding winter project!
Cheers,
CT
