I have wrestled my dash pad out of my C300 several times and it never gets any easier. Every time with the windshield in place. This time I took care to look for the pinch points during removal. It appeared that there was an unneeded squared off corner on the ends of the core. (see photos)

This literal snag is not necessary when installed under the pressure of the trim – but if you want to have a belt and suspenders, you can drill a hole in the steel core near the circle in the photos. You would also need to drill a hole the fixed steel portion of the actual dash structure in the car prior to putting the pad in. My pad did not have a screw in the removed hole in the first place – I probably left it out in the 1970’s.

I just performed this surgery on both corners of my core and put the pad back in my car in 30 seconds with little strain – then it came back out in 30 seconds with much less wrestling. It does require pushing up (folding) the pad and core in the middle. My upholstery is original 1955 and pretty dry but it all survived intact. I will be installing a new cover and pad in a few months and I want it to go as smoothly as possible.

This might not be necessary on late C300’s or 300B’s as the factory did make some serviceability changes including a longer trim “footprint” to make the dash pad core shorter/narrower.

My car is # 1845

…Jack Boyle