72TE Steering Column Surround, Wiper Arm Spline, Dash Recover & Project Restart

[triplesn8s]

Hi All,

After a 16 year interruption for child rearing I am back at it in a serious fashion. I am stripping the car for some professional rust repair. Working under the cowl, removing the gauges & dash.

First Question: When I removed the wiper arms it seemed the spline inside the are was 'ill defined', as if the tapered bore makes it own spline when torqued down on the tapered spline drive stud. Or is that wishful thinking and my wiper arms mount hole is stripped...?

Second Question: How does one remove the plastic cowl around the steering column signal stalks? No typical recessed screw holes readily apparent.

Third Question: Since the front window is our I should replace / have refurbed the dash pad. It is in good shape with just one small 2" crack at the passengers side defroster. What is the sensible thing to do here? Buy 'new' (from where) & sell the one I have? Have the current cover refurbed (who is recommended)?

I want a nice finished result but I intend to drive the snot out of this car. It does not have to be 100% Amelia Island perfect, but nice looking, not lumpy etc is a requirement. Visually, I may obsess a bit over visual flaws but my wallet does not so some moderation is in order.

TIA
Trips

[triplesn8s]

Here are a couple of photos of the car when I bought it in 2003.

[RSTarga]

Take the steering wheel off to access the screws off the clamshell, there are two additional screw on either side next to directionals and headlight switch.
Keep your dash and ignore the small crack, new ones are not very good and very expensive.
Tony at autobahninteriors can recover but again pricey.