I have a 58 Montclair cvt with factory air. On the right hand side of steering wheel on the lower dash are four holes, before the radio, all appear to be factory cut. The normal situation for non-A/C cars is that the first is ignition and a second for the lighter, then the radio. Pictures of some cars and the Salesman Manual show another device between the ignition and the lighter. Nothing I have seen is clear enough to identify it nor is it identified in the Salesman Manual or the Operators Guide. Since my car has a fourth hole between the steering wheel and the radio, I’m even more confused about it’s use. I suspected that the hole between the ignition and the lighter might be for outside air, since that function is not included in the A/C controls, but that is just a guess. The A/C system precludes two outside air vents. When I bought the car, it had two cigarette lighters, but that certainly doesn’t seem right. Does anyone have any information?
Neither the shop manual or the master parts catalog, or the body parts catalog shows any holes other than the ignition and cigarette lighter between the steering column and the radio. They admit that there were air conditioned cars, but do a poor job of showing what the dash controls look like. With non-air conditioned cars, I think the outside air controls were a couple levers on the top of the instrument cluster. Do you see any vents in the fire wall for outside air?
Here is the best picture I could find of a 3 device panel.
The ignition, unknown, lighter.
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