Top Dash Trim

[Graham]

G'day all,

Recently I've been thinking of what sort of mods I can do to my car that are cheap, look good and aren't too tricky.

I came across the idea to retrim the top of my dash (where a dash mat would go) in a fabric - probably blue suede

I know that this would be a pretty hard mod and might even require playing with the passengers airbag which I'd prefer to avoid but what is everyones thoughts? Would it be worth the trouble?

The last thing I want to do is take the dash off and not have it be able to fit back on properly (like my A-Pillar but I'll fix that soon ) or break it during the process, does anyone have any instructions on how to remove this part of the dash or even had any experience removing the dash?

Thanks!
Graham

[tryg]

fair bit of stuff to come off before the dash carcass.. you would assume...

[tadz0rz]

You might have the issue with the airbag. Since the airbag deploys from the top of the dash the fabric might hinder the deployment of the airbag. I've thought about doing it bit it's a little too much work for me lol. But if you do, make sure there's a how to video

[Graham]

I'm hoping I don't have to take the whole front dash off and dash cluster out etc, if I do I won't worry about it I'll just leave my plain old boring dash mat there

Hmm Tadz that makes sense.. I wouldn't want to cause any issues with the airbag..

I might have a look through the manual later and see if it has instructions on how to remove the dash and see if I can work around the airbag if possible, if it isn't too much effort.
Would the manual have this I wonder.

[Blakey]

if you do, do it just cut out the outline of where the airbag bit is so when it does deploy it doesn't stop it. like cover it completely then using a knife cut out that panel but leaving it there,

[tryg]

airbags shoot from the centre of the panel and are scored behind to allow a central deployment through the weakened area.. Making a whole panel may still cause a slow deployment or a missle hazard...

so do your homework

[Graham]

Okay so I gave this a shot today and the conclusion is..

Unless you want to spend the whole day pulling out literally your WHOLE dash it isn't possible/worth the time.

You need to pull out everything that holds anything in place... It's hard to explain but you'd be pulling the whole lot out, not just bits and pieces, but the WHOLE DASH.



The dash is in three pieces, the first piece (to the left of this picture) is easy enough to get out, you just need to take out anything infront of it and to the side of it including passengers airbag, I still didn't manage to get this one out so I left it.



I got bored so I decided to take random bits out and have a look...
I've gained interest in replacing the speedo background picture (where it has the speed/revs in numbers, the whole background) with something better, i'd need to get one professionally made up though as the material would be some sort of plastic.






I know I shouldn't fiddle with the needles, but I couldn't resist

[spunkybob]

lol your a good kid

I tried removing my dash once... I got bored after like 1 hr so i put it all back together.

I was trying to fix a rattle behind the HUD area.