I started on the dash replacement yesterday. My original dash had some major cracks. Too big to fix (although I tried ). CoupeKing recovered a stock dash for me. It looks great and was less expensive than a NOS one or even a good used one.
I removed the old one today...
I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't the PITA I thought it would be. Everything was fairly intuitive. The exception might be the defroster vents. The outboard ends of the vents slide into clips in the dash. It took me a while to realize this. Wiring was fairly straighforward. I took some pictures and notes and labeled some wires so I don't think it will be tough putting the wires back in the right spots. It is great that all the heater controls stay in place. It would have been a real can of worms to R and R all those cables. I think I was right at an hour from start to finish.
My next step is to insure everything fits in the new, recovered dash before I install it. So far, the trim plate over the heater controls is a tight fit due to the thickness of the recovering. I'll work on that tomorrow and report back.
I removed the old one today...
I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't the PITA I thought it would be. Everything was fairly intuitive. The exception might be the defroster vents. The outboard ends of the vents slide into clips in the dash. It took me a while to realize this. Wiring was fairly straighforward. I took some pictures and notes and labeled some wires so I don't think it will be tough putting the wires back in the right spots. It is great that all the heater controls stay in place. It would have been a real can of worms to R and R all those cables. I think I was right at an hour from start to finish.
My next step is to insure everything fits in the new, recovered dash before I install it. So far, the trim plate over the heater controls is a tight fit due to the thickness of the recovering. I'll work on that tomorrow and report back.