Finally started my dash install after having most of the parts sit in my basement for 2 years. Its a 2000-- dash shell. 2002-- Hvac, Headlight/Dimmer, fog and trunk switches. 2002-- top dash pad and console. 1998----A/C duct. 1995 wiring harness and 155mph T/A cluster (also have a 2000 cluster but its not working right).

For some reason some pics on this page can't be clicked on to enlarge. So if you want to see bigger pics email me.

8/28/04
One last look of the old dash.

Removing the old dash is pretty straight forward. Just rip out every bolt and panel you see

Above, on the left, is the passenger side dash support bracket. It needs to be cut or bent out of the way to clear the 4thgen dash. On the right is how I cut it on the side with a dremel. Its also welded to the firewall at the top. You can either cut it in two pieces on the side where I did and pound the top portion down a little without removing anything, or you can cut it like the pic on the left and also cut or pry the top portion off, and thats what I did. I just took a screw driver and broke off the welds. But I chose to keep the rest of the bracket like you see in the above right pic, for a little side support on the new dash. But it has to be bent inward towards the center of the car to clear the dash.

3rd option is to just cut the whole thing off the car.

Below, in the right pic, is the part of the bracket I removed. In the left pic is where that piece of the bracket was welded to the firewall. You will have to pound it down a little, as you can also see in the bottom left pic, so it will clear the new dash better.

Found my heaterbox cracked in half. Had to duct tape it

Below, Some Pics of the garage and pile-o-parts

Getting ready to test fit

Above, The fist day of the swap was spent removing all the old pieces. Took a few hours. The second day, I was able to test fit the new dash with nothing more than just removing the old pieces and cutting or bending those old side support brakets like described a few pics up. Its easier to get the dash in if you lower the steering column by removing the two nuts underneath it and letting it drop down.

Here is the new A/C duct. It will have to be cut and matched to meet up with the heater box thats on the car. (2 pics above show duct cut already)

The above left pic shows how the duct looked originally with the lines I drew.

Purple and tan lines----You will have to cut the new one to resemble the old. The New one had a flat top as shown by the pink lines in the pic on the left and the orange lines on the pic on the right. The old had the left side open and on an angle. I just layed the old and new ducts side by side on the ground and did a little measuring and cut off everything you see represented by the tan lines in the right pic. (Old duct on the right in that pic

Green Lines----In green, shows the original opening of the new ducts. As you can tell I had to close off the left and right side of the opening as it is bigger than the opening on the heater box in the car. I just took some scrap pieces of plastic I had cut off from before and JB welded them to close it off alittle. You can't see it in the pic, but it is underneath the duct tape you see which was there to hold the pieces I glued on in place while they were drying.

The new duct has two lips seperating the opening where you see the blue line. The blue line shows where I cut the lip off from the upper opening (green line). DON'T cut the second lip underneath that one. It searves to seperate the 2 openings. You'll notice after you cut the one lip that you will have 2 openings at either end of the blue line. I just built up some JB weld to seal them off. Also hard to see in the pics is if you compare that green opening to the matching opening on the old box, the bottom right corner is slanted. I cut the New opening to resemble that.

Yellow lines---- The yellow line shows where the new ducts opening stopped. Youll notice on your old duct that this opening exteded to the left much more. So I just cut the lips off the new ducts opening on the left side beginning at the yellow lines and took some scrap plastic and made new lips and glued them on to match the size of the old ducts opening. Then youll have to cut out as much as you can on the left side of the yellow line but dont cut too far as shown by the orange X or you'll go right through to the back.

Its real simple to do all this. Just lay the old and new ducts side by side and compare. Start with the large opening on the left. Cut it to look like the old ducts opening. Take the new duct to the car, after the old dash has been removed and have someone hold it in place to where it will rest when the new dash is on. Hint the large opening will overlap the heater box by about 3/4" on the right and 1/4" om top. Then get on your back in the car and look all around and see where the 3 openings all meet up with the heater box on the car. Note where youll have to cut the other two smaller openings so that they will meet up with the heater box openings. Then go trim or close off what you have to, to accomplish this. Luckily I got it right on the first cuts to each. Dont worry it wont line up perfectly when finished cutting. There will be some large openings that you can fill with some foam later.

Below, Here is the foam I glued in to seal off the openings for air tight seal to the heater box.

The 3 pics below, just comparing the two ducts after the cutting

Below, Test fiiting the new console. You can see where I cirlced the console, it overhangs the carpet and there is like a 5" gap under it. I later just lifted up the carpet and stuffed some foam under there to take up the space.

Below, The mess of wires you have to deal with.

Below, are the connectors from the stock guages, headlights and trunk release button.

Below, Comparing the dashes and top dash pads.

The dash is finally in permanently!!

Below, I don't have any of the vaccum wires for the new HVAC so for right now im using the old HVAC. You see that it doesn't fit the opening to well. Alittle small. I just used some metal hanger strap to attach it securely for now. I was going to get a sheet of metal, paint it black, and make a plate, but this should do for now.

Heres the 4thgen Hvac controls that will eventually be put in.

Below, you can see where I circled, is where I made some cuts to the passenger side 3rdgen underdash panel to make it fit. I had to drill 2 holes in the 4thgen metal dash frame from underneath to hold it in.

Below, shows where I mounted the ECM. There are alot of open spaces where it would fit easily, like where the air bag should be. But I found the easiest place without having to extend wiring, is to mount it where you see it in the pics below. It is slanted downward towrds the front of the car.

The white bracket that holds the ECM, on the end with the 2 holes, I just put some bolts through them and drilled some holes to the 4thgen dash bar and attached with some bolts and washers. For the front, I just took some metal hanging strap and attached one end to to the bolt on the side of the ECM and the other end to the heater box where ther was an existing unused threaded hole. You can kinf of see it in the first pic below. Its now very secure.

Below, All bolted up

Below, Is the driver side 3rdgen under dash panel. The first pic shows the first cut that needs to be made to get it to fit in better. The second pic shows it all finished and ready to install. Green cirles show all the areas that need to be cut for it to fit. The way I cut the front area, was so that it would be meat up even with the shape of the 4thgen column panel and have NO under or overlapping.

The 4thgen under column panel.

As of 9/25/04, the car has been down since I started the swap 8/28/04. Iv'e only been working on it a little each day, taking my time. I want it to be fully finished before I actually drive it for the first time. Im still waiting on a vss connector to get it running 100%. Had a hard time finding one. Dealer want $25 for a 2 wire connector. So I said forget that and looked at all the yards but noone has one. I ended up buying a used one for $8 shipped from thirdgenparts.com. It should be here anyday now.

Broke the damn stoplight switch when I lowered my steering column to get the new dash in. Cracked it right in half.

Picked this pass side top window trim piece up 3 years ago on ebay and and been meening to replace it ever since. Old one was cracked straight through in 3 places. The new one I got was missing a few of the clips that where cracked off. I wish the ebay seller would have listed that before I bought it. I ended up having to cut them off my old one and JB weld them on the new one.

Always wanted to clean those dirtyass parking lights. Bought a bottle of Mother plastic polish and Grease Lightning degreaser and gave it a try. I poured the Grease Lighting into the lights and let them sit for about an hour. Then I took my drill and used a dremel polishing bit I had and tryed polishing with the Mothers polish. Turned out decent. Still many deeper scratches and pits that the drill just wont polish out. Gonna go pic up some 1000+ grit sandpaper to wetsand with and polish again.

Before

After on right. Looks alot better than pic actually shows. Was still drying on the inside from the Grease Lightning wash.

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