LUVTruck.com

After 5 years of searching, I have located a good dashpad. problem is it is installed in a wrecked truck. can anyone provide tips, advice or steps on how to remove this dashpad without damaging it? I really would like to get this thing out without messing it up... thanks

Maybe you should hit a wrecking yard and try taking a broken dashboard pad out of another truck for practice...

-DK

i've pulled two broken ones but they were already messed up where they usually crak all to hell, so I don't know if how I was taking them out would end up cracking them there...

Bob, I remember reading somewhere that it's best to start by taking out the instrument cluster and the glove box. That way you can access the fasteners on the inside.

cool.. my big concern is the fricking ton of glue under there.. i was thinking to pull all the stuff like glove box, vents, gauges and then work up from the bottom with a small flexible putty knife.... and a lot of prayer

you may want to try heating it with a heat gun. get it all hot and the glue may be easier to come off.
just another idea.

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03Cobra

thanks... hadn't thought of heating it

Good luck on the pull

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1980 Chevrolet LUV stock 1.8L longbed
1980 Chevrolet LUV parts truck shortbed
1983 Suzuki Gs550 Sportsman
1989 Nissan King cab P/u <totalled> 4/1/06
1986 Full size Chevy P/U
1993 Volvo 850 GTL

If you have a choice you could pic a hot day for pulling it. There is nothing like having the entire cab heated up, even a heat gun can't hold the temp up like having all the metal work brought up in temp.

Getting a heat gun up under where you need it may be next to impossible as well. It wouldn't take a lot of heat to deform the outer skin of the dash too, so warming it from that side would be tough. Besides that the back of it is foam so the heat would not transfer much if at all.

I think you are on the right track with "whatever you do, go slow and easy". Unbolt everything you can and just take it as it wants to come. If the truck was in sufficiently bad shape I would almost suggest you take a sawzall and just chop it out metal and all. Then you could get good access to the back side of it to peel it off gently.

I'm gonna wait for a hot day since this weekend it's gonna rain. I thought of just cutting it out, but the truck is in great shape from the cab forward. Hate to ruin it like that. I think I'll be going on a screaming hot day and doing a lot of slow work with a putty knife. The dash is in great shape with it's only real defect being a little curling at the front by the windshield. Not much of that even.