'87 CC Center Dash Panel Removal

[Meat Man]

Two screws already out on top of sides of panel but something's holding it at the top of panel . Is it the alum. trim on top of the cowl ?

[Grinch]

You are taking about the one around the steering column right? It should have a little lip on the plastic all along the top. Take a wide flat screwdriver, slide it between the metal frame and the plastic. Pry down a little and you'll see. It's should be flexible enough to do this the whole length and remove. Top first.

[Meat Man]

Thanks . I'll see if I can get it off without breaking it , LOL .

[shadowman]

whatever you do cut main power so keyswitch dosn,t short if it hits that peice of frame and yes grinch is right theres a lip you have to be careful and pry it out and then you have the wires to battery light and keyswitch......had a customer completely burn his cart up cause the backside of keyswitch came in contact with that frame there...................also when you get that peice out of the way cover the frame there with elec. tape until you get dash back in.......DISCONNECT MAIN POS AND NEG CABLES......................

[Grinch]

good point, I always just disconnect at the batteries before doing any work to save me the trouble of worrying about shorts. That panel in mine has the key switch, headlight switch and electric meter and im behind it in tight space is the fuse panel and workings for my turn signals.

[shadowman]

you wouldn,t beleive how many people don,t cut the power and end up shorting and burning stuff, it only takes a few seconds and the more stuff you have like headlight switch your meter and some people even have gages and such......better safe than sorry i know if i,m gonna do the most minor of things i always spend the 2 minutes it takes to disconnect those 2 cables................................

[Meat Man]

Got the panel out . Thought about cutting the power but did not . Was real careful with switch to avoid shorting . The power is disconnected now ! Installing a digital battery gauge I got from Scotty . Need to get a switch to install for the meter and wire up for an aux. battery down the road . Got the cut-out done for the meter . When the weather clears up I'll paint the panel and dash while I have it apart . Thanks for your help .

[shadowman]

your welcome, post us a few pics..............................

[Grinch]

Originally Posted by shadowman

you wouldn,t beleive how many people don,t cut the power and end up shorting and burning stuff, it only takes a few seconds and the more stuff you have like headlight switch your meter and some people even have gages and such......better safe than sorry i know if i,m gonna do the most minor of things i always spend the 2 minutes it takes to disconnect those 2 cables................................

I do three cables on the resistor cart. I pull the reverse as well as the main positive and negative.

[Meat Man]

Anyone know which would be the easiest or best alum. trim to remove - Top or Bottom ? As tight as that panel fits in the dash I'm afraid I'll scatch up the new paint when I'm ready to put it back in . That 25 year old plastic does not bend or give very much !