how do i take the soft part of the dash off of the like harder pastic part of the dash?

i already have the radio bezel, and radio screws out along with the two at the bottom where the center section and radio part meet

 

what exactly are you trying to remove ? the softer parts of the dash are not separate pieces that can be removed.

 

i wanna take off the part that is "connected" to the passanger side airbag. its kinda soft and is the front part of the dash

 

you mean the air bag cover ? it's not a separate part. It looks like it is, but it's actually one piece with the rest of the dash. The plastic underneath is just very thin in that area so it can break away during bag deployment. In a 4th gen fbody, passenger air bag deployment means a whole new dash replacement.

to remove that piece, you need to pull the entire dash from the car, and cut it out from behind.. You "may" be able to cut from the front, but it would be easier to see what you are doing from behind.

 

hha yea **** that i just changed the way i went about it lol

 

Thats just FUCKED UP!

 

I'm going to take mine out how do I go about doing that?

 

This may seem excessive but the harness in the car is one big piece that goes from the spare tire up to the dash, across to drivers door and back to changer area. It is much easier in the long run to remove the harness with the dash, I have tried both ways, and first time I left the harness in trying to make it easier. Taking the dash out does become easier, but installing it is much more trouble then it's worth that way.

1.remove seats
2.remove interior panel ( rear, sail, kicks, console, knee bolster, black plastic under dash on both sides, a pillars and big flat dash piece)
3. remove carpet if you can...not a must but a little easier
4.remove harness on passenger side from monsoon area all the way up to the kick panel
5. remove harness on drivers side from trunk release forward. There is a ground in the back you have to undo, a plug on the trunk release, a plug for the tail light harness, a ground point near drivers seat and you have to remove the harness under the headliner going to the dome light. The changer harness splits behind the front seat and goes over to the passenger harness. There is also a harness riveted to the back seat wall. Drill them out and unplug it.

You should now have the harness removed all the way up to the dash

6. unplug the cable from the ac controls under glover box...its a 7mm bolt facing straight up.

7. Unplug ac vacuum hoses behind/under glove box

You dont have to remove the ac controls cause you are disconnecting them under the dash instead...alot easier

8. remove steering column...
. remove 1 11mm bolt on steering column shaft under hood.

. remove 3 10mm bolts on firewall.

.remove 2 13mm bolts at top of column holding it up to the dash frame. You will have to remove a "V" brace to get to these 2 bolts. 2 10mm bolts remove the brace

It will then drop down and you can unplug the ignition switch harnesses. You can unplug the other harnesses at the base of the column before undoing the bolts. Should be 2 long black harnesses, airbag, and steering wheel control harness. If you have an auto you will need to remove a small philips screw holding the cable for the shifter in place. No need to remove steering wheel.
Do NOT leave the ignition switch turned on. The wheel will free spin when its out if you do and that will break the wires for the airbag and steering wheel controls.

9. Unplug main harness under dash...a 7mm undo's the harness. You'll now what Im talking about when you look. On the side going to the dash...unclip the small gray part of the plug.

10. remove the harness from the console area

11. remove 2 10mm bolts at bottom of dash where it meets console

12. remove 13mm bolts on bottom of dash...one in each corner...the factory ground point.

13. remove the 5 7mm bolts at top of dash.

dash should now fall forward on to you. Its a little easier to have a helping hand getting it out of the car but not impossible to do your self if you are limber. Put a blacket over the shifter area so it doesnt scratch the dash or the dash doesnt scratch the shifter ebrake.
You'll notice a few 7mm bolts holding the plastic part of the dash to a metal bracket behind the main dash. You dont mess with these as it all comes out in one piece.

I may have missed something small like unplugging a harness here or there but it will be self explanatory. Just remove the dash slowly incase you miss any connectors, so you can stop before you rip them out.

 

Omg that's A LOT OF CRAP TO DO!

 

takes me about 3 hours now , including removing the rest of the interior.

 

so let me get this straight... I have to do all of that just to take out the passanger side air bag? Or is that to take out all the air bag stuff??

 

if all you want to do is remove the airbag, you may be able to do it without removing the dash completely from the car. You still need to drop the steering column, undo all wires and connectors at the dash, but you should be able to have enough give in the wireharnesses that run down the sides to be able to just pull the dash forward and get enough room to pull the air bag. The airbag is attached to a metal carrier that is screwd into the dash frame, and should be able to come out from behind once you pull the dash forward enough to get some room. But if you actually want to remove the dash from the car for any reason, all of those steps must be done.

 

ok cool thanks I can't belive how big of a pain it it to do. I'll wait to take it out when I put my roll cage in.

ok another question. What is the proper way to do away with all the air bag stuff? (bags, sensors, wires, everything)
I figure do all the steps above but then what? I don't want to just start cutting everything up you know.

 

the airbag just has a clip connector for wiring, so no need to cut anything.

as for the sensor, that's underneath the centerconsole, also with a wire harness plug that pulls out easily. No cutting needed.

But you will get the airbag warning light in the dash when it's unplugged. Not sure if there are simulators or anything to turn that off, as I've never run my car without the bags in.

 

well I could always pull the light out for the air bag light lol
I didn't know that there was only one sensor.

 

yep, at least in LS1 years, the airbag's are controlled by the unit under the center console, which houses both the computer circutry, and the accelerameter sensors to detect collisions.

mike