Well I finally broke down and ordered through LMC.
This is what it looked like Friday

I called in the order last Monday and it showed up Friday.
I had the choice of light grey or dark grey. I guess I picked the wrong one but I kind of like the two toned effect.
Here are the new pieces

The old bezel on top with the chunck out of it.

It took a couple of hrs to get the old dash out but I was being very careful not to break any other plastic, and when it did break I built patch plates and epoxied it back. This is what I ended up with


Biggest problem I had thogh is the plastic plugs in the metal of the dash used to hold up the panel to the front. I fiddled around with a few options and getting new ones wasn't happening because my only wheels had the dashboard sitting on the seat
I ended up using a table saw and an old HDMPE cutting board. I shaped it down, drilled a pilot hole, cut a slot on the corners so it would twist a little and lock in, then a small dab of Plumbers Goop to hold it in place. The new pieces worked great. If you try be VERY careful on the saw. I launched a couple of small pieces across my garage but did manage to keep all my fingers.


One other minor problem was there was a few missing clips on the bezel. I called LMC but I wasn't waiting for a replacement. I just used some of the old ones.

I'm not sure what they would/could do about the missing clips but I called anyway.

The fit was real good and it finished up nicely.


Total cost for dash, bezel and re-enforcing kit which is still on back order, $424. Total time including cleaning up the vents and touching up little things I noticed,7 hrs.
Well worth it and not really difficult!

 

thanks for the info & pics.i have an 01 w/several cracks & i'm gonna have to do the same.

 

where did you get your bezel and dash from

 

LMCtruck.com

They have a ton of stuff for our trucks that I couldn't find anywhere else.

 

I ordered the one for my sons truck from wholesalemopar. Going to try to put it in this weekend. Anyone want to volunteer to help?

 

Did you save your VIN tag from the old dash? It's mounted onto that. I saw mine in the dumpster when I tossed the bucket of chunks away and had to hop in to fish it out. I stuck it back in place with foam tape and I sold it that way.

 

How long do you think it took you do the job, if you had all the parts and worked without interruption?

 

Yes I pulled the VIN tag off the old dash pieces and used pop rivits to put it on the new one. Looks like OEM.

The whole procedure with extra cleaning, patching a couple of breaks in the under panel and design and construction of those plastic mounts took about 7 hrs. I could probably do it now in 2 because I know the steps. Take your time though, you don't want to break anything else in the process.

 

Thanks!

 

Hot Rod, Don't know if it's been mentioned before but you'll want to get a friend to help you out. It took me and friend 3-4 hours to do mine. We took our time so as not mess anything up. Some of the screws require a bit of patience as well.

 

interesting, up until i read this thread I thought those dash mats where a freaking silly invention. well, maybe so as up here we dont see the sun 10 months out of the year anyway

 

It helps to use a mirror to install the back screws. You can see what you are doing and maes it a snap. I don't understand what those white tabs are that you made. Mine did not need those. Also, are the VINs on the dashes on some years and on the metal underpart on others? I did not have to change my VIN panel, it was not on the plastic part.

 

My VIN was not attached to the dash top. It's was on the metal frame underneath. My guess is dodge knew their dashes would need replacing and decided to move the VIN. Truck is an 01.5.

 

On my '00 the vin was not attached to the dash. It is attached the same way as kreynolds '01.5 so I didn't have to worry about transferring it to my new dash.

 

Does anyone know where to get a woodgrain dash bezel?