zthatzmanz28

Actually all I have is duct tape and fragments of plastic.

Now that I am ready to replace the dash, I see several things that may be an issue I have not read about:

1. What is done with the VIN plate? It is attached to the original dash with those "STAR" rivets.

2. How do I screw the air vents in the new dash? Do I need to remove all the duct work, screw it in to the new dash and reinstall?


THANKS

Break Away

I broke the plastic away from the VIN tag without disturbing the rivets then drilled holes in the new dash - made the holes a tad larger than the rivets so they would drop in the new holes along with a drop of super glue.

zthatzmanz28

THANKS...I thought about that as I was talking with Geno's. I guess there are no mounting holes for the ducts?

Anyone know the size screws that hold the dash to the firewall along the windshield?

Break Away

All the vents have to be have to screwed to the new cover while you have the dash rolled backwards - it speeds things up a lot to have a helper on the outside looking thru the winshield to help line up the vent screws. Before bolting the dash back to the firewall check all lines coming thru the firewall to prevent pinching any. Do a search here for a couple of good " how to " articles on replacing dash covers.

torquefan

Those rivets are very hard to come by, and aren't sold to the general public. On one I did, I took some ordinary pop rivets and a Dremel and ground them carefully to the shape of the factory "rosette rivets", then painted them black. They ended up looking convincing enough at a quick glance.

zthatzmanz28

When I was doing body work (aka my own shop) when we pulled a VIN plate for whatever reason and reinstalled it we had to have a document signed and notorized with the DMV that then had to be kept with the vehicle. SO far as I kno those star or rosette rivets are OEM manufacture ONLY...
Not that I expect problems, but I am driving cross country during the summers.

There is also the possible problems IF I should ever sell the Dodge and someone looks closely at the VIN.

I talked with tech support at Geno's and he suggested I keep a copy of the receipt for the dash to show it was replaced and that might satisfy most curious people.

patdaly

That's why I liked the idea of leaving the original rivets and carefully cutting the plastic away.

At that point you have not changed the VIN, you simply replaced the broken dash.

I would gladly go to court anywhere over that one, as opposed to making up fake rivets.

zthatzmanz28

So as I look at the dash support / lower dash I get to thinking it has been cut?

Am I supposed to have solid pieces were the color outlines are?

The stacked outlines are where the instrument cluster sits.

Anyone happen to have a pix of a dash that has not been cut?

Junk Man

In the hills of TN, we don't worry about no stinkin vin on the dash. That's what the other locations stamped into the body and firewall are for. Some places will (probably) swap the firewall vin for a fee. (Anyone bidding on that (collector's item) title on ebay?)