Write-Up: Riv Dash and Door Removal

You're all familiar with these instructions -






I found they came up short in a couple places, leading to quite a bit of car repair anger Here are a few extra notes that might save up'n'coming Rivi dash removal experts a few minutes of fury -



I need to pull a few more panels off since I'm trying to fix a vent vane that got pushed in. I'll take notes on that too. I know there's at least one other here who has this problem -

Thanks Jack!

EDIT: some additional images of dash cluster removal, while performing work on the column:

question: the previous owner of my car simply pulled the entire dash, the big peice off, and it broke off almost all of the plastic clips that hold it down along it except the bigger main ones so it looks stupid now. if i replace the dash, will the new one have the clips or were they part of the main dash that connects the dash to the actual frame underneath?

You have to do all that just to replace the radio?

KillaKeninaRiv wrote:

question: the previous owner of my car simply pulled the entire dash, the big peice off, and it broke off almost all of the plastic clips that hold it down along it except the bigger main ones so it looks stupid now.

Surely no one is that stupid and it was a radio thief who tore the dash up.

I think there will be pieces in the dash itself that are busted.

I've got no idea how well this would work but I've been seeing plastic welding kits in either the Eastwood or Harbor Freight catalogs.

I thought Harbor Freight went out of business? All the stores in my area closed up and there were several of them.

Shintsu wrote:

I thought Harbor Freight went out of business? All the stores in my area closed up and there were several of them.

Nope still in business.

I got some stuff from them a couple days ago. The thing I wanted most is on backorder though :/

That sucks, I guess they just went out of business at all the local stores here. They had two or three and they all closed at the same time.

I want to pull out the dash panel that goes around the gauges and then it looks like it flows in to the door to a point i know the das panel comes off but do the lil panels on door come off?

They do come off of the door panel, but with a lot of difficulty! With the door panel removed you can see the tabs from that panel on the inside, they are actually melted or hot glued in or something of that nature. I'm sure they can be removed, I have never done it, but you would have to hot glue them back in or something like that.

Dam That sucks

Why do you want the dash panels off?

Albertj

Im Gonna sand them down prime them and then go with a high gloss black and then clear coat the shit out of it just to add some caracter to my interior

I added character to my gray interior by repainting the ash tray covers in the rear. Went with a charcoal metallic, looks very nice. Ok ok, I was just covering up peeling paint on the lids... but it DOES look good!

Oh.

Some folks get woodgrain appliques. If I remember right they are available in black and colors too - but don't recall who from. Maybe search this editboard for links?

Albertj

Yeah I really dont like the wood grian and Im Pretty handy so doining it myself will be fun

Do you have woodgrain on those panels now?

just around the radio and gear shifter

My point was you could get black or whatever to replace/instead of the woodgrain.

The factory wood around shifter and radio is real, although it's an almost paper-thin layer of wood with a with thick layer of polyurethane over the top. When these are repaired sometimes they are replaced with fake wood.

Albertj

well everything is getting blacked out

If I go extra slowly, extra carefully, and use these pictures as a reference to where the plastic things are, do you think I could remove the panels without breaking anything, or is it just inevitable?

I think you surely could do it without breaking stuff. Study the instructions (and posts in this thread) before you start, then read them one step at a time as you proceed, of if you get stuck. Be very, very gentle. Don't force anything unless you are sure it's free.

It seems simple enough but once I get to the wiring behind the radio that's where it'll get confusing, fast. I will have harnesses and stuff and can usually figure things out, but if there's something that's completely different then I'm screwed until I find out how it's supposed to work.

IBx1 wrote:

It seems simple enough but once I get to the wiring behind the radio that's where it'll get confusing, fast. I will have harnesses and stuff and can usually figure things out, but if there's something that's completely different then I'm screwed until I find out how it's supposed to work.

Then, your better off budgeting to pay someone else to do it for you.
Especially if your time to do the job is limited to school breaks and cold weather.