Post pics of your wood dash kit here.

Its the pinstripe stuff you can buy at autozone.

Em - did you paint over your wood?

I'd suggest a dark burl dash kit, but obviously wood ain't your thing.

I wouldn't suggest any of the other colors, like carbon fiber or aluminum.

Aaron - how about getting your wheel wrapped in real leather? What GM did with the Enclave concept's steering wheel was HOT. You couldn't pull off quite the same thing with the Riv's wheel, but an industrial design guy shouldn't have any trouble coming up with a variation that would work.

How do you pull the little clip from the shifter knob? I tried using a probe but I can't find an opening in the clip for it to catch on.

Here's my thoughts on the kit so far. The print itself is beautiful. The Ebony Zebra wood works great with the medium gray interior. That's the good part.

The bad part is, the dimensions of the pieces are undersized. On the piece around the instrument cluster, for example, there's too much uncovered space around the instruments. It's like that everywhere. I'm 60% of the way to sending this back. What's going to be the kicker are the two pieces that cover the factory wood pieces. I can't simply stick the BD Trims piece over the factory piece - it leaves too much of the factory medium burl showing, which looks awful. The best case scenario is, I pull the dash, remove the medium burl, and the BD Trims piece covers enough of the underlying dash to look o.k. The worst case scenario is, it doesn't cover enough of the underlying dash to look o.k., and I've damaged the dash/factory wood removing it.

I may be in the same position with the factory console wood piece, but I need to get that clip out and the shifter knob removed before I can decide.

You don't need to remove the shifter knob.
The kit piece opening will flex right over it.
As far as the little bit of grey showing around the dials...trust me...you'll get used to it after a while. I'ts just all new looking to you now.
I would suggest just cover the stock wood trim wth some black electrical tapeand then apply the ebony.

As you can see...I have the same openings around my dials and I got used to it after a short while once the newness wore off...

Jack, those little gaps are a big part of the reason I've never been interested in wooden dash kits. If it's bugging you now, it'll bug you later. Send it back, send it back, send it back... (send it back!)

Wait - you could just use chrome stripping (or Sharpie!) to fill in the gaps!

I have to disagree. I REALLY like mine! Little gaps and all.
It looks soooo much better than the plain dash.
But....Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

97Riv-Jon wrote:

I would suggest just cover the stock wood trim wth some black electrical tapeand then apply the ebony.

That is totally not going to happen.

I could probably get used to the rest of it, if I could find a way to deal with the console and radio pieces.

It makes me mad because the print looks so good.

AA wrote:

Jack, those little gaps are a big part of the reason I've never been interested in wooden dash kits. If it's bugging you now, it'll bug you later. Send it back, send it back, send it back... (send it back!)

Wait - you could just use chrome stripping (or Sharpie!) to fill in the gaps!

I'll tell you the honest truth - I would keep it for the center console piece and the radio trim piece alone, and only install those pieces, if they were quality replacements for the stock pieces. I don't think the medium burl looks good with the grey interior, and of course my center console wood is busted. The only junkyard that had a replacement wanted $125 for it, in "good" condition. I figure I ought to round that down a notch or two to get the real condition.

I completely scraped off the stock weed veneer from my center shift console as it was chipped anyway and then masked it off and sprayed satin black before I put the new "wood".
More than a 5 minute chore for sure.
No way can a synth dash kit cover wood trim that has rounded edges as our Riv's do as all synth dash kits are flat. Just a simple fact.

It bothered me at first but I got used to it. I think it still looks much better with the dashkit than before. I put my kit right over the stock one and it looks fine. You can barely tell.

Do you have a pic of the kit Jack?

97Riv-Jon wrote:

I completely scraped off the stock weed veneer from my center shift console as it was chipped anyway and then masked it off and sprayed satin black before I put the new "wood".
More than a 5 minute chore for sure.
No way can a synth dash kit cover wood trim that has rounded edges as our Riv's do as all synth dash kits are flat. Just a simple fact.

In the case of the two factory wood pieces, they should be removed and the BD Trims pieces should be exact replacements for the factory pieces.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

But if it's going to be done half-assed, the BD Trims pieces should be molded to overhang the factory pieces. It can be done. They'd have to be packaged different, but so what? That can be done too.

FWIW, I noticed there are two prongs that come off the back of the console trim pieceand go up towards the storage area lid - there's a big gap underneath the BD Trims piece where the factory wood steps down. Worst case scenario of all, BD Trims could have made the center console piece overlarge and have it overhang the factor wood at the edges. It's no worse than what they're doing with the back prongs.

Well...All I can say is I think SpaceBar's & my dashes turned out fine.
Sorry you didn't like yours...

SpaceBar's


mine

I knew I was going to have the problems with the openings around the guages and all, but really, the two pieces that cover the factory trim pieces should have fit better.

I think I'll be happy with it once I've painted the dash pieces. It's just going to be far more work - but you gotta do what you gotta do, and I don't mind spending time with the car

Atta Boy!

Jack the R wrote:

and I don't mind spending time with the car

This just gives you a reason to work on the car for a while.

A loooong while! All this surface prep and masking takes time!

I'm not going to be surprised if I'm still installing pieces 2 weeks from now.

But when it's done, those pieces will look like they were meant to be there (I hope!)

what do u guys think? i like it. and i think its a good job too

Nice job with the pin-stripping xxsupergman25xx!!
Not easy is it?...

it was tough..i def admit that

Hey look...My Light Burl Wood Riv's famous!

http://www.bdtrims.com/images/expls/index.php?directory=BUK&currentPic=2

97Riv-Jon wrote:

<EMBED TYPE="application/x-mplayer2" SRC="http://www.slotcargarage.com/jon/2riv.wmv" NAME="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" ShowControls="1" ShowStatusBar="1" ShowDisplay="0" autostart="1" AutoSize="1" FullScreen="true"> </EMBED>
Hey look...My Light Burl Wood Riv's famous!

http://www.bdtrims.com/images/expls/index.php?directory=BUK&currentPic=2

Hah congrats. Did you send that in to them or did they just find a picture of it?

I sent the pics to them like 4 months ago...they just put them up today.

SilverArrow102 wrote:

www.kickindash.com is where we've gotten both of our kits. Price was very reasonable and quality is tops. You can get the full kit including dash, door arm rests, and console (10pc), dash & door panels (5pc), just dash (3pc) and even if you have the column shift with no console.

Lots of choices for color and material too. We used real rosewood on our 97 and 99. Installation was a piece of cake too.

your link will not work

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just not feeling the pinstriping on the interior... I dont "get it" I guess you could say. Meaning the desired effect you're going for. Or you need better photos so I can see the actual color os the stripe better.


BTW I dunno about you guys, my dash top is DARK BROWN not black...as far as I can tell. I have a trained eye for color and stuff, I am an autobody guy....well I used to be. It looks dark brown to me, def not black.

There where a few dash colors available in 1995, then they made them all black to reduce glare, starting in '96 I think.