Changing Out a Dash Pad, How hard is it?

[Sledgehammer]

Well I really don't want to change it, I just want to remove it to clean up the defroster vent trash. I tried to get up in there with a small vacuum cleaner, but it's just too small of an area. I see two choices, Pull the pad or pull the windshield.

How hard is it to get the pad off?

 

[Adam]

The pad is a major pain in the A.. to remove on an A/C car and somewhat less so on a non-A/C car...because you cant easily reach the 11 or so PAL nuts above the switches, radio, steering column, glove box, heater/A/C... the defroster vent is only held in with one center nut high on the firewall (behind the ash tray area) and screws on the ends which should be visible thru the vents on top of the dash pad. You might be able to get it out without removing the pad.. good luck.

Perhaps a better way to go would be to blow out the debris with compressed air, while the defroster is running, to keep the trash from falling back in...

 

[moparleo]

E-body dash pad removal

Here is some information you might be able to use, it's long so :
http://v8tvshow.com/content/view/717/1/

 

[Sledgehammer]

Dang that does look like a pain, I will try the air deal first, If that doesn't work maybe I will just pull the windshield out.

 

[Ray]

What others have posted a major pain,and like most things when you undertake something like that it's like opening Pandoras box. I would try the blow it out approach.

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[72chally440]

This should be a sticky. It has proven to be a valuable link for me so far while taking apart my 72. There are a few steps to the disassembly that have not gone exactly as the article would indicate, but it is a very helpful link none the less.

 

[71Plym]

If you just want to clean out the defrost vent trash, you do not need to remove the the whole dash. The defrost vents connect to the heater box outlet just above the trans tunnel. You could loosen or remove the heat box and then blow or poke/push the debris down and out. Just athought.
You might even find that the heater box outlet and defrost vent duct do not connect very well; mine had a fairly large gap, explaining why the defrost did not work very well. If the gap is there, you might be able to cover the heater box outlet and blow out the duct.