M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
FAQ / REFERENCE => How-To's => Topic started by: Febi Guibo on March 10, 2006, 09:55:27 AM
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Hey, I did not do a writeup myself, but here are three quality writeups.
Dashboard Swap (http://forums.mwerks.com/zerothread?id=2231577) - E30325i on mwerks
Dashboard Swap (http://www.strictlyeta.net/technical/dashboard.html) - StrictlyETA.com
Dashboard Swap (http://home.comcast.net/%7Ecdeegan9/dashboard/dashboard_1.htmll) - Chris Deegan
If you have a cracked dash, do the swap (hello thumper3ld!) ...it makes a huge difference in the interior, and you will love your car more (your car, will love you more too).
Couple of suggestions:
When you find your new/used uncracked dash, prep and paint it while it's out of the car. In many cases, it will look *brand new* after you stuff it in.
I used SEM vinyl prep spray (http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=2522&itemType=PRODUCT) and eastwood landau black interior trim spraypaint (http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=14623&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=389&iSubCat=1440&iProductID=14623). It worked really really well.
It is a fidgety job, but not hard. Naturally, there is one terrifying moment (http://ee1394.com/bmw/dash.jpg) where it's hard to believe you can put it back together, but it's no biggie.
It's also a great opportunity to fix whatever is wrong with your instrument cluster, put in a new headunit with new wiring, do the 13-button OBC swap, change any burned out center console bulbs, and fix any lazy dash hvac vents.
Any questions about the swap, pls let me know.