removal of vc dash

[Shifty1]

hey all

just wondering if anyone knows how to do this? i want to put my cd player in

thanks

[Goon]

The Whole dash mate or just a certain part of the dash? maybe the radio area is what you are talking about ? My old radio tapeplayer just came straight out after a few wiggles, then i just disconnected the radio antenna wire.

The new wiring is pretty basic, my new setup only involves the postive, negtive and the battry wire to be connected back to the car.

[Shifty1]

yeah, i wanna change the radio.. its not the stock one but its ancient anyway..

also i wanna chuck an alarm behind it too so yeah

[Jimboss]

I will assume you only want the lower half, It is all one unit from the left of the steering column all through to the left passenger vent, so it all comes out as one piece.

I'll try to remember all the steps (this is for my VH, i assume that the VC is similar, if not the same):

-Take off the coloured radio heater surround (just pulls out), remove ash tray.
-remove glovebox (one plastic pin holds it in on the right side of it (use a flat head screwdriver to lever it out))
-remove the left vent (and right side one if you need to take that out as well)
-remove the panel under the steering column (three screws)
-remove all screws retaining the big dash piece in (7 in total from memory, 4 in glovebox, 2 under steering column and one at the bottum below the left vent)
-then disconnect the heater control unit, and the ciggarette lighter.

There you have it, be careful, but it should come out fairly easily.



That's relatively detailed, i definately suggest you only do that if it's absolutely necessary (i changed the HU without removing the dash, but have removed it 3 time in 2 months for other reasons).

Edit: Depending on what model you have, you might encouter some trouble with the panel just under the radio/heater part, and just in front of the centre console.

[Shifty1]

thanks mate, will try it soon..

its a VC Commodore L (1981 model).. its a really basic car that had the original radio removed for a 60watt sony cassette deck at some stage, which was done really dodgy(sticks out a bit) and its had its speakers changed too..

[Jimboss]

I had a similar setup prior to me getting my car, except i had a very oldschool pioneer tape deck and one dash speaker, and one speaker in the parcel shelf. It was very easy to remove, and fairly easy to install the new one, and they do stick out abit usually, but if you are fairly forceful, you can get it to only stick out a few mm more than it should.

I hope it all goes well, if not, just ask, there are more than enough people here who know what to do certainly helped me out of a couple awkward situations.

[Outlaw Torn]

I'll try to remember all the steps (this is for my VH, i assume that the VC is similar, if not the same):

-Take off the coloured radio heater surround (just pulls out), remove ash tray.
-remove glovebox (one plastic pin holds it in on the right side of it (use a flat head screwdriver to lever it out))
-remove the left vent (and right side one if you need to take that out as well)
-remove the panel under the steering column (three screws)
-remove all screws retaining the big dash piece in (7 in total from memory, 4 in glovebox, 2 under steering column and one at the bottum below the left vent)
-then disconnect the heater control unit, and the ciggarette lighter.

There you have it, be careful, but it should come out fairly easily.

This pretty much sums it up, except u will need to remove the centre console to get the radio heater surround. if you can pull it out with out removing the console, well and good, but in removing it you get alot more room to play with.

[Demons1964]

its a VC Commodore L (1981 model).. its a really basic car that had the original radio removed for a 60watt sony cassette deck at some stage, which was done really dodgy(sticks out a bit)

You know the myth that somewhere in the world there is a an identical person to you? Well I think you've got the twin of my car. My 1981 VC L had a Sony cassette deck too.

Anyway I replaced that with a Pioneer deck and boot stacker way back in 1997 (still works great too!!). The "new" deck still sticks out about 8mm at the bottom but I'm happy to live with that. Is it the VK that has a bracket in there that needs to be modified? Well, different problem with the VC and it's due to the ducting for the centre air vents and windscreen vent. I never tried modifying the ducts due to the masses of wiring back there; it's a real tight squeeze once you take into account the wiring exiting the back of the deck. So unless you really need that flush finish and want to modify the ducting there's no need to remove the whole dash - just remove the radio/heater surround and the ash tray and that will give you enough room to work with.

[Outlaw Torn]

funnily enuf there are triplets out there. I recently acquired one with an oldschool pioneer. Been parked up for the last 5 years by a beach. all i had to do was put some petrol in and jump start, the lil beauty started first turn.

[Shifty1]

yeah.. im not alone

anyway, i need to take the top of the VC dash off as well so I can put the flashing LED for my alarm in near the demister switch.. any ideas how to get that off?

Thanks

[Jimboss]

Well, i haven't done it (remove the dash surrounding the instrument cluster), but you could try doing it through the speaker hole, take the speaker out and see it you can get access, otherwise you'll be in for a bitch of a job.

[Outlaw Torn]

As for the left hand side, the right side panel needs to come off, 4 screws, 1 below near ur bonnet release, two near steering column, and one behind the light swich. A flathead screwdriver will pop this out. U might need to unclip ur fuseboard aswell to give u a bit of room. After this there is a simple case of a couple of screws along the metalwork. Most screws are easy to find, cept 1, there should be a black plastic case in the instrument cavity, there is 1 screw behind this on the right hand side. roughly behind the manifold vaccuum guage.

[Pub247]

There is a vent hole right above the demister is easier enough to get in put it in