Lots of people change their dashboard. It is part of the structure of the front of Heidi, spanning between the Fiat chassis bulkhead and dashboard and the bottom of the windscreen. It is a piece of 8mm plywood with soundproofing foam on the back an held in place by bolts and self tapping screws. Mine is as old as the van and creaks and groans from time to time. Last year I put some lightweight carpet underlay below the carpet cover to help improve the sound deadening, with little obvious improvement. On inspection there was a certain amount of decay at the sides and the front was black with mold.
It seemed to be time to replace it. Various people had done write-ups and it seemed a straightforward job. I stripped the carpet off and had a good look.
As you can see there is a certain amount of decay. The black plastic air vents have been stripped off along with the vent nozzles which connect to the blower. You can see how much rotten and delaminated plywood is involved especially front center and around the nozzles. Actually getting the dashboard out was a struggle because it was glued with some black flexible claggy stuff. The technique I developed was to open a gap and wait as the glue surrendered gently to pulling pressure. It took a while. But out it came.
Next step tidy round ready for a new dash. Sound proofing foam and sound deadening strip has been ordered and new nuts and bolts. A good clean got rid of all the old glue and oldness. Jobs to do while dash is out all complete. Re-site the speakers, tidy under the dashboard loose cables, re-tape road markers, reseal the hole in the middle front and the thermometer. Re-route the radio aerial leads. Oh and while I’m in there, tape up holes in the air filter manifold.
Update 19th January – all done! The new dash went in with no modifications. Coach bolts all round well bolted in. Couldn’t get coach bolts in 2 places I planned to, but self tappers sufficed. Refitted the blower channels on 3mm sponge between the coach bolts and then a good spread of 3mm soundproofing all over before the carpet went back on. I considered exposing any screws and bolts I’d used, but decided if it needs to come out again, then I’ll do that at the time. Good job.
Wish I’d done before and after measurements but as far as I can remember, from before it was showing 82db. After is around 75db. Result!
