I'm curiouse on removal of the paneling and dash panel on the 04' monte , the dash unit appears to be very streamlined, and appears to incompus the entire driver side dash face whitch sounds like a nightmare to me, i've pulled at it a little but havn't really felt any pins, must be very well designed, any tips on the removal of this? i plan on putting in after market deck, amps and all that fun stuff, deck is the first set :P along with a hard line for power to the trunk


also, the door panels look rather complicated as well, the sail panel connects to the paneling and surounds the entire bottom of the door panel, the woofer\tweeter housing appears to come off, but again, a few tugs and i felt no give, now i havn't really atempted to take any of this apart, but just looked at it a little to get an idea on how to take it apart, on my old car i didn't give a **** because it was a heap, but i'd be heart broken to break something on my dash, or in my door panels so some pointers would be nice the rear deck fortunately looks rather simple, i might just end up popping them out and leaving them out for trunk porting for the sound system, i've considered maybe some 8"s up in the rear seat for rear fill, maybe some kick panels or something back there would work nice. still in the air on that


the gear -

alpine PDX - 4.150
alpine PDX 1.1000
pioneer AVH p4200DVD
JBL c608GTI mkII's up front
Polk 12" SR DVC (probobly upgrading to either another 1 of these or JBL W15GTi-MkII http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...5GTi-MkII.html )

also another thing i'm wondering is has anyone done 2 way up in the front stage ont his car with the pream system, which i'm fairly certain comes pretty much stock with these cars. I'm looking to keep stock appearance, i really enjoy the interior of the car i'd hate to have tweeters up in the top of the paneling or up on the A-pillar frame, i'd prefer them down by the woofer, both for esthetics's, and acoustics.

 

pictures or tutorials would be awesome!

 

ok i can assist you to this.
FIRST DO NOT PULL ON ANY PART OF THE DASH YET. there are 6 or 7 10mm screws you need to find and take them off first. don't forget the one in the glove box.

i know for sure there are 6/7 screws holding the dash bezel. after screws are off tilt the steering wheel all the way down.

on the ignition key hole there is a plastic circle donut that said (off, on, acc, and start) using your finger and carefully pull it off. to put it back in line up to it's original spot and push in.

when the donut is pop off, put the key in and turn to "on" position and put the shifter down to the lowest gear. you will see why you need to do this later.

driver's side fuse cover need to come off.

ok it now that you got this far start pulling out the dash starting at the gauge cluster. give it a good yank but not too extreme bcuz there are some plastic tab that you might break off. if you do break one or two tabs off that should fine. i i broked couple on mine too when i first done it.

WHEN YOU GET CLOSE TO THE HAZARD SWITCH BE CAUTION. MAKE SURE YOU UNPLUG THE HAZARD HARNESS ON THE BACK FIRST BEFORE START PULLING ANY FURTHER. cuz if you don't will end up ripping it off from the dash. that's what happened to me LOL.

make sure the glove box is open WHEN YOU START PULLING. part of the dash tab is inside the glove box that's why it need to open.

after the dash bezel is pull, grab the dash and pull up over the steering wheel and out pass the shifter handle. this is the reason why the shifter need to put to the lowest so when the dash is pull out it won't get caught on the shifter handle.

to put the dash back just do the opposite as pulling off. i never put the 10mm screws back in bcuz the metal clips on the tab hold the dash in pretty tight.

removing door panel:

been awhile since i done this i might miss a step or two.
there is one phillip screw on the door handle.
3 phillip screws on the panel arm rest.
one screw on the upper side mirror cover.
the door panel is held by plastic push in tabs.
after the screws are off start from the bottom panel and pull on it working your way up.
pushing the panel up when you get to the top of the panel where the window go in. now disconnect all the window, lock, and mirror switches harness and the panel should be off.

to put the panel back in, plug back in all the switch harnesses, slide in the door handle inside the panel cut out, line up the panel to the door frame and push down on it until it snap in and work your way down snapping every plastic screw tabs in. put back in all the screws you took off and you're done.

 

hmm, that dash replacment sounds like a pain, i might have that wired professionaly, i really don't know if i'm going to be able to wire it up, theres alot of stuff i'm unfamiluar with, it has a 100$ modual for chimes and what not, i'd feel i would have to have a decent understanding of the harness to play with that stuff, i'm not familuar with car codes, and color codes and what not.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120GMOS....html?tp=29774



for the door pannel, it's still a bit confusing, i've never played with a door panel with power anything, so that scares me. plus, that sail panel that goes around is that it's own peice of attached to the door panel? some pictures would really be helpful the dash sounds easy enough, but i'd def make sure to have it all screwed back in 100%

 

the door panel is a one piece. don't be a wuss just try it it's very easy lol. hey if you do mess up the dash real bad which i doubt you will i have an extra one one you can buy from me. $$$$$$$

 

haha at your gain at least i know extra parts are in abudance on these cars, tehe. unlike my suzuki esteem. bet you've never even heard of that car have ya

 

i know the 00-02/03??? dash will not fit the 04-05. the ignition key hole height is different. the suzuki esteem is that like the side kick jeep??

 

it's kind of like the suzuki forenzo's little brother, it pretty much replaced it, I don't think suzuki has many sedans. those forenzo's are everywhere, every lot i went to, had like 3-4 at LEAST! LOL their garbage, they hold value like nothing, their like 12k$ new and by 30k$ miles there worth 6-7K lol it's a pretty sad exuse for a car, i took one out and beat it up just because the dealership kept bugging me to look at it XD

 

these tips were very important to the uninstall of my dash, and helped me emencly. so thank you, i had no problems with the pins. and there are only 3 scres that hold the dash its self, and 3 more for the radio unit, there might of been some more i forget, the only real problem i had was the ignition area, i tried pulling off the tubber gasket...or rather i did. unfortunatly, because it tore 2 of the 4 prongs holding it there, forutunatly there cady cornered, so it still holds its self on, but i'll want to replace it, only the ring is to come off, not the rubber gasket, that bit of advice would of helped but no real harm done. its just a bit of rubber.