Dash fascia removal.

I'm looking to remove the fascia of the '89. The panel with the five air vents.

I've done this several times on other classics with wood fascias and the panel just unscrews and comes away in less than five mins. This is the first time I've gone to do this with an earlier plastic fascia.

The top screws behind the vents are the same. There are additional screws in the end piece. From that point it begins to get more complex.

On the underside you have a row of short screws in the passenger well, these come out easily enough but the underside is still bonded/fixed to the condenser tray. At the same time, the underside of the fascia across the centre console is riveted to the inner condenser casing but these are easy enough to pop off.

So really, the point that I am at is that I believe I have released the fascia all along the top, at both ends and all under the centre section and that where I have become stuck is the underside section in the passenger footwell.

What I am intending to do is install a wood fascia and at the moment I am thinking the easiest solution is to cut through the underside to release the fascia and also leave trim for the wood to screw into.

I'm guessing someone has done this in the past and I'm missing something obvious?

I had a bit of bother too as something appeared to keep holding it on. I can't remember what I did, but I was relieved when it came away easily.

What I've learnt is that as 89 was a changeover year one of the points of change was in fact the underside of the dash. The early 89 cars have a drip tray that is of a different design.

Weirdly, mid 89 on and all plastic and wood dash fascias are interchangeable within minutes.

Earlier, when aircon was first introduced in the early 80s the fascia design while sporting different vents, no clock and the window electrics slot used for the aircon controls are also interchangeable with later fascia trims.

For a brief period up to early 89 they weren't. Instead of being simply screwed all along the underside they are part screwed, part bonded to the drip tray and then riveted along the centre dash section. End trims are different also.