i'm trying to help a friend out. he has a 2001 Ram1500, and naturally the dash is cracked big time. similar to most, it started off as a crack that kept getting bigger. eventually there were more cracks, and then those cracks started to meet each other and now he has a couple holes. one of the holes is big enough to fit your fist through.

now, i'm not looking to get into a debate/battle over why this happened, or whether or not he used cleaners on his dash, or if he parked in the sun too long. i just want to help him pull the top of his dash off so he can put the replacement dash in there. the cheapest labor quote he has gotten was $900 to pull the dash..not including the cost of the new dash. he asked me to look at it and give it a shot b/ci'm pretty fluent in pulling dashes and interiors apart for stereo installs and other wiring, but i have not worked on his Ram yet. in the future, when he tries to sell it or trade it in, he is going to take a huge hit on the value because of that piece of cracked plastic.

i am looking to see if anyone has done this 'uninstall' yet and may be able to give a few pointers. i have not climbed in there to take a look at it yet, but i will this weekend and wanted a head start.

 

There is the black dash bezel (on the drivers side) that just snaps off, real easy. Should be some screws/bolts under that. I believe theres bolt holes near the windshield. not sure about how to take it off on the passenger side w/o the airbag blowing...

 

download the manual from the merry christmas thread tacked to the top of this forum. it'll tell you how to remove the dash...