dash question

[Taz]

r the dashboards in a cab slightly different than the ones in a saloon or coupe?

[Simon]

They will straight swop.

[Taz]

nice 1

[mrLEE30]

no no no no not the same and not a "straight swap" the cabs have an extra thicker cross member under the front window, so you will need to cut out approximately 1-2 inches under the two metal side supports with a junior hacksaw if you use a coupe or four door dash. you can compare the two dashes before you fit the new one for a guide. trust me i wasted around three hours and screwed my A pillar trim before i noticed the difference. it is not much but it is enough to stop you fitting the dash. you cannot see the cuts once the dash is back in place BTW.

FYI i did the whole thing by myself and if it took me about two hours to re fit (not including the hours spent trying to fit the coupe dash unmodified into the cab! )

yes the dash will fit after it has been modified. best bet is to go here:

http://www.strictlyeta.net/tech.html

look for dash removal article.

also would advise you to remove your front seats will make life easier. you can do a spring clean while you are there!! looks worse then it is....

mrlee

before....




after..

[Simon]

no no no no not the same and not a "straight swap" the cabs have an extra thicker cross member under the front window, so you will need to cut out approximately 1-2 inches under the two metal side supports with a junior hacksaw if you use a coupe or four door dash. you can compare the two dashes before you fit the new one for a guide. trust me i wasted around three hours and screwed my A pillar trim before i noticed the difference. it is not much but it is enough to stop you fitting the dash. you cannot see the cuts once the dash is back in place BTW.

FYI i did the whole thing by myself and if it took me about two hours to re fit (not including the hours spent trying to fit the coupe dash unmodified into the cab! )

yes the dash will fit after it has been modified. best bet is to go here:

http://www.strictlyeta.net/tech.html

look for dash removal article.

also would advise you to remove your front seats will make life easier. you can do a spring clean while you are there!! looks worse then it is....

mrlee

before....




after..

BMW say otherwise, part numbers are identical between convertible/touring and saloon.

[Simon]

Just double checked, and all E30's M3 and M3 cab included all show as one part number, (except for the LHD/RHD difference obviously).

[mrLEE30]

mate dont doubt you, but trust me they are different, not a lot but are different. i spent hours trying to get it in, then put them side by side and there was a difference, the cab dash has more of the metal bracket(s) (that fit under the holder at the bottom of each a pillar) cut out. I cut out a similar amount as said with a junior hacksaw and the dash flew in.

i doubt it makes a difference but this was a pre-face lift dash into a facelift cab.

mrlee

[Simon]

Checked facelift differences, same again, no difference, according to BMW, there are only 2 types of dash, LHD, and RHD.

Maybe this is how they fitted them at the factory, modified an E30 dash before fitting them into a cab.

If you went to BMW to order a new dash for a cab, you'd get exactly the same dash as would fit a saloon.

If the post originator is looking for a replacement dash, I'm sure it will be 100 times easier to look for any good dash, rather than narrow the search down for a convertible dash.

[mrLEE30]

what i was thinking, they may have an additional instruction to modify the standard dash (or actually the metal brackets) to fit cabs.

and yes to confirm the original question any dash will fit in a cab, the pic of mine is a face lift cab with a pre-face lift four door dash, with the small modifications as i mentioned!!!

just a though simon, what about variations in dash board colour? i have seen biege dash boards before (and i think blue too), would they not be a different part number from the standard black dash?

amazing the conversations you can have about a piece of injection foam covered in PVC!!!

mrlee

[Simon]

Yeah, there's the obvious different colours too, I've only seen the grey and black though.