My car came with a cracked dash, as well as 2 spares (one in worse condition, and another in ehh shape, but better than the installed one). I'm having a drink now, but I sure should have had 3 before taking on this project.
I was able to get the lower dash (knee pad) off easily, but with it can clouds of dust and dirt. I took my hand and banged on the metal bar that the knee pad attaches to and with each thump saw waterfalls of debris coming out from the dash. I did this for 5 minutes until there was nothing left to rain down. I don't know how so much crap got lodged up there, but I filled up a vacuum canister from what came down.
Now on to the upper dash. This took way too much trial and error even with forum instructions. Maybe I'm bad at following directions and have too large of hands, but please see below for what worked for me to access the hidden nuts. I worked my way from left to right, ripping off disentegrated dash as I moved on. FYI all nuts are 13mm
1. Used a crow foot wrench inside the vent to loosten, then removed by hand
2 used a 1/4" 13mm deep socked and extension. Started from the hood release and worked back up towards the dash to access the nut
3 I did not remove the instrument cluster or steering wheel. I removed oil temp gauge and used a 13mm wrench to slowly access the nut hidden way back under the sheet metal. This was the most difficult one to access and because I don't have thin/narrow wrenches, it was a drawn out process of 1/3 turns and resetting the wrench
4 same as #3, but removed the speedo to access
5 red arrow should be pointing straight up as I used the same methodology as with nut #2. A long extension and deep socket should allow you to loosten and remove while looking up from underneath the dash. To reinstall, keep the speedo out and use a crow foot wrench and your fingers to tighten the nut just to the right of the opening.
6 make sure your radio is out to get access. again get under the dash and look up. you should be able to use a nut driver or crow foot to loosten the nuts and then pull them out by hand
7 see #6, you should be able to access both nuts at the same time
8 remove the glove bot metal strap. it is next to nut #7 and held on by a 4mm?? nut, . you don't need to pull out the entire glovebox, just loosten the strap. at that point you can get back on the floor and use same method as #2 and #5. Long extension to loosten, pull out by hand
9 crow foot wrench going through the vent up and to the right. probably 5 small turns to loosten it and then unscrew by hand
By now, your back is sore, your fingers are dirty/bloody, and your neighbors have learned a couple of new curse words. Congratulations! You should have 9 plastic nuts and metal washers. The dash should pull up and out. installation is the reverse. you now deserve another drink.
Click to view attachmentAnyways, I hope this helps at least one person out there that is frustruated with removing the dash and is wondering why no combination of socket set is getting the job done.