McGuireV10

We have a '90 IROC Z28, and the dash pad split on both sides where the speakers are, as usual. Fortunately the guy who sold me the car had a spare good-condition dash pad which he gave me. However, this is apparently from a different year or model -- the original dash pad has a speaker grille molded into it, but the replacement has rectangular openings.

I've removed the old pad already (I was replacing the steering wheel, so it seemed like a good time), but I haven't tried fitting the new pad yet. Eyeballing it, it looks like it ought to be an exact match.

What years had speaker covers as separate pieces? Is there anywhere I can just order a set for cheap, or do I have to go find somebody parting out a car?

Al Hasse

I think the dash pad with the speaker grilles on the outside is from a Firebird. All the Camaro ones I have seen have the grilles molded in. IIRC the two may fit differently in the middle due to the difference of the ducting underneath.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

Yep. GTAs (unknown on other Firebirds, but probably too) had different dash pads, with the separate inserts. It's my understanding, they won't swap between models, Camaro & Firebirds.

Oh yeah...MDM generally has the inserts.

82 Iron Duke

iTrader: (21)

All years of TG Pontiac's had removeable speaker covers (82-92), the Camaros were built into the pad

McGuireV10

Unfortunately, Stephen is correct -- it just barely won't fit right. The shape is more or less identical, but the whole thing is about 1/2" shorter front-to-back than the Camaro one. The vent holes line up perfectly, the speakers do, and of course it looks like the same thing, but when you get the firewall edge lined up, the interior edge falls short of the lip (and screw holes) at the front of the dash by about half an inch.

Utterly ridiculous.

So, anybody got a perfect condition third-gen Camaro dash pad they wanna swap for a perfect-condition Firebird dash pad? Yeah, that's likely, LOL.

Thanks all for the feedback.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

Finally! All I could ever heard was "shorter", but couldn't find out they meant front-to-back or side-to-end, or it was something else they meant.

McGuireV10

It's terribly annoying. If you put one on top of the other, the shape is identical. The screw holes in the vent line up exactly. The little tubes to the goofy side-window vents fit perfectly. For all intents and purposes they're identical... it's just a hair shorter.

Somebody wasted time tweaking that part, managing the bid process on the retooling and manufacturing, money spent on the QA processes, etc. -- all for a totally pointless, completely invisible change... And they wonder why profits are in the toilet.

I was planning to have somebody redo the whole interior anyway. I guess I'll have them use the old dash pad as a base.