I need to remove the instrument panel in my 87 IROC to reach some damaged wiring. I've removed the face plate and clear panel over the gages, and removed all gages and tachometer. I need to remove the white plastic tub that the lights and gages are mounted in but I don't see any bolts or clips holding the tub in place. I've tried to look up behind it but it's got too much up behind to see anything. So I can't tell if there's any mount points on the backside. Can anyone out there give me some guidance on how to get this thing out?

 

SUPER easy...

No hardware in the back. There's about 4 or maybe 6 nuts, those sheet-metal kind of "pal" nuts, down in what look like bulb cavities, in the corners. About 10 or 11mm if memory serves. After that, take the speedo cable loose from the cruise module so it can slide out a bit with the dash; then reach in behind there and push in the clip that holds the cable into the cluster.

No need to remove any of the individual gauges, they all come out as part of the cluster.

 

I'm thinking that my dash doesn't attach that same way. I can't find any attaching hardware anywhere on the panel. But it is mounted solidly on the bottom. I can see what look like the catches to electrical connectors
from the back of the panel. They are the rectangular items in the photo below. Could they be mounting clips?



I've checked all the recesses and there are four in the corners that are empty. Here's what they look like.



This things got me stopped cold.

 

Like sofaking said, theres only 2-4 nuts holding the cluster on from the back. then you just unclip the wiring going in and the whole cluster pops out. Took me awhile to figure it out.

 

I removed the instument cluster from my 87 last winter. You need to remove the two nuts by the light bulbs, one on each side of the panel. (one is shown in you second picture). I ended up removing the two nuts holding the steering column too so I could drop it to remove the cluster.

 

^^^
I forgot about that. Lowering the steering column helps out a lot.

 

Your dash attaches the same way. Blee dat.... it's mass production.

You can see one of the nuts in one of your pics.

The one that says stuff about "checked all the recesses"... look right straight down below the word "recesses", about 1/3 of the height of the pic, and observe the hexagonal object with another shaft-like object protruding through it. That is a "nut". Rotate it counter-clockwise until it releases. Find all such similar objects and do the same thing to them.

Piece o cake.

 

Okay, Okay, I get it. I looked right at them and didn't see them. I was working by flash light and to me they looked like the bulbs. But once I got them off the dash came out no problem. This car doesn't have cruise control, so I had to disconnect the speedo drive cable at the trans to get some slack in the line to get the speedometer cable off. Once I made the repair it all went back together in about 30 minutes. Thanks Guys!

 

 

Don't worry, it's amazing how easy it is to overlook the obvious sometimes.

Glad you got it handled!