I have my interior out rdy to make some decisions but it hard to decide. I want a 4th gen dash but never seen any that fit that great. Also want a roll bar but cant decide on a brand. Can someone show me some nice 4th gen dashes. I also like the comp engineering roll bar as far as style but it only comes in mild steel that ive seen and i dont like where the rear bars go they need to be closer to the shocks. The more i think of it i might just go with somethin like KAndied had with a custom roll bar and find some nice 3rd gen interior.

 

4th gen dashes only look "original" in 4th gens... AFAIK, all the 4th gen dashes are a few inches narrower. I have seen people fab up something to take up the space.

Personally, I would just keep it all 3rd gen interior. My stance was if I wanted a 4th gen interior, I'd buy a 4th gen.

 

I just hate the concolse if i can put in a 4th gen console and it still look good ill keep the 3rd gen dash. What i meant as a factory look is not many flaws i always see them with gaps that look bad to me.

 

do a search for fatal88

 

Thanx forgot about him his does look nice ill have to pm him.

 

I've seen them look done, and made to look like they were meant for the car... I've also seen some where the people will get it working but dont button it up right and so it always looks just a little bit out of place.

I've got a whole 4th gen interior coming my way through the mail as we speak... I'm hoping to do it the right way (espescially since I spent over 900 on my entire interior and the car doesnt even work .. who needs to go to college anyways? LOL)

Funny thing though if you want the 4th gen interior to look factory... but want a roll bar .

I'm sure you'll find what looks best

 

I meant the dash fit looking almost as well as it does in the 4th gen just look at fatal88's interior.

 

Fatal also has a 4th gen firewall, inner fenders, and who know's what else. It would think very few of us have the fabrication skills or time to pull it off like that. Maybe the better question would be who has a stock looking 4th gen dash installed the typical way..

Kevin D.

 

ok, search for IHI as well, his is really clean. he also has an 8pt bar.

 

i like the center consoles, but nothing else

 

I've saw several members with 4th gen dashes...and alot of them look amazing to me. I've been looking into just doing a set of 4th gen door panels....but..I don't think they would look right with the 3rd gen dash...so that will probably be out of the question. So...about this roll bar...are you wanting one for just looks/show...or one that actually serves a purpose? I got a 4 point made by "AutoPower" that has a bolt in design. It's for street.show purposes and I'm really happy with it

 

actually i'd do the console and seats

 

I want the roll bar for support and looks. Wait tho Fatal had a 96 dash before the current one with the 3rd gen firewall and it looked great.

 

I think the final look will depend mostly on the ammount of time you put into it. Since these are more of a retro-fit than a bolt-on, it will take some time to make it look perfect. Same goes with how durable it turns out. If you dont want it to rattle or fall apart the first time someone falls into it or leans on it too hard or something, then you better make sure its mounted firm. I think the 4th gen interiors look much better than the 3rd gen interior, kinda like how I think the 3rd gen exterior looks much better than the 4th gen exterior. So a 3rd gen with a 4th gen interior is the best of both worlds in my book.

 

Same way I feel a 3rd gen with 4th gen interior cant get any better then that.

 

hey 84...

how much was the roll bars and how hard was it to install.I read in another post that it was the hardest thing you have done but how bad is it? i really want one basically for the looks.....

-Adam

 

4thgen has too many curves, doesn't look right now matter how you do it.

still like seeing it though.

 

I paid like $300 bucks..which included freight shipping. The installation was straight forward...the reason is was such a hard installation was because it is such a tight fit. You need like 3-4 guys help install it...and it was only me and my dad when we installed it. Everything has to line up perfect...holes have to be drilled....but the fitment was the worst part..because it was just so tight.

 

My 4th gen dash buy fell through so im still looking now guess ill head to the bone yards. I need to learn a little more about the wiring first if anyone knows a good post. First i want to remove all the air bag wiring and sensors.

 

come on join the club..
for more pics of car

http://www.3rdgen.org/bb/showthread....threadid=27413

 

 

When people see my dash, they don't know it's from a newer car unless they know the 3rd gens and 4th gens or I tell them.

 

84,

im really liking that roll bar. its no welding right, basically bolt -in? i think it would add a more serious look to the car cause yours looks bitchin'....
p.s. im 17 and i got a couple of my pals that would help, do you think we could do it ourselves?

-Adam

 

As far as the roll bar is concerned, personally I would recommend a weld in bar for superior strutural intergrity and better with stiffening the car up in the long run. I bought the Jegs 8 point and it took us 5hr to intall from the time we turned on the lights in the shop till the last coat of paint was sprayed and we walked out. It was easy for us since we had the right tools and experience to do it, but for a first project, you might want to have a experienced welder/fabricator with you so the joints come together tight and the welds look good, nothing worse than looking at a roll bar/cage with crusty welds.

If your seriously entertaining the 4th gen dash swap/cage install I would recommend the 10 point cage. You can mock up your dash to find out where the front down bars need to go so it fills in the dashboards outside corner air ducts-this will fill the huge holes where the 4th gen ducting went and leave just a little area to blend into the dash with a filler. I keep saying I'm gonna get this done, but the drivetrain took over this summer. I'm not racing the car next season and have vowed to work on fine tuning/redoing all the little things I "never had time to do" with the racing schedule always getting in the way. With time, patience, and money anything is possible-just have to make sure all 3 things are there to get it done

 

Yes I def want a weld in cage and my interior isnt going back together till i get a 4th gen dash. I have already found someone that can make me a cage i just have to tell them what i want.

 

That's going to be alot better having it made to order than any kit cage. Also some advise to make things easier before you get to going, have the windsheild removed. You wont take the chance of getting it spattered up when welding and will make fitting the new dash in much easier as well as cutting down the 4th gen dash pad-be sure to fully support underneath that area since it's easily broken by vibration-dont ask how I know. Also the rake of the new 4th gen dash will allow you to see through the windsheild into the guts of the dashboard. Once you have the dash pad cut to fit the contour of the windsheild, set set everything in place so you can trace a line on your windsheild to match the line of the dash pad. Flip over your windsheild and paint area below line flat black.

 

Good idea. I was thinking of a 10 point also but didnt know if it would get in the way of anything.

 

Hey, look in my gallery, there some 4th gen conversion pics under the parts gallery. One dude in particular has a rollbar as well.

http://omnipotent-goku.com/iroc

 

Whos car is this i want my door panels to look like this but not red.

 

i believe that is IHI's car.

 

I actually ran into some dumb luck with those panels. When I called and spoke with Bruce at Hawk's and told him my plan he said all we have is a set of firebird panels with some red in them. Knowing my car was already red, gonna be repainted red I thought wtf, send everything my way. So far from waht I've heard these panels are kinda rare? with the 2 tone scheme-more importantly the red? I like it, kinda flows with the car.

Old picture from early '03 when spring first hit and car first came outta the garage. crappy dig camera shows up more orange than red too.

 

 

I heard once that some1 was making the a pillars to match the 4th gen dash anyone heard of that.

 

the pillars u heard of were the evecustoms setups, original idea was to manufacutre a 4th gen style pillar to fit the 3rd gen cars. That's still in the works, however, after checking on things some more, the rake angle of the windshield (although it looks different) seems to be closer than initially thought. Trimming the base of the pillar so the setup can sit lower on the dash, and then reforming the latch area where the t-tops go in, should actually work fine.....but we'll get to see after i have time to get it done.

 

To everyone running 4thgen dashes: how much room is there in where the guages go? Say if I wanted to mount aftermarket guages 5" tach, 3" speedo, etc in there, is there enough room? Anyone got measurements?

 

Ok guys found a place that has about 5 4th gen dashes i might go tomorrow and get one if i find a nice one. Now what all exactly do i need does it matter if the air bag is popped on the pass side or not. If it is popped does that rip nething or what cause i wont be using a air bag anyway. Also do i need all the wiring or any brackets I should have cut off I just want to get everything to make this as easy as possible. Thanks alot

 

I dont think there is quite enough room to make way for a 5" set of gauges without having excessive modification. I've got 2- 3 3/8" speedo/tach and they take up the majority of the "big space" in the cluster area.

Here is a very old pic when mocking up stuff to give you an idea. I dont have any measurements, but just imagine adding another 1 5/8" to these gauges and I think you'll see it'd be pretty tight.

 

Anyone? I was going to go tomorrow morning.

 

well, when u go get all you can. If you're getting the dash, the only way it's going to look factory is if you get the door panels to match, so get those too. Does it matter if the airbag is blown or not? well, that depends on how you want your dash to look. You could glue the airbag flap down if you feel like it, but just seems kinda janky to me, so find one that didn't blow, and on 4th gens, that's a rare find in itself. Get the mounting bar that goes on the back of the dash , it's the "frame" if you'd like to call it that. Also grab the wiring harness as it'll make wiring in things easier, aka, A/C, Guages, Lights, Center console Cig-Lighters, etc. Taht's about all i can think of off hand, good luck.

 

Thanks thats what i was thinking all i needed just wanted a second opinion?

 

Ok im done with Junk yards I run all over the place and never find anything im just going to order offline. I might try Hawks or somewhere that is thirdgen related.

 

Ok got another question does anyone know if its possible if maybe a 96 dash would fit better or a 02 would fit better or both fit the same? I didnt know if one maybe has wider door panels or not.

 

pretty sure the dashes are the same width, so, they'll fit the same, the difference is in vertical deminsion at the center console. Above the center console, the 96 dash sits about 1" higher than the 98 dash. Are you doing this one in a maro or bird? i think u had a maro, but wasn't sure. Are you going to do a maro or bird dash? that can make all the difference with the swap, and while most don't like them, i actually think the early 4th gen camaro dashes are the best looking dashes in 3rd gen camaros as theyre more square and flow w/ the body lines better than the rounded bird dashes. A bird or T/A can normally pull off the later model (4th gen) bird dashes ok, but that has a lot to do with the firebird's more "rounded" appearance as compared to that of the camaro.