Swapping Gen 2 dash to Gen 3?

[Matthew Jeschke]

Has anybody done this? I'm not even sure if is possible...

I have completely rebuilt my truck, even tried to restore the interior. But I cannot kid myself, the interior on these trucks is absolute heaping pile of junk, lest the seats. The trim is all low grade plastic and cheap connectors. GM aught to be completely ashamed of this, da$m bean counters. Great truck, terrible interior. The gen one and before was decent, and lasted, but darn did GM cut corners after that. I LOVE the truck but am utterly ashamed, downright embarrassed of the interior trim.

My griping aside. I have dismantled and rebuild the whole dash and it stick rattles terrible and is loose. I am wondering if it's possible to simply swap the dash with a newer one, say from a gen 3 Tahoe (truck). Has anybody done this? I don't know if they re-engineered the mounting points... nor if a newer cluster would communicate w/ the older PCM & electronics.

 

[Doubeleive]

meh, probably better off just getting a gmt900, the dash's are prone to cracking anyway so just changing the dash if even possible wouldn't be much of an upgrade
overall the gmt900 interior to me seems better suited for longevity

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Built up rest of truck though and like the older body style. I'd have to get rid of the drivetrain I built up. I have somewhere around $10,000 in parts put in the engine, trans, and diff so far, plus my labor. Works AWESOME, lest the horrifically bad dash and crappy door panels. I think somebody could fabricate their own door panels but damn that dash is bad. I pulled a core (inner skeleton) out at junkyard and tried to improve it... but it still rattles. Last off road trip was on a horrible wash boded road. Pieces of the dash came apart and fell to floor on the road even after I had rebuilt it. Sigh... perhaps if just there was an aftermarket top skin. That's the worst part of the whole thing. The parts on floor were from that cheap top skin.

It seems I can rebuild everything except the interior. The rest of the truck is in good shape now to figure out how to tackle this dash. Maybe I just forget it and let it be, but I know it'll drive me crazy.

 

[tooleyondeck]

It seems I can rebuild everything except the interior. The rest of the truck is in good shape now to figure out how to tackle this dash. Maybe I just forget it and let it be, but I know it'll drive me crazy.

These interiors are fairly simple to swap, albeit time consuming. Why not look for a Denali or Escalade dash that is in decent shape and swap them out? Finding a donor interior would allow you to paint, reupholster, or whatever else you wanted to do prior to tearing into your existing dash. Simple things like an 03+ steering wheel and a custom gauge cluster will make the interior feel a lot more modern too.

I'm in the process of restoring my interior as well, and I feel your pain. Broken clips everywhere...

 

[tooleyondeck]

perhaps if just there was an aftermarket top skin. That's the worst part of the whole thing.

Oh and also... https://dashskin.com/2000-2006-chevy-gmc-suv-99-06-pickup-molded-dash-cover#143=

^ This was well worth it for mine...

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

@tooleyondeck thanks for the tips. I'd not thought much about putting in the higher trim level / Denali dash. I've no experience taking those apart Did they build those dashes better?

I've dismantled and put back together a handful of these GMT800 dashes now. Including tearing mine completely down (minus airbox) three times now I think...

I looked into the skins... It's been temping. I bought another good top and painted it for my truck. It looks great, just would be nice if it was more solid. I also have a C5 Covette and regardless what they say about those, that dash was built REALLY well. It's like a foam or something much thicker / more solid. I wonder if a person couldn't just apply some sort of backing / foam / epoxy / something to bottom of dash cover to reinforce it. I need to speak with body supply store.

 

[Tonyrodz]

@tooleyondeck thanks for the tips. I'd not thought much about putting in the higher trim level / Denali dash. I've no experience taking those apart Did they build those dashes better?

I've dismantled and put back together a handful of these GMT800 dashes now. Including tearing mine completely down (minus airbox) three times now I think...

I looked into the skins... It's been temping. I bought another good top and painted it for my truck. It looks great, just would be nice if it was more solid. I also have a C5 Covette and regardless what they say about those, that dash was built REALLY well. It's like a foam or something much thicker / more solid. I wonder if a person couldn't just apply some sort of backing / foam / epoxy / something to bottom of dash cover to reinforce it. I need to speak with body supply store.

How about that expanding foam? Spraying that under the dash should quiet things up a bit.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

I like the idea. The stuff for houses? I wonder if they make an automotive application. I really need to go talk to them at the body shop supply store.

My corvette is built with that stuff already on the dash. It's so awesome. Anybody who knocks quality of C5 doesn't know what they're talking about. I dismantled part of dash and am wholy impressed. The center support for controls & radio is stainless steel! The other materials were of course plastic or some extruded foam but high quality, better than that stuff in our door handles. They really put some thought into making high volume w/ quality on the C5.

I LOVE my GMT800 / Tahoe. I think it's the sexiest truck GM made... We just need to figure out how to fix up the interior.

 

[Meathead16]

The Esky / Denali interior trims look nicer, but it ends with the aesthetics unfortunately. My dash bezel has literally been cumbling to pieces. Cheapest I can find is $200 used.For the quality of these things paying even $50 feels like a ripoff for just a piece of plastic. Duct tape and hot glue has been holding together my disgraced ratchet mess for awhile now.

One positive thing about these interiors for me is that I've always been partial to dark interior colors.. GM only made gen2 Escalade interiors in beige but now that the paint is peeling eventually it'll all be black

What really has me perplexed is my 04 Pontiac had a much higher quality interior than my Escalade does. I would think it'd be the other way around. The dash panel and everything had that soft touch, leather type outer shell that had foam backing to it attached to a rigid plastic shell.. kind of like what yo I describe on your C5. It had some peeling issues near the windshield but generally speaking it held up very well and looked amazing. Nothing GM makes sense anymore when an $18k car provides an interior that is better on every level than a $50k luxury truck.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Yeah it's sad. Hopefully we can come up with some awesome ways to make this stuff last / reinforce and rebuild it. I've had no luck on the dash. I feel like every time I take it apart I make it worse. Need to figure out what that foam is they use on the bottom of some of the dashes. Would make it MUCH quieter and reinforce the cheap crappy dash.

I also like the idea of that dash skin but maybe take it a step farther and adhere a vinyl or leather. Would be awesome.