 1.To find our donor truck,...  1.To find our donor truck, we ventured east to visit California Minitruck Dismantlers in Ontario, California. Once inside its yard, we quickly located a '97 Nissan Hardbody SE truck that had seen better days. It was smashed pretty hard in the front end, but the interior was intact, minus the missing bucket seats someone had pilfered. |  2.As you can see, the new-style...  2.As you can see, the new-style dash looks much better than its older counterpart. Our donor truck was missing the gauge cluster, but the new-style trucks use an electronic speedometer and our old-style truck uses a cable-driven speedometer, so we didn't care. Part II of this series will show how we overcome the obstacle of making gauges work in the new dash. |  3.Our project truck is as...  3.Our project truck is as ghetto as it comes. It was purchased used and featured zero options, power nothing, and the gauge cluster didn't have a tachometer, even though it's equipped with a manual transmission. |
 4.Here is the lineup of parts...  4.Here is the lineup of parts we robbed from the donor truck. We took every gray-colored piece of the interior that we could remove because the dark-burgundy-colored interior in our project truck made us want to puke every time we drove it. We even snagged the gray seatbelts out of the donor truck because it's much cheaper and easier to buy factory seatbelts in the color we wanted than to try and have our old ones re-stitched or dyed to match. |  5.Very few tools are needed...  5.Very few tools are needed to disassemble and remove a factory Nissan dash. All you need are 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm sockets, a ratchet, a Phillips screwdriver, and a panel-popping tool or flat-blade screwdriver. We began by unscrewing the center dash bezel, which was secured with six Phillips head screws. There are two underneath the top edge of the panel, two holding in the ashtray mount, and two screws located in the bottom corners of the bezel. |  6.Once the screws are out...  6.Once the screws are out and the cigarette lighter is unplugged, the bezel simply pulls away from the dash. |
 7.Next, the lower A/C vent...  7.Next, the lower A/C vent cover is unscrewed. It's held in place by a pair of Phillips head screws, one on each side of the panel. |  8.Once the screws are out,...  8.Once the screws are out, the cover will come loose with a slight tug from the outside edges. |  9.Moving to the upper portion...  9.Moving to the upper portion of the dash, we removed the two Phillips head screws that retain the gauge bezel using a stubby screwdriver. |
 10.Before we can completely...  10.Before we can completely remove the bezel, we first had to unplug the hazard light switch from the wiring harness. |  11.Next, we removed the four...  11.Next, we removed the four screws that held the factory gauge cluster in place. |  12.Pulling forward on the...  12.Pulling forward on the cluster popped the speedometer cable loose, which gave us enough room to unplug the wiring harness. |
 13.With the gauge cluster...  13.With the gauge cluster pulled, we moved downward and unbolted the steering column shroud. It was also held in place with four Phillips head screws. |  14.The shroud then separated...  14.The shroud then separated into two pieces and was removed from the column. |  15.Moving to the left of the...  15.Moving to the left of the steering column, we unscrewed and removed the center section of the lower dash panel. |
 16.To the left of that panel...  16.To the left of that panel is the fuse cover panel. We removed it so that we could gain access to the screws holding the fuse box in place. |  17.Moving to the middle of...  17.Moving to the middle of the dash, we pulled off the A/C control's knobs and then removed the control bezel. The bezel contains the A/C on/off switch we unplugged from the dash as the bezel was removed. |  18.The center A/C vents were...  18.The center A/C vents were the next items to go. Located behind the vents was a pair of Phillips head screws, which were also removed. |
 19.The mounting kit for the...  19.The mounting kit for the head unit was unbolted from the dash by unscrewing four more Phillips head screws. |  20.A pair of screws located...  20.A pair of screws located behind the stock A/C control bezel was removed next. These screws secured the center of the dash to the supports behind it. |  21.Next, we pulled the glove...  21.Next, we pulled the glove compartment out of the dash. It's just snapped in place with plastic tabs, while the rear brace is bolted into the dash. |
 22.We are almost done. Moving...  22.We are almost done. Moving upward to the top of the dash, the three vent covers are popped out of the dash using a flat blade screwdriver. |  23.The top of the dash is...  23.The top of the dash is bolted in place with 10mm bolts. We removed them using a 1/4-inch drive ratchet and a 10mm socket. |  24.At the lower corners of...  24.At the lower corners of the dash, we removed two more 10mm bolts. |
 25.Finally, to release the...  25.Finally, to release the sides of the dash, we popped the vent bezels out of the dash sides. |  26.To make removing the dash...  26.To make removing the dash a bit easier, we unbolted the 14mm bolts that held the steering column in the dash subframe. This allowed us to drop the column down a couple of inches, and gave it us more room to work. |  27.The dashboard was then...  27.The dashboard was then pulled away from the windshield and removed from the passenger-side of the truck. |
 28.Here is a nice shot showing...  28.Here is a nice shot showing just how much better the new dash is shaped compared to the old one. |  29.Here is the single biggest...  29.Here is the single biggest consideration you must make when completing this swap. One of the factory VIN number plates is located at the top of the dash, just behind the windshield. If you swap dashboards and do not swap the VIN plates, you'll be in for a world of hurt if a cop ever looks your truck over thoroughly. |  30.Please check with your...  30.Please check with your local DMV before doing this to make sure you're not breaking the law. It's not exactly legal to swap the VIN plates from one dash to another, but we did it anyways. We'd rather have the right VIN number on our truck. The VIN plate is affixed to the dash with a pair of pop rivets. We drilled out the old rivets and then installed the correct plate onto our donor dash. |
 31.Tune in next month as we...  31.Tune in next month as we install our new dash and a set of aftermarket gauges to complete the swap. | | |