For those of you that know, can I swap the carpet in the vehicle WITHOUT having to have the dash out???

I'm about to do my tan to black swap, and since my GS is my DD, I'll probably end up doing the swap in stages. I'm planning on doing the dash separately from the seats and carpet. At least that's how I'd like to do it.

Anyone know the answer?

I was thinking about doing the pillars and headliner in one group, then the door panels, and finally doing the carpet seats and rear deck.

What do you think about my plan?

Thanks

 

The dash shouldn't have to be removed. I'm pretty sure you'll have to remove the center console, but not the dash.

 

how confident is pretty sure?

 

LOL, I'm thinkin' the same thing!

 

I'm looking back at my interior swap pictures and it looks like I had the dash out before I had the carpet out but I think it was because it was convenient. Once everything is out the dash only takes a couple bolts to remove. It took me 3 full days with a couple friends to swap everything out.

 

I just sold a black carpet to someone on Club Lexus. I am 100% certain the dash does not have to be removed. The center console does have to be removed because the carpet clips on to some tabs under the center console to keep the carpet taught and in place. It's actually pretty easy to remove. If you have a friend helping, there is no reason why you can't pull the carpet in under an hour, even by yourself it shouldn't take an hour. There are also some vents under the front seats that are help in place by some Phillips screws. You will have to remove those vents.

The picture above shows everything was mentioning. If you plan to eventually install an aftermarket stereo, when you swap the carpet is best time to run all your wiring.

 

Props to you guys for remembering where everything goes when putting the swap back in!! From those pics, it would drive me nuts!

 

Funny thing is, I just left piles of bolts laying around and it all worked out in the end. I guess I know these cars too well.

 

i just get some of the mult comparment trays and label the spots as i work...

easy to keep up with then.

Micheal it sounds like a good idea attacking this in stages....you ever get that one part replaced btw? you decide if you gonna do alcantraz or suede?

 

Wow Chrispy, that pic looked like a Nightmare!
op so... your keeping ur original dash, but everything else will be black?

 

Nope, everything is getting swapped. Over the weekend I managed to get started. My nephew and I spent the bulk of Sunday afternoon removing the seats, carpet, B & C pillars, center console, and rear deck, and putting in the black/gray right back in.

It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Being my first time, I went slow, there's a small learning curve. Now I'm convinced I could do what took me 6 hours in about half the time.

This week I'm thinking I can probably do a door panel or two a night during the week. This weekend I'll be doing the dash swap. I'll also be replacing my last servo, and wiring in PureDrifter's aux hack, and Debonair's Bluetooth solution.

Once I get it all in and finished, I'm going to try living with the gray headliner, and pillars. I'm still not certain about doing a black top half conversion, yet. Right now the money I'd use for that mod will either be going to new headlight housings, or having the wood trim overlayed with REAL carbon fiber. I'm trying to get away from the luxury "look", and want a sportier "look", at least as much as I can considering it's gold (4P2) on the outside.

One thing that has slowed down the process is accomodating the differences between a 98 and 04. There are minor differences between various parts. Specifically the front seats. The 04 seats have a pin that sits just behind the front bolt holes on the tracks that go into the floor. Well the 98 has no such holes, so I had to drill 1/2" holes to get the seats properly lined up to the bolt holes. Then the B pillars aren't exactly the same. There are some pins and clips that have moved or been removed, not to mention the 04 headliner sits differently where it meets the top of the B pillars. Right now, since I still have the old headliner still up, there's a noticable gap between them. Of course that'll go away once the new headliner is in.

I would imagine though that if you're swapping the same year, or closer than mine (98->04) that you won't have these issues. I'm just hoping I don't run across any more "improvements" in the dash or headliner.

BTW, Thomas, you can now be 100% confident about not having to pull the dash to get the carpet out.

Brian, the tan carpet will clean up nice. Let me know if you're still interested. I'm sure we can work something out. And for anyone else that might be interested, I'll have a bunch of tan parts, and even some black parts that I'll be getting rid of when I'm done with the swap. I'll inventory and post up pics with prices in the classifieds soon. The rear seats look NICE!!

I'm amazed at how rough people can be on their rides. My tan interior looks almost as nice as the 6 year newer, 120K mile less wear black interior. Guess I'm just **** like that.