Center dash panel

[Hvacman]

On my center dash panel I have all the clips on plastic center panel surround.
it doesn’t stay in place.
I push in the top and the bottom comes out etc. my question is:
are the Clips just supposed to go into the plastic dash rectangular holes or are those plastic holes supposed to have a metal “female” receiver piece to securely accept the clips on the panel??
Or ardd we these panels just crappy design wise?

 

[Bad Luck]

Metal clips into the squared dash holes. No metal parts on the dash side of the equation. Sounds like you have something in the way of it sitting flush

 

[4Skinner98]

I had this happen to me. I really yanked on it until I realised there are two screws behind the temp control panel that need to be removed to allow the dash to come off. When reinstalling I had the same issue as you: something keeping it from sitting flush in the center. It turns out I pulled the lower right screw seat of the temp control out . I removed the other 2 screws of the temp panel and put it back behind where it is supposed to go. Center dash popped right in after that.

 

[Spiker Engineering]

There should be metal clips on the plastic tabs on the bezel, like shown below. The dash itself just has openings for these to snap into.

It should be a snug fit, as evidenced by the fact that many clips get broken during bezel removal.