HedgehogOutdoors
New member
THIS WRITEUP WAS BASED OFF A '98, OTHER YEAR MODELS MAY BE DIFFERENT. DO AT YOUR OWN RISK.
So, I have been looking into this mod for months. Finally, we finished up a bottle of Kaboom, so I nabbed it before it went into the recycling. I decided I'd make this thread to show you my muck ups, so you don't make the same mistake and break your dash. First off, I cut the Kaboom bottle in half with a hobby knife. The stickers on the bottle are made of plastic, not paper so they peel off nice and clean. Therefore, you can cut along the seam of the bottle. Just cut the top and bottom off, they are too risky to cut(I've put a carving knife through my finger down to bone, don't risk it when it comes to knives).
The next part is taking apart the dash. The panel where your parking brake is(and where your ECT button is on older models) SHOULD come off, but if you are impatient like me, you don't need to. NOTE: to remove this panel, you will need to take the vehicle out of gear. Put your foot FIRMLY on the brake, with parking brake on, put key into RUN position, and move shifter out of park. I put it into neutral. Even with parking brake on, you NEED your foot on the brake HARD, it WILL roll. Remove the panel around the shifter and 4wd shifter, starting at the front end. You needn't remove it all the way, you can leave it as I have in this picture:
The next part is preparing the final panel for removal. You need to pull off the ends of the levers and the knobs for the heater. There is also a faceplate on the heater that MUST be removed to prevent destroying the dash(like I almost did). When I started removing the panel, I didn't know there were screws behind the heater's faceplate, so I got the left side out, and struggled with the right for about 10 minutes. Finally I pulled the faceplate off and noticed the screw. Here are the two screw holes:
Top left behind heater faceplate(missing in this picture):
And bottom right:
I got the bottom right screw out, and the panel literally fell out at that point. Once the panel comes loose, you only need to remove the top 3 harnesses to get the clock out. One is for the rear defrost button, the second is for the hazards, and the final one is for the clock itself. Once I got the harnesses out, I noticed the screw on the back of the panel, which was the one I didn't know about at the top left. I also noticed that the AC button is a separate unit from the rest of the heater, and comes out like so:
I couldn't get pictures doing the next part the way I did it, so I'll explain the best I can. On the left side of the clock unit are 2 protrusions that catch on this long piece of plastic from the panel to hold it into place. Pull that piece of plastic away from the clock, and you can pull the left side out. There is the same thing on the right side(at least that's what it felt like) and you can't get your hand in there, which is why you do the left side. For me, the clock came out once I got the left side loose.
Then, you need to get the faceplate off of the clock. There are two clips at the top and two more at the bottom. I pulled the top end of the plate off a little, and figured it would wiggle out like the clock did from the panel for the dash. That is NOT the case. I ended up snapping one of the bottom clips. The other one is intact, so that should hold the faceplate in place.
Once I got the faceplate off, the plastic buttons came off, as well as the actual rubber part that actually activates the buttons and completes the circuit. Be careful not to lose those, you can not change the time without them. I put them back into the plastic buttons, and put those into the clock's faceplate.
Then I cut a piece of bottle roughly to the size of the inside of most of the faceplate, to about an eighth of an inch above the buttons. Here is the kaboom bottle resting in the faceplate before glue, you can see how I placed the buttons so I wouldn't lose them:
Then I used a glue roller to secure the bottle clipping to the faceplate.
Here is the clock before, and after.
I apologize for the pictures being out of focus, not aimed properly, and not light enough, I will try to get clearer pictures tomorrow. Thanks for viewing, I appreciate your time for reading this, and I hope you appreciate the effort I put into creating this writeup.
John
So, I have been looking into this mod for months. Finally, we finished up a bottle of Kaboom, so I nabbed it before it went into the recycling. I decided I'd make this thread to show you my muck ups, so you don't make the same mistake and break your dash. First off, I cut the Kaboom bottle in half with a hobby knife. The stickers on the bottle are made of plastic, not paper so they peel off nice and clean. Therefore, you can cut along the seam of the bottle. Just cut the top and bottom off, they are too risky to cut(I've put a carving knife through my finger down to bone, don't risk it when it comes to knives).
The next part is taking apart the dash. The panel where your parking brake is(and where your ECT button is on older models) SHOULD come off, but if you are impatient like me, you don't need to. NOTE: to remove this panel, you will need to take the vehicle out of gear. Put your foot FIRMLY on the brake, with parking brake on, put key into RUN position, and move shifter out of park. I put it into neutral. Even with parking brake on, you NEED your foot on the brake HARD, it WILL roll. Remove the panel around the shifter and 4wd shifter, starting at the front end. You needn't remove it all the way, you can leave it as I have in this picture:
The next part is preparing the final panel for removal. You need to pull off the ends of the levers and the knobs for the heater. There is also a faceplate on the heater that MUST be removed to prevent destroying the dash(like I almost did). When I started removing the panel, I didn't know there were screws behind the heater's faceplate, so I got the left side out, and struggled with the right for about 10 minutes. Finally I pulled the faceplate off and noticed the screw. Here are the two screw holes:
Top left behind heater faceplate(missing in this picture):
And bottom right:
I got the bottom right screw out, and the panel literally fell out at that point. Once the panel comes loose, you only need to remove the top 3 harnesses to get the clock out. One is for the rear defrost button, the second is for the hazards, and the final one is for the clock itself. Once I got the harnesses out, I noticed the screw on the back of the panel, which was the one I didn't know about at the top left. I also noticed that the AC button is a separate unit from the rest of the heater, and comes out like so:
I couldn't get pictures doing the next part the way I did it, so I'll explain the best I can. On the left side of the clock unit are 2 protrusions that catch on this long piece of plastic from the panel to hold it into place. Pull that piece of plastic away from the clock, and you can pull the left side out. There is the same thing on the right side(at least that's what it felt like) and you can't get your hand in there, which is why you do the left side. For me, the clock came out once I got the left side loose.
Then, you need to get the faceplate off of the clock. There are two clips at the top and two more at the bottom. I pulled the top end of the plate off a little, and figured it would wiggle out like the clock did from the panel for the dash. That is NOT the case. I ended up snapping one of the bottom clips. The other one is intact, so that should hold the faceplate in place.
Once I got the faceplate off, the plastic buttons came off, as well as the actual rubber part that actually activates the buttons and completes the circuit. Be careful not to lose those, you can not change the time without them. I put them back into the plastic buttons, and put those into the clock's faceplate.
Then I cut a piece of bottle roughly to the size of the inside of most of the faceplate, to about an eighth of an inch above the buttons. Here is the kaboom bottle resting in the faceplate before glue, you can see how I placed the buttons so I wouldn't lose them:
Then I used a glue roller to secure the bottle clipping to the faceplate.
Here is the clock before, and after.
I apologize for the pictures being out of focus, not aimed properly, and not light enough, I will try to get clearer pictures tomorrow. Thanks for viewing, I appreciate your time for reading this, and I hope you appreciate the effort I put into creating this writeup.
John
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