Removing bread box from dash

[Donovan]

Has anyone removed the bread box dash pad from a 1986 ?
What is the easiest way to do this.
Thanks

 

[Ken]

It's a PITA!

I re-installed one on mine because the previous owner had discarded the original, and I still could oinly get three of the four nuts back on. I have not a clue as to how he got it out.

My advice? Keep it, it's an almost three-hundred dollar item.

_ken

 

[CorvetteArchives]

Donovan,
If you choose to remove it its not so bad......first U have to remove the dash pad (we have pics on our site) and remove the metal braces (you'll see them when its off) In 84 they were rivited on ....your's may be screwed so maybe you wont need to drill....even with hand tools it should only take a couple hours...

The most annoying part is getting the replacement to fit properly and not make noise...we had to glue weatherstrip and such but ours was the working glove box.......

Is it worth it? maybe, maybe not...the other guys have a point about originality but maybe live with it awhile...it kinda grows on you! IN any event...... KEEP the part!

Good Luck

 

[rrubel]

I've been wanting to get rid of that breadloaf myself; I personally hate how it looks - ruins the line of the dash. If anyone wants to sell their replacement panel, I'd be happy to take it off their hands. I'll be half-ripping apart the interior this winter anyway (fixing rattles, replacing broken trim, etc) so this should not be too difficult.
[RICHR]

 

[Ken]

Sorry Rich, but I gave mine away at our car show a few years back.

_ken

 

[rrubel]

PM'd you... thanks!
[RICHR]

 

[Ken]

hell, you can HAVE mine rich.

It just dawned on me Len, from the sound of it, you appear to be saying that I was gonna charge Rich.

_ken

 

[69MyWay]

I scored one at a salvage yard one time.

I took it home and gave it a lot of thought. Hated the fact it was such a huge piece of rubber with no other function.

So, I took the spare one and cut a hole in it just big enough to slide in a portable 12V DC television. I guess I had nothing better to do that weekend. Anyway, swapped it with the factory one and drove around for about a year with the t.v. built into the car. This was back in my single days. I think half the girls I took out got a kick out of it, and the other half must have thought I lost my mind. I thought it looked pretty cool.

Anyway, I later decided to get serious about the car, pump up the hsp etc. and put the stock one back in. I don't remember it being all that difficult.

Good luck. That glove box option is 1,000 times better.

 

[CorvetteArchives]

It just dawned on me Len, from the sound of it, you appear to be saying that I was gonna charge Rich.

_ken

Hey.......... well Rich is RICH isnt he? :J

Maybe
Len should PAY Rich to take it off his hands :t

PS Len......Ken was being sarcastic......but then maybe so are you in your response and the joke has gotten just a little TOO DRY for my comprehension!

 

[rrubel]

hell, you can HAVE mine rich. It's the one with the map pocket.

Len Just let me know where to send it

Just to let anyone who cares know, Len's as good as his word and the dash replacement piece arrived the end of last week. Thanks, Len!

And hopefully I'll be getting the car back from the shop this week - the parking brake pieces finally arrived, and GM may have finally sent the correct clutch fork. So along with the fender liners, halo trim, sticking windows and mirrors, the camera mount (coming next month! Ken, your original postings about the Cross-bar led me to get one), and other goodies, the bread loaf will be getting the axe.

 

[Drewser]

Ever since I bought my vette I've looked at that "breadbox" and wondered what the hell they were thinking. Could it be a saftey device, ya know...pre airbag? I saw the pix at Corvette1984s site and I started trying to open it up...no luck. GREAT idea putting something useful in there by the way. I just wish the engineers at GM would had thought of it sooner.

 

[rrubel]

OK, the breadbox is out and the map pocket is *mostly* in. I elected to take the GM-standard approach and removed the dash top, the radio/climate bezel, the instrument panel bezel, etc. This was facilitated by the fact that whoever repaired the dash cluster lost about half the screws and broke a couple of the mounting points (including having pulled the defroster surround screws through the dash pad - which is made of styrofoam!). Took me about 10 minutes to pull the whole dash apart. The upper pad was being held on by windshield gasket material!

Now the fun began - the GM directions given with the map pocket might have been for a different year because they were useless for me - had me unscrew a hose that wasn't attached to anything important and neglected to tell me how to remove the lower two screws from the breadloaf pad. I wound up using wirecutters to cut the clips used as nuts and unscrewing them around the screws, then catching those before they fell into the dash. Also tried removing the under-dash panel, but after removing it was no closer to the screws I needed to remove.

So the pad is out, the AC duct has been replaced, and the opening in the map pocket for the AC vent has been enlarged (needed a LOT of trimming). Now I need to tape some things together and look at fixing some of the broken brackets and then put the dash back together. Hopefully the pocket is sturdy; it wobbles a bit right now. At least it's possible (vaguely) to put the original pad back in; no cutting of major components or framework was needed. Did have to drill two small holes in the back of where the pad was to hold the fasteners for the pocket.

Anyone need some digital pix of the inside of the dash, while I'm there?

Aside - when do the footwell lights turn on? I didn't even realize there's one on the passenger side until I crawled under the dash. Bulb looks OK, but no light...

 

[Ken]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Corvette interior Rich!

See my interior page for some pictures of what I went through last winter. Even when I had the thing completely apart, I could not get all four of the nuts back onto the bolts for the pad where they come through the back. :eyerole

:L Ain't it great when you are lying there on your back and you have to try and figure out which way the angle goes so you can get your wrench/ratchet on, and then you have to remember which direction is which when you are upside-down and backwards! :crazy

BTW, my lights under the dash on both footwells worked fine, until I re-did the interior that is. :L Now the light on the passenger side is not lighting; it's probably shorting out on something, but I'll be back in there soon.

_ken

 

[rrubel]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Corvette interior Rich!


Thanks! Where's the guidebook? As I was working on this, my first thoughts were how 80's all the stuff looked - then I remembered what year car it is... It says something about how great the Vette is that GM was able to get away with such a cheap interior for so long.


:L Ain't it great when you are lying there on your back and you have to try and figure out which way the angle goes so you can get your wrench/ratchet on, and then you have to remember which direction is which when you are upside-down and backwards! :crazy


Oh yeah... fortunately, I managed to do most of this one from the top. If it weren't 30 degrees in my garage, I might have been tempted to take more apart and go from the bottom.

Ken, the cargo area looks cool in silver with no carpet

[RICHR]

 

[trrgod]

I removed the breadloaf on my 89 years ago. I bought a replacement piece from one of the catalogs. The part I got has a flat look with a elastic pocket in it. It needed some fabrication to fit perfect and not rattle. I also had to attached the air/con duct differently than in the instructions because they supplied 2 sided tape which came loose when the interior got hot. Other than these small pains it is great. I would recommend doing a change. The breadloaf is UGLY. Keep it stored if you want to save it. But several alternatives are available and some also are useful like the one I put in. The extra storage space is useful since Corvette didn't put any in the doors where they should have.

 

[maxrevs85]

I remember the first time I looked at a C4 . I saw the bread box and thought , what the hell is that?!.....LOL....I'll try not to let it bother me for now.....WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? :eek

Dave,
85 Z51 4+3 coupe

 

[rrubel]

I remember the first time I looked at a C4 . I saw the bread box and thought , what the hell is that?!.....LOL....I'll try not to let it bother me for now.....WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? :eek

According to my Corvette Black Book:
"The 1984 Corvette was designed with a pad protruding from the passenger side of the dash. This was part of a passive restraint system conceived when it was assumed the federal regulation would require such restraints. The Reagan Administration dropped the restraint proposal, but the Corvette's pad remained."

Here, if they come through, are some pix of the installation and final result.

<darn it, I *will* get these things posted!!>

 

[Ken]

Nope, no pics!

_ken

 

[maxrevs85]

Looks better.....Pics came thru great. You have a project going there! :bang
Thanks

 

[Ken]

Looks good but WAY too big! Can ya reduce it a little Rich?

BTW, the steering wheel replacement is a three-hundred dollar item too. :eyerole

_ken