Thanks for all who answered questions and otherwise supported my efforts in removing my 1999 996 dash so I could reskin it. What follows is a picture by picture account of how I removed my dash.

Once you have removed both left and right side air vents, the headlight switch dial, the ignition key cover, the instrument console, the steering wheel and all its trim, the radio and all its trim, the alarm receiving unit and its trim, and both left and right side speakers, you can start removing the dash. The Pictures show every screw I removed but one – this one is located under the alarm receiving unit in the center if the dash right next to the windshield. I also removed the right side air vent Phillips screw so I could remove the black air pipe it connects to under the dash. The 2 13mm bolts that hold the air bag in place can be accessed when this black air pipe is removed. I laid on my back in the passenger foot well and looked directly up and found and removed the bolts.

Once all the screws were removed, I pushed all the wires through their respect openings, grabbed the bottom right side of the dash with one hand and the steering wheel area with the other and pulled the bottom out first as I carefully rotated up and out.

The install is just backwards. Good Luck.

 

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Good job keep em coming, do you have any pictures of inside of car around A/C unit? I may have to change A/C unit and looks like the dash needs to come out for that. What would you say time estimate is?

 

Time to remove the dash not including the time to remove all the other components - about 1-2 hours. With all the other stuff that has to be removed, about 8-10 hours because you want to go slow and take pictures so you can put it back together correctly. I'll post some pics of the AC unit right now. Any particular part you want me to focus on?

 

I think my heat exchanger may have a leak so any pics of how the whole A/C Distribution unit is mounted would be very helpful.

 

If you post me a pdf of specifically what you want me to take a pic of, I am happy to do it while I have the area accessible. I just took a bunch of shots but not sure which ones would help if any.

 

Deleted my initial post to keep all your pics together.

Thanks! I'm happy to see these cars starting to be worked on by people other than shops. Getting all that trim off is often tricky...

 

bookmarked.

might come in handy in the near future

 

I think probably what you have will be fine maybe pics of top, sides and bottom views also helps others that are in the trenches doing a similar DIY anything in general would work.

 

Excellent pictures... I have to recover mine as well.