Since the passenger airbag went off on my kid's '95 Bonneville he's replaced the dashboard and seats. He picked up a clean console dash he liked at the boneyard, and bucket seats. His split bench seats are in my garage. Next week he's going to fit the driver's Pontiac seat into my '97 Lumina, which has collapsed on the left side. Every Lumina seat he's seen in a boneyard is likewise collapsed. Can't get them from GM, but an upholsterer can fix it. I spent some time watching him replace his dash and seats. Dashboard is a huge job. Not for the faint at heart. It got me to thinking why dashboards aren't designed with multiple segments - maybe 3 pieces. If you've ever replaced a heater core or instrument cluster, you know what I mean. You've all heard the dreaded words, "Have to remove the dashboard, so you're looking at $6-700 right there." There's plenty of connection brackets behind the firewall to secure the pieces. Only reason I can think why a dash is one piece is the cosmetics of an uninterrupted line. A windshield-length, fairly easily detachable piece could cover segment lines if the public wouldn't go for 2 simple gap covers. You can do a lot with modern plastics. Wouldn't look bad at all. Besides the common issues requiring pulling the dash, now, with airbag deployment wrecking a dash, you would think at minimum, the airbag would be in a dash segment so you don't have to replace the entire dash. Maybe I'm missing something. Followup to the airbag going off for no apparent reason in the Bonnevile. When my kid was walking on the floor after he pulled the passenger seat, he heard water dripping on the garage floor. His walking had popped an underbody drain plug. It's directly under or very near the airbag control module, which sits on the floorpan under the carpet there. Maybe a cup of water drained out. I felt the carpet over the control module and it was dry. He'll find where water is coming in when he puts it on the rack at his work and fix that. He didn't pull the carpet to get at the control module. It's just a bump in the rug now. Has a bagless car now, new steering wheel, new dash with console, and bucket seats. Cost him about a hundred bucks. And lots of labor, maybe two 10 hour days this weekend. And a full workday at the boneyard. But he loves doing this stuff.
--Vic