Swapping Gen 2 dash to Gen 3?

[Matthew Jeschke]

Has anybody done this? I'm not even sure if is possible...

I have completely rebuilt my truck, even tried to restore the interior. But I cannot kid myself, the interior on these trucks is absolute heaping pile of junk, lest the seats. The trim is all low grade plastic and cheap connectors. GM aught to be completely ashamed of this, da$m bean counters. Great truck, terrible interior. The gen one and before was decent, and lasted, but darn did GM cut corners after that. I LOVE the truck but am utterly ashamed, downright embarrassed of the interior trim.

My griping aside. I have dismantled and rebuild the whole dash and it stick rattles terrible and is loose. I am wondering if it's possible to simply swap the dash with a newer one, say from a gen 3 Tahoe (truck). Has anybody done this? I don't know if they re-engineered the mounting points... nor if a newer cluster would communicate w/ the older PCM & electronics.

 

[Doubeleive]

meh, probably better off just getting a gmt900, the dash's are prone to cracking anyway so just changing the dash if even possible wouldn't be much of an upgrade
overall the gmt900 interior to me seems better suited for longevity

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Built up rest of truck though and like the older body style. I'd have to get rid of the drivetrain I built up. I have somewhere around $10,000 in parts put in the engine, trans, and diff so far, plus my labor. Works AWESOME, lest the horrifically bad dash and crappy door panels. I think somebody could fabricate their own door panels but damn that dash is bad. I pulled a core (inner skeleton) out at junkyard and tried to improve it... but it still rattles. Last off road trip was on a horrible wash boded road. Pieces of the dash came apart and fell to floor on the road even after I had rebuilt it. Sigh... perhaps if just there was an aftermarket top skin. That's the worst part of the whole thing. The parts on floor were from that cheap top skin.

It seems I can rebuild everything except the interior. The rest of the truck is in good shape now to figure out how to tackle this dash. Maybe I just forget it and let it be, but I know it'll drive me crazy.

 

[tooleyondeck]

It seems I can rebuild everything except the interior. The rest of the truck is in good shape now to figure out how to tackle this dash. Maybe I just forget it and let it be, but I know it'll drive me crazy.

These interiors are fairly simple to swap, albeit time consuming. Why not look for a Denali or Escalade dash that is in decent shape and swap them out? Finding a donor interior would allow you to paint, reupholster, or whatever else you wanted to do prior to tearing into your existing dash. Simple things like an 03+ steering wheel and a custom gauge cluster will make the interior feel a lot more modern too.

I'm in the process of restoring my interior as well, and I feel your pain. Broken clips everywhere...

 

[tooleyondeck]

perhaps if just there was an aftermarket top skin. That's the worst part of the whole thing.

Oh and also... https://dashskin.com/2000-2006-chevy-gmc-suv-99-06-pickup-molded-dash-cover#143=

^ This was well worth it for mine...

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

@tooleyondeck thanks for the tips. I'd not thought much about putting in the higher trim level / Denali dash. I've no experience taking those apart Did they build those dashes better?

I've dismantled and put back together a handful of these GMT800 dashes now. Including tearing mine completely down (minus airbox) three times now I think...

I looked into the skins... It's been temping. I bought another good top and painted it for my truck. It looks great, just would be nice if it was more solid. I also have a C5 Covette and regardless what they say about those, that dash was built REALLY well. It's like a foam or something much thicker / more solid. I wonder if a person couldn't just apply some sort of backing / foam / epoxy / something to bottom of dash cover to reinforce it. I need to speak with body supply store.

 

[Tonyrodz]

@tooleyondeck thanks for the tips. I'd not thought much about putting in the higher trim level / Denali dash. I've no experience taking those apart Did they build those dashes better?

I've dismantled and put back together a handful of these GMT800 dashes now. Including tearing mine completely down (minus airbox) three times now I think...

I looked into the skins... It's been temping. I bought another good top and painted it for my truck. It looks great, just would be nice if it was more solid. I also have a C5 Covette and regardless what they say about those, that dash was built REALLY well. It's like a foam or something much thicker / more solid. I wonder if a person couldn't just apply some sort of backing / foam / epoxy / something to bottom of dash cover to reinforce it. I need to speak with body supply store.

How about that expanding foam? Spraying that under the dash should quiet things up a bit.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

I like the idea. The stuff for houses? I wonder if they make an automotive application. I really need to go talk to them at the body shop supply store.

My corvette is built with that stuff already on the dash. It's so awesome. Anybody who knocks quality of C5 doesn't know what they're talking about. I dismantled part of dash and am wholy impressed. The center support for controls & radio is stainless steel! The other materials were of course plastic or some extruded foam but high quality, better than that stuff in our door handles. They really put some thought into making high volume w/ quality on the C5.

I LOVE my GMT800 / Tahoe. I think it's the sexiest truck GM made... We just need to figure out how to fix up the interior.

 

[Meathead16]

The Esky / Denali interior trims look nicer, but it ends with the aesthetics unfortunately. My dash bezel has literally been cumbling to pieces. Cheapest I can find is $200 used.For the quality of these things paying even $50 feels like a ripoff for just a piece of plastic. Duct tape and hot glue has been holding together my disgraced ratchet mess for awhile now.

One positive thing about these interiors for me is that I've always been partial to dark interior colors.. GM only made gen2 Escalade interiors in beige but now that the paint is peeling eventually it'll all be black

What really has me perplexed is my 04 Pontiac had a much higher quality interior than my Escalade does. I would think it'd be the other way around. The dash panel and everything had that soft touch, leather type outer shell that had foam backing to it attached to a rigid plastic shell.. kind of like what yo I describe on your C5. It had some peeling issues near the windshield but generally speaking it held up very well and looked amazing. Nothing GM makes sense anymore when an $18k car provides an interior that is better on every level than a $50k luxury truck.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Yeah it's sad. Hopefully we can come up with some awesome ways to make this stuff last / reinforce and rebuild it. I've had no luck on the dash. I feel like every time I take it apart I make it worse. Need to figure out what that foam is they use on the bottom of some of the dashes. Would make it MUCH quieter and reinforce the cheap crappy dash.

I also like the idea of that dash skin but maybe take it a step farther and adhere a vinyl or leather. Would be awesome.

 

[adventurenali92]

If you’re swapping out the dash top, I’d say the Denali dash top isn’t any better than a regular Tahoe. It’s the same plastic material and feels exactly like a Tahoe dash. The Escalade dash top is a tad bit better but it’s not like a crazy difference. And to be honest the only GMT900 dash top I’d consider to be a really nice dash, would be the Escalade part as it’s leather bound and not usually prone to the cracking issues that plagued the other GMT900 models plastic dash tops.

 

[adriver]

Is your problem with it the function or form?


I've recently seen a pic where it was done in Silverado, NNBS dash and cluster in a NBS. I do remember it looked butchered. These days, I can't honestly tell you it was a real pic or how they did it, or if it even worked. I'll try to remember this if I do and link it. (might have been a facebook group).


I'm still not set on my interior either. It does look horrible. My plan was to most likely cover the plastics in a fabric.

The pillars and not sure what else, that have that bumpy texture to em; that stuff rubs right off. The coating is like a lightweight spray in bed liner. You can rub back with your thumb and it will start to peel or take if off with rubbing alcohol. The plastics are smooth underneath that coating. If you pull any of the pillar panels off, or the center console, and look underneath, that is what the outside will be if you remove the coating. if you have any paint skills, it would be pretty easy to paint em nice, if you put in a little time.


I haven't taken off my dash yet, but I need to. Supposedly it's the mounting clips that break and cause the rattle. I want to try to find a way to remove those.

 

[tooleyondeck]

We just need to figure out how to fix up the interior.

This is my current mission. Dashskin really made a huge difference. I also repainted all the trim and used vinyl paint to black out the rest of the dash. it’s a work in progress. As far as tightening up all the connectors, I did some searching on here and found that getting some small adhesive felt strips and wrapping all the connectors with them really tightens things up and reduces the rattling. JB Plastic Weld works pretty good for fixing broken ones too. I’ll be posting updates periodically as I make progress on mine so I’ll be watching yours too.

My next project will be swapping to a 05-09 Envoy Denali steering wheel with the nicer Denali center logo.

 

[adventurenali92]

This is my current mission. Dashskin really made a huge difference. I also repainted all the trim and used vinyl paint to black out the rest of the dash. it’s a work in progress. As far as tightening up all the connectors, I did some searching on here and found that getting some small adhesive felt strips and wrapping all the connectors with them really tightens things up and reduces the rattling. JB Plastic Weld works pretty good for fixing broken ones too. I’ll be posting updates periodically as I make progress on mine so I’ll be watching yours too.

My next project will be swapping to a 05-09 Envoy Denali steering wheel with the nicer Denali center logo.

View attachment 411639

I have the envoy denali center airbag cover in my Yukon Denali. I love having the Denali logo at my steering wheel. Mine popped up on eBay for a decent price so I grabbed it quick. I see them on there quite often. I also scored an envoy Denali wheel out of a junkyard envoy, it’s the same wheel the platinum edition Escalade uses. It’s gonna look nice in the truck when I get it resurfaced.

 

[PG01]

@Matthew Jeschke
For rattles on certain things, metal to metal plastic to metal etc etc I like to take self adhesive velcro, just the soft side and stick to one side or another and it tightens connectors and quiets many noises.
I get it free from work and now i have 19,000ft of the hard side of velcro laying around but hey… no rattles. Ideas man, ideas…..
Good luck

 

[tooleyondeck]

I have the envoy denali center airbag cover in my Yukon Denali. I love having the Denali logo at my steering wheel. Mine popped up on eBay for a decent price so I grabbed it quick. I see them on there quite often. I also scored an envoy Denali wheel out of a junkyard envoy, it’s the same wheel the platinum edition Escalade uses. It’s gonna look nice in the truck when I get it resurfaced.

I saw that in your build thread. Did you have any issue with the airbag connections? It seems that a couple people have reported that some envoy airbags having different connectors. I figured if that's the case then I can just swap out the outer cover and use any ole 03+ black steering wheel.