I recently bought yet another gen1, this one for my 16 year old daugher's birthday. I just installed an ipod adapter in it, boy that was painful..I used one from a newer car with 12pin connector, and had to hack it into this car's wiring. In any case, I had to remove the dash panel, and it was already superglued together, and now it is broken up into a dozen peices. I'm trying to glue it back together again, as I don't want to spend $200 on a replacement for a $1000 car...but it is looking like humpty-dumpty. Any ideas for alternative solutions? I'm conjuring up making a replacement out of wood...
The dealers selling online should have it for less than $200. If you go to Pick-a-Part (or a boneyard in general), remember the one you're trying to pick will also be old and brittle ... you might want to watch the video before going to remove it, if you haven't already. In my experience, nearly all of my brilliant "I could save a bundle by just making one out of X" ideas turn out to underestimate the design and labor time by a giant factor ... for the simplicity of just getting the right part and popping it in and moving on with life, somewhere south of $200 really ain't bad. -Chap
Well, I repaired the dash panel. Used epoxy to glue humpty back together again, and filled all the cracks, and then painted it the same color as the car, metallic forest green. Also painted the interior door panels green too. Took a half a days work, but it looks pretty cool, and most definitely different than any other Prius. My daughter likes it. I will upload a pic later with it all back in the car, just haven't had the chance yet, but wanted to update the thread.
The prius dash is made of ABS plastic. Instead of using super glue use acetone to glue pieces together. It melts the plastic and when you stick the pieces together they will bond and form a stronger hold than with super glue. Although it does discover the plastic so I would do it from the back of the dash and use a Qtip to apply to avoid dripping.
I got one from Camelback Toyota in Phoenix. Just shy of $200 including tax. Google Camelback Toyota. Great online prices, free shipping, and there's a 3% discount listed on the forerunner forum. I actually found on in a JY in Phoenix, in pristine shape. Didn't have enough money to get it tho. That was about 4 months ago. They do show up once in a while. Most online JY's won't ship them, because there's little chance they would survive.
