I will now attempt to explain how to switch a dashboard from the Japanese way to the some of the rest of the world way. Of doing things. Bear with me. This will get rough and unpleasant but if you bring a Snicker bar, a spoon, and a will to learn, you will. Learn, I mean. You will learn. How to swap a dash.
Onward. With a Tamiya WRX dashboard.
Unacceptable.
1. With your razor saw and mitre box (you have one, right?), start cutting the dash. I made an indepth plan of how to do it, but it didn't who up in the pics. The plan is to cut off the ends, and cut the console and the glove box out, leaving the center console attached to the vent area. You will see how this plays out as the we progress.
2. See how the ends are cut off, but the cut from the saw doesn't go all the way through the dash (arrow).
3. I cut the the gauge pod and the glove box segments the rest of the way out with my hobby knife.
4. Oh no! What have I done?
1. Swap the the gauge pod and the glove box. Notice I had to cut the parts so that they would fit in each other's place (arrow).
2. Glue it all up. Wow, it almost works!
3. Uh oh, there are two triangle shaped holes in the dash. What shall be done? I need to cut out patches and glue them in place.
4. I put celophane tape over the dash, and traced the holes so that I could transfer the shape to styrene sheet.
1. Cut the triangles out of plastic sheet using the tape as a pattern.
2. Glue into place, and add putty. Save me!
3. Sand smooth and rescribe panel lines.
4. Bonus!
Acceptable.
Enjoy.