Dashboard removal

[syracusemike]

Hello all, new to the forum and enjoying the helpful posts so far. Classicrocjunkie is a fountain of information! Planning on having a aftermarket Cd player put in and was amazed that i found a person that acutally took the time to go step by step w/ pics on how to take a cavalier dash apart. Searched the web many times only to find nothing but import car pages. Have a couple of questions regarding the topic of the airbag dilema. I have a friend who is going to help me do the install, and is well capable to do this. My question is, how crucial is it to disable the airbags? He's done many of these and aftermarkets and i have faith that he is smart enough not to tap into the wrong wire and trigger the airbags. Should it be disabled just for good measure as you stated on your post? Also, when i go to do this i want to install the indiglo cluster overlay that i bought a while ago and haven't gotten around to doing yet. The pathetic directions it came with were very minimal. The only thing the directions stressed was not to tap into the light dimmer. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated!

[01Cavy]

As for the cd deck, I didn't disable my airbags when I put mine in. If you have a wire harness, than its very easy...and no way to mistake wires and tap into your air bag. As a matter of fact, even without a harness you can't tap into your airbag. It does not have a wire that has anything to do with the cd player.

As for the overlay, its very easy to put in. You have to take the cluser out, and take the plastic top off. You can figure out how to do that just by looking at it. Then slide the overlay over the needles, and tap into your parking lights wire. I have no clue which one that is, but it should be labled in your manual, or get a haynes manual and it will tell you. Hope this helps.

[syracusemike]

Thanks for the reply, sorry to all you out there for yet another question about dashboard removal. I'm going to go with a Kenwood, have had good luck with their stuff before. I assume i'll have to get a dash kit for a 1.5 DIN? I read somewhere that a double DIN won't fit in the 01' CAV. Not a big deal to me, i don't mind having a little pocket on the bottom. Anything to get that piece of crap that is in there now. The main reason for getting an aftermarket is my factory CD player/radio refuses to play CD's anymore and shows a constant "ERR" over and over. It has done this in the past and recovered a day later....not this time. Appantly the manual states "ERR" means a dirty disc or too humid or hot! Why can't they just put better decks in these cars! JUNK!

[01Cavy]

Yes 1.5