So this is an entry into the Do-It-Yourself contest...
So I just got this 2008 Green Tundra on 5-31, has 50miles on it, the big 5L and as you all say hauls ***. Well one thing that has always crabbed my *** was the way they put the tunnels in the guages. Pretty dumb if you ask me since, I would prefer a solid open view at all my gauges rather then whizin down a hole. So I set out to cut th **** out and make that thing open. Here is the deal...
These 2008 Tundras at least are almost snap and go trucks. Everything inside this thing is snapped in one way by one style of clip, and all you have to do to get it out it TUG! There are a few bolts along the way, but they have at least made then all use a 10mm socket or an allen head screwdriver.
So first comes the front gray dash that covers the gear cluster and whatnot. Just grap a hold of a few areas top and bottom, and cross your arms when you do it, the pul towards you, its really simple and you'll see once it comes out.
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you'll see that the two blowers come out when you take the silver dash piece out, and you will also have to be careful with all the cables, they didn't allow much slack in my cables so be sure to ease on them. Using a flat head screwdriver works good for popping out all the elec. connections.
Then once you have the silver dash out, pop out all the other small pieces, and then take apart the silver and black tunnels.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...a/IMG_6222.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...a/IMG_6220.jpg you can see in this last picture that there are little white pieces of plastic holding everything together, just use a pair of need nose pilers and grap and twist and it will come right off, then follows the dis-assembly of the black tunnels and the silver rings.
After you get all that crap outta there, you have the blank silver cover. At this point you will see the oval that will come out of the cover, by using masking tape that was 1" wide, I lawyered the front of the cover to protect it from scratches and to draw my cutout on.
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In this last picture you can see where I started with the design, using stencils and a ruler, it took a few times and a few retapings, but I eventually got my shap with patentience and french stencils to help make the curves...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...a/IMG_6237.jpg
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Once I finally got the right shape I held my piece down on one end and then used a drimmel to cut out my shape following the red line.
[url]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/bikermod/Tundra/IMG_6241.jpg
[url]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/bikermod/Tundra/IMG_6242.jpg
So after you get the whole inside cut out you need to sand or smooth the edges somehow. I used a metal file and put a nice bevel on the front edge to hide the small imperfections you may see at an angle when in the truck.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...a/IMG_6244.jpg
There is a clear plastic cover covering the gauges. I said fug it and got rid of that to, I know it should prob. be there for safety sake,. but it looks way better with it off. Now you can see all the gauges with minor interference from the design
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...a/IMG_6246.jpg
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once, you have it all back snapped in place, you will have to deal with the main wires that run over the top of the original placement., just zip tie or use double backed tape to hold these down out of sight, and there you have it. A nice clear view of all your stock cluster and a small no price mod. The only thing I may do now is paint it black....ahhh yeah...enjoy
eNIg
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