As should be readily obvious, the dash of a J40 is effectively just one wide flat panel of (typically) steel. Toyota attempted to improve safety by adding a hard rubberized foam pad that went across the dash and would probably crush your face or crack your ribs/sternum in a collision if you were a passenger, or get covered in blood from the steering column shithousing the driver. Essentially it’s there to add insult to injury if the seatbelt fails to be sufficient. You can kinda see my original dash pad in this picture that Kev might remember.
Mine is pretty trashed, as are the three lower blocks (which I’m debating buying replacements for, as most people don’t bother, you can see two beside the radio). It mounts with 4 screws across the dash after it has been pressed onto the long track you can kinda see going across the top of the dash in this picture.
I neglected to retain that track because reasons and without it, mounting an oem dash pad would require fabricating some sort of reasonable facsimile. Other option is to replace this crash safety device with a steel lockbox.
Naturally, I decided to go with the face-mutilator instead of the face-crusher. It arrived today, last one that was in stock for the next couple months. It didn’t come with a lock but the BJ42 lock set I got off ebay included a lock for the suv-body tailgate and is not used on a 45. The tailgate lock is a bit larger than the hole, and the dash came powder coated. I’m thinking very steady hand and file will be the best approach. Anyways, here it is, along with my feet.
