Yesterday saw me drive my Saab 9-3 Monte Carlo up to Drew B’s place for some work to install the carbon fibre dash panel I bought recently.
The carbon fibre kit is basically a stick-on overlay, but it wasn’t as simple as that (is it ever?)
The Monte Carlo came standard with a woodgrain dash and it would have been a shame to let that go to waste. As Drew is fixing up a Saab 9-3 for his mother to drive, we thought it’d be good to swap the plain instrument plate out of that car for the woodgrain plate in mine.
Here’s the Monte Carlo’s original dash – it’s nice, but I don’t think it really suits the sporting nature that I like to ascribe to the car.
This is the carbon fibre dash in various stages of installation. I’ll do a complete post on the process of removing and reinstalling the instrument plate soon.
I use the term instrument plate rather than dashboard as that’s the term Saab use in the workshop guide. The dashboard is the whole enchilada, whereas the instrument plate is what you see being covered with carbon fibre in these images.
My final conundrum is what to do with the rest of the kit. I have carbon fibre panels for the entire lower section (HVAC, etc) and center console, right up past the window switches.
If I want to put the full kit on then I need to get a tape deck to replace the CD player you see here, because the kit is made up for a car with a tape deck.
The people who sold this to me said they used to charge Saab Australia $800 to fit these. It must have been as an aftermarket accessory as this definitely isn’t up to the same standard of fit and finish as my factory Viggen carbon fibre.
Still, it’s a pretty good likeness and I’m very happy with the end result. For just $50, who wouldn’t be?
My thanks to Drew B for the outstallation and installation work. As mentioned, more photos of the whole process will be coming soon.
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