Taking gauges off...or not?

[canadian_ice]

Hi,<P>I've been outside for like 2 hours taking apart my dash. I get to the guages and I notice 4 screws. The top 2 come out easily, the bottom right takes me TWENTY (20) minutes to finally come out, and I tried for half an hour before I gave up on the bottom left!!! <P>Anyways, I want to paint the stuff around the circles white like white fish)....my question is this: do I HAVE to take the whole thing out (i.e. that freakin screw) or does the plastic come off or what?<P>Sorry but I'm really frustrated.

[white fish]

not exactly sure what your talking about and you have a differant dash then me<P>But you have to remove the steering colum and jut above that there are 2 more screws then 4 brackets with screws that need to be removed once you've done that you can pull it out a bit and there is 3 wireing harrnees the hole thing will come out 2 tiny screws at the top and a bunch of clips and the clear cover a couple more clips and the rings will come out

[canadian_ice]

Damn! I'll try again tomorrow otherwise I give up

[mitmaks]

hey man i got SAME problem i got two on top out but bottom man i almost damaged screws but i didnt get it i wanted to put in carbon fiber bezel and white gauges(indiglos)<BR>well just email me or write here if you find a solution or have questions lets work on it together man, did you notice if they could've been removed with ratchet? or only screwdriver cause i put it back together and only then i got idea maybe they can be removed with ratchet&socket? [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img] <BR>my email mx3max@mybluelight.com

[canadian_ice]

mitmaks - whats a ratchet? lol im sorry man i don't know much about cars!!!<P>Yeah after trying for half an hour I rounded the screw quite a bit and got VERY frustrated. Pissng me off! Man mazda puts those on tight.<P>I'm going to try again tomorrow (sunday) so I'll post here afterwards.

[cjthor]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by canadian_ice:<BR><STRONG>mitmaks - whats a ratchet? lol im sorry man i don't know much about cars!!!<P>Yeah after trying for half an hour I rounded the screw quite a bit and got VERY frustrated. Pissng me off! Man mazda puts those on tight.<P>I'm going to try again tomorrow (sunday) so I'll post here afterwards.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR> He is talkin tools. A ratchet is the tool u use with sockets..Hence a socket-wrench.

[Swego]

look at the page S-064 of the online shop manual: I can see 2 screws at top & 4 at bottom. Use ratchet/socket or ratchet/socket/bit, I't'll give you leverage. I saw these screwdriver bits for stripped screws at Canadian Tire, might help also. [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img]

[canadian_ice]

Thanks guys - I'm going out in an hour to give that sucker a serious turn, so I'll post when I'm done! (hopefully I won't be frustrated and angry this time )

[mitmaks]

hey canadian ice how did it go with ur gauges? did u ever get to finish those suckers?

[canadian_ice]

Wow I'm up late...<P>Anyways, I got it off! Use a ratchet, 8mm head. The paint is drying as we speak! (8 coats might i add)<P>I'll take pics next week to show you!