how to change the dash vents..any ideas?

[Ian65]

For some reason the vanes to my dash vents are missing.
Keith ( Myatt1972) has kindly donated some from his old car but they were an absolute bitch to get out from behind the dash, resulting in us stripping half the dash away. This was bad enough on a scrapper but the thought of having to do that and then put it all back together again fills me with dread.
Is there an easier way / shortcut or am I stuck with the big stripout?
Any ideas?? Please!!
 

 

 
Cheers,
Ian

[David Nock (RIP)]

It\'s a problem I\'ve never solved. The louvres are loose in our car and only the wife is allowed to touch them since my big paws just push \'em inwards. She can nip the vanes and adjust them without the whole thing disappearing.
Yet I\'ve a scrap dash in the garage and they\'re solid in there... sod\'s law.
Sorry, can\'t help.

[mpk490p]

strange i\'ve never had a problem with mine, but its gonna be a dash out, its a pretty easy job compared to modern cars, i can give you a run down and you should be ok to do it on a nice sunday sunday!

[Ian65]

All done! total time taken 20 mins!!
 

 
I decided to bite the bullet and strip the dash to replace these vents today when, in a moment of brilliance ( or a stroke of luck, depending on which way you look at it) I realised that you don\'t actually have to remove anything from the dash at all.
 
This is the 2nd first generation RX7 that I have had which had damage to the verticle fins in the dash vents. The actual vent rockers, the housings which rock up and down are as tough as old boots and don\'t give any trouble but the fins seem very delicate.
 
It occurred to me that if I could strip the fins from the rest of the vent assembly, I may be able to carefully insert the into my existing vent rockers without dismantling anything.
 
This is how I did it.
 
 
On the rear of the complete vent assembly is a screw and plastic strip which holds the rockers into the housing
 

 
Remove this screw and the rockers will come out of the housing
 

 
The fins are mounted to a thin plastic frame which clips into the back of the vent rocker. This frame locates with small plastic tabs on each side.
I pressed the tabs in to release the frame and removed the frame and fins from the rocker.
 

 
These small assembles were missing completely from my vent rockers. If you are just replacing damaged fins you will need to prise your old frames out of the rockers from the front using a small flatblade screwdriver.
 
I then folded the fins as flat as they would go towards their frame
 

 
The whole fin / frame assembly was then inserted through the vent rockers by lying it flatways and pushed into the void behind the rockers. This gave it enough space to rotate it into a verticle ( the correct) position and all I needed to do then was to pull it forward until the frame located and click into position on the back of the rocker.
 
To pull it forward I used an allen key poked through the fins onto the thin plastic frame.
 
This photo shows the allen key and the empty ( redundant vent rocker)
 

 
Easy!!!
 
The alternative is to nearly totally strip the dash.
 
It\'s somewhat difficult to explain exactly the sequence of events but hopefully anyone attempting this can work out what to do from this post.
 
Cheers,
Ian

[syebba]

Well done & in 20 mins!
Ur pictures & explanations are helpful & clear.
Today i changed a rear light lense,thought it would take 30 mins,it took me 3 hours!!
The old rear lense was stuck with adhesive to the light cluster,i had to break the old lense & prise the adhesive off the light cluster,took bloody ages,then refit & seal in new lense with wurth mastik.
Keep us posted on ur next jobs:Talking1

[Ian65]

Makes a change doesn\'t it for something to go right.
Last week I changed the electric aerial. I thought that would be a 30 minute job and it took 3 hrs. The back light cluster had to come out for that as well to get the old one out and the new one in.
A right pain.
Today, I\'d resigned myself to spending the whole day stripping the dash just to change an air vent and 20 mins later....success!!

[David Nock (RIP)]

Thanks for all that uploading and pictures Ian.
I\'ve printed it all just in case I decide to sort ours out. That would wrest control of the louvres back to me from the Missus.....Hmm worth a thought.:Viking