Interior swap - how difficult?
 

Hey guys,

Have any of you attempted a complete interior swap? If so how hard was it?

I've removed seats, door cards and sill trims from cars before so reckon I could do that without too much bother but I'm worried the dash and rear shelf would be quite difficult. Would I need to worry about air bags going boom?

Would the interior from a non S8 go straight in i.e. Seats and door cards from a sport? What about non Bose door cards - could I take my Bose speakers and swap them With non Bose?

Cheers
Rich

Bose and non-Bose is a serious changeover including the whole audio wiring loom plus the amplifier and support brackets in the boot side. :eek:
Plus the door cards, rear shelf, all speakers and reconfiguring the RNS unit. ;)

Ok, so door cards and rear shelf are not a straight swap unless they're also from a Bose equipped car - is that right?

The seats, carpet and trims should be fine. What about the dash - is that changeable?

The man to ask is probably Ian (IT), he may drop by eventually and comment.
Can't recall ever seeing anyone posting about swapping a dash though, sounds like a serious mission!
(Have you ever been in a car factory and seen how they fit them?)

Once...
 

I once replaced the entire dashboard on a Subaru Impreza WRX for a disabled friend of mine when I was [a] bored and [b] needed the money. After two days, I swore blind that I would never, ever touch a car dashboard again. When you think of the difference between the two cars i.e basic Subaru compared to our vehicles and all the bits and bobs behind the scenes, I would imagine that it would be a job of monstrous proportions, but I'm sure someone with better knowledge than I will be along shortly to confirm or deny.

My own opinion - walk away now.

I'm curious why you would want to do this? Have you found a car you like with an interior you don't?

Its certainly possible to change the dash, but it would be a hell of a job as it is crazy complicated in there. I've done dash swaps on A4s and Corrados and that's just time consuming, but there is so much more stuff in a D2 even I would draw the line there. I have taken the dash out of one - I would not want to put it back in again!

You wouldn't have to worry about airbags. Just disconnect the battery and they'll be fine. For added protection, they have special connectors which short out the contacts when they are disconnected so stray static can't set them off in storage.

In terms of dash I'm just curious what people do if aircon unit needs servicing or those little motors need to be changed that can only be removed with dash out.

I understand that seats, central tunnel, steering column, instruments and radio should be out. Time consuming, but nothing complicated if there's no time pressure.

Are there any other specific horrors?

I am listening in on this thread, as I am pretty much set on a interior swap. All I am missing is the dash and central tunnel and door cards. Seats should be easy done the rear ones before and the parcel shelf. Its the dash and theBose wiring I find daunting.

Some interesting points raised.

I really do not like my current interior (cream) so I'm planning to swap everything for black or grey which would probably come from a donor car so I'd get carpets and pillar trims as well.

The dash is the only part I think I would potentially struggle with, there are just so many wires!

I can understand that. When I bought mine pretty much the only criteria was that it had a black dash. Well, and it wasn't silver on the outside. Cream is nice in A4s & A6s because it isn't everywhere so contrasts nicely with black door trims and dash top, but the A8s are just too much for me in light colours. I've seen pics of prefacelift cars which have cream leather and door panel inserts but black dash & plastics and I really like those.

The biggest challenge with dash swaps is that in the factory they are fitted as a complete assembly with the heater and wiring harness already attached. In the B5 and C5 the harness is attached to the back of the rebar, but at least on those the plastic shell can be removed separately, albeit with dozens of tiny bolts which never go back quite the same as the factory did it. That leaves the rebar, heater and 99% of the wiring still in place. I don't know if the shell will come out separately on the D2 as its a long time since I took that one to bits. Maybe one of the A8parts team will know, since they will have done plenty of them.

The consequence of all this complication is the risk of rattles afterwards, and especially in the case of the D2, breaking something because of the crazy hand-tooled construction.

One gotcha to be aware of is the daylight sensor for the AC, which is right in the top vent of the dash, but has its wiring down the back of the heater box (in the other models anyway). Its impossible to get this wiring out intact when doing a B5, so it has to be cut to get the shell out, and then joined back together going back in. I'd bet the D2 is built just the same.

If you took your time (several days I would say), got plenty of photos of how things came apart, and labelled all the screws etc as they come out it would be do-able.