Here's another picture, giving a better overview of where it's at, in case it's helpful:
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2006 plastic dash panel re-install problem
While hunting for (what we thought was) an electrical problem, I removed various panels in the dash/console area. For the most part they were fairly easy to take out put back on. However, one panel is proving to be a real pain.
On the left side of the center console area, at the bottom, just to the right of where your right foot is when you're driving, there is a panel that I have attached a picture of below, with labels.
A) This is a plastic pin
B) This is the hole in the panel that the pin loosely goes through
C) This is the mounting point that the pin tightly goes through to attach the panel.
The front of the panel (out of view to the left) has a hole that sits at 90 degrees to this one, which slides over a bolt that aims front-to-back, and prevents the panel from sliding left/right once it's attached. It would be pretty bad if this fell off when you were driving! It doesn't leave a lot of flexibility for the panel to move around while attempting to pin the back/right side of it.
The problem is that the mounting bracket (C) is simply thick plastic, and it bends when under pressure from pushing the pin through it. It takes quite a bit of pressure to push pin (A) through hole (C) and get it through enough to catch. When you have the panel attached at the front (and also there's a tab that fits through the slot straight below (C)), the panel is pretty much firmly in place. There's only a little bit of flexibility, not enough to be able to fully reach behind to support hole (C) from behind. At least I couldn't do it.
I tried getting everything lined up as well as I could and give a quick pop with a hammer, to try to push the pin through, but it just bounces.
The panel on the right side has to be in place first, as you can see how the panel on the left has to fit over it. And there's actually a screw holding the panel to the right in place that the left panel covers over. So order matters.
At this point I'm stuck. There has to be a trick of some kind to getting this panel on! Anyone?
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On the left side of the center console area, at the bottom, just to the right of where your right foot is when you're driving, there is a panel that I have attached a picture of below, with labels.
A) This is a plastic pin
B) This is the hole in the panel that the pin loosely goes through
C) This is the mounting point that the pin tightly goes through to attach the panel.
The front of the panel (out of view to the left) has a hole that sits at 90 degrees to this one, which slides over a bolt that aims front-to-back, and prevents the panel from sliding left/right once it's attached. It would be pretty bad if this fell off when you were driving! It doesn't leave a lot of flexibility for the panel to move around while attempting to pin the back/right side of it.
The problem is that the mounting bracket (C) is simply thick plastic, and it bends when under pressure from pushing the pin through it. It takes quite a bit of pressure to push pin (A) through hole (C) and get it through enough to catch. When you have the panel attached at the front (and also there's a tab that fits through the slot straight below (C)), the panel is pretty much firmly in place. There's only a little bit of flexibility, not enough to be able to fully reach behind to support hole (C) from behind. At least I couldn't do it.
I tried getting everything lined up as well as I could and give a quick pop with a hammer, to try to push the pin through, but it just bounces.
The panel on the right side has to be in place first, as you can see how the panel on the left has to fit over it. And there's actually a screw holding the panel to the right in place that the left panel covers over. So order matters.
At this point I'm stuck. There has to be a trick of some kind to getting this panel on! Anyone?
