I finally had time recently to correct some long neglected problems on my car. One problem has been the receding dashboard near the instrument cluster. Though I know the dash warping near the windshield is covered under a recall, I thought this only applied to 98.5 and later cars. I didn't realize my dash problem was related.
Long story short, I found
ford's official fix for the warping dashboard, which included my problem, by searching the forum.
However, I'm too cheap to spend $25 on a rivet tool for what I see as a one-time use, so I decided to use screws instead: #6 x 1/2 flat-head wood screws, $3 for 20 from lowes. in case the pdf disappears, ford says to drill 1/8" holes 3/4" from the cluster opening ledge at 3" gaps to a depth of 3/8" (metric? what's that?). I did 1" from the ledge instead of 3/4" because I wasn't sure, but 3/4" would have been fine. The substrate is plastic and easy to drill. Use 2" clamps (at least four) to hold the cover in place while you drill the holes.
Drive in the screws enough to make a small indentation, but not so that you tear into the cover. To make sure you don't drill through the very expensive cover, use a drill stop or mark the depth with electrical tape.
Some notes.. the electrical tape method is not foolproof. I recommend drilling at higher speeds but pushing with less force. It's extremely easy to puncture the cover on the other side once you get through the substrate. If you let the bit pull itself through, you can feel the 'bump' when it's through. There's plenty of clearance for the drill except near the steering column. Plan out your drilling beforehand so you don't wind up with too wide a gap in that area.
