85Tbird, are you sure you got a NEW dash? I dont believe the new dash's come with a black strip across the front edge. Sounds like you got a repair kit installed instead. I dont know I could be wrong. I'm confused and I'm trying to make sense out of this whole mess. I really dont want some cheesy assed repair job done,but then again I'm not sure I want the damn dash ripped out of the car either! I'm MAD AS HELL right now and dont know what I'm going to do.