Alright, back to the progress.... keep in mind, this was all being done during COVID lockdowns.
My dash was in such bad shape that even the upper plastic structure of the dash that the top fastens to was non-existent. The AC vents, AC controls, headlight switch, and radio are all mounted to this upper structure.... so since mine had no structure, all of that was just laying in place on top of my dash.
If you look, you can see the license plate above my gauge cluster I was using to shield the glare off the sun coming in the windshield. I also had a grey microfiber blanket laying over top of everything to keep the sun from baking on the AC vents.... it really did make a huge difference, especially with the "greenhouse" effect of there being no tint on the front windows.
I actually sourced a dash assembly on FB marketplace for $50 before leaving FL. The plastic upper structure on this one was still not perfect, but it was in much better condition and provided a much better foundation to work from.
As you can see, I still had my work cut out for me.... so I went ahead and began stripping it down to the plastic frame and steel subframe. Then, I put trim screws into the factory screw holes and ran a "web" of wire to create a "torsion" effect while doing my fiberglass repairs on the plastic structure.
Luckily MOST of the broken pieces of this dash were with the dash when I bought it, so there were very few gaps that I had to bridge. The wire web proved to be very effective and helpful in rebuilding the structure of the dash. I even ended up using some of the wire as reinforcement underneath the fiberglass cloth I laid down in larger areas... kinda like using re-bar in concrete.
I waited until it had all cured and removed the plastic frame from the metal subframe.
Wire wheeled the frame, sanded, coated it in rust reformer, then threw it in the paint booth and voila...
I know it's a detail that's not even necessary.... these things are bare steel from the factory and they all flash rust...don't care what vehicle it is... the only ones that don't are high-end luxury cars or sports cars that have stainless steel subframes or aluminum subframes. But it drove me nuts to know there was rust INSIDE the truck.... so I painted mine up. No more rust.