Is it illegal to not have a dashboard in your car?

As many of you will know, the Stanza dash has an upper half and a lower half. The upper half is a little spongy to touch but fairly solidly secured, and the lower half is flimsy, brittle and well nigh useless after a good 24 years of service. I'd like to know if I could "retire" the lower half to the "resource recovery centre" and just go bare bones. I've done it once when I had the dash out to work on the heater, and it kind of felt like sitting behind the instrument panel of a small plane, which was kinda cool. I figure too that the dash is so flimsy that if your knees hit it in a crash, it would easily break and cause more damage than would otherwise happen. So, can it be done, or will I get fried if I try?

On a related note (but please answer the first question), does anyone in Sydney have a Stanza or Stanza SSS dash (lower part, instruments not essential but not unwanted) they'd be willing to part with?

On a completely unrelated note, does anyone have an intact gearstick from a Stanza SSS dogleg gearbox they don't need?

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Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct

Hey, do you know if there's any way to soften up brittle plastic? Is there something you can rub on it to soften it up?

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Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct

For you first question, i dunno if its legal or not, but i drove around with nothing more then a speedo and tacho for a couple of weeks...Never got pulled up so dunno if it was legal or not...And this was only because i hadn't finished modifying the dash yet...

On your second q...I Have no idea, i know that CRC vinyl rejuvinator stuff really brings it back up to showroom shine...but actually de brittleises it? stuffs me...If you do find something, let me know cause my dash has some cracked and brittle bits that are gonna either be replaced, or repaired...whatevers cheaper.

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78' 200B. 5 speed, extractors, 2 1/2" exhaust, 32/36 weber, 14" mags, Elec ign, Redlands motor. Slowly Pulling parts off while still driving around. Tree unfortunately signed its death cert.

Recommended Traders: Datsport

Yeah, I tried to look up some ADR stuff on dashboards, but the ADR costs money to get. The only thing I could find was something about not modifying the padded part of your dash, because it's a protective thing. Other than that, the only thing I could find was something about making sure there are no dangerous edges or protrusions in or on the car. However, how far they'd want to go with this is beyond me.

I'll have a look around and let you know in regards to the plastic brittleness. Any ideas, anyone else?

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Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct

as long as it looks ok i doubt vic roads or the cops would notice... my car hasn't had the bottom bit yr talking about as long as ive had it.... and i got it registered like that....