A previous owner painted some of the interior trim pieces, gauge bezel and dash vents, its really not my style. Ive been looking for some dash vents with bezels and gauge surround to replace these but haven't had any luck yet. I was thinking about just re painting this stuff dark gray but I'm not sure how to safely remove the dash vents. The ducts were never reattached from when these were painted so I would also like to do that, unsure how also.

What vehicle are you working on?  What year?

86 Samurai.

I'll send you some info and hook you up...... 

You Got Mail..... 

I replaced my "Round Style Vents" with 2" Gauges.

They fit right in the vent openings. You will have to remove the entire dash
 to do a good job and get all the wires neatly tucked in.

CAPT

I replaced my "Round Style Vents" with 2" Gauges.

They fit right in the vent openings. You will have to remove the entire dash
 to do a good job and get all the wires neatly tucked in.

CAPT

So the dash needs to be removed completely or is there a way it can be moved enough to get behind it? I just want to remove and replace the round vents and hook the ducts back up. Whats the easiest way to do that? Removing the whole dash sounds like a beating.

The dash vents just pop in and out of the dash.  But they can be hard to remove sometimes (they have little tabs that hold the vents in the dash).  The easiest way (although, it also takes the most time) is to remove the dash, or at least take it loose, so you can move it enough to reach in behind the dash and push the ducts onto the back of the vents.

It's not as bad as you are thinking to remove the entire dash.
The hardest part is getting the Speed0/Tack benzel past the 4-way knob.
You will have to remove it first, then the speedo/gauge cluster,...
then its just all fillips screws to get the rest of the dash off.

You should have it out in about.....1 six pack.
Just take your time & you can also now easily clean the top of your heater core (See a previous post of how)

Then you can do all the work without needing skin grafts for your hands & Knuckles!!

CAPT

Removing the gauge cluster isn't a big deal.  Just take the 2 bolts out of the steering column that hold it to the crossbar under the dash and the steering column will drop down and make it pretty easy to remove the cluster.