US vs Foreign market dash

[krs2fur]

I humbly beseech the wisest of the Cruiser gods to school me.

I've been on the hunt for a good condition dash pad for my brown interior 91 FJ80. Well, I've found one for a great price, but it's from a 93 Venezuelan model.

Initially, I can see there are a couple of subtle differences - my US model has a louvered vent on the left side (between the cluster & the driver door window - 90 degrees to the cluster), as well as at the top right corner; that the Venezuelan model does NOT have. I believe these are for keeping the door windows defrosted.

It appears as though the right side would be as simple as swapping the blank for the louvered insert. The left side would likely require a hole cut into the pad. Although I really don't see any issue with just omitting one or both of these & just using the adjustable vents on either far side to defrost the respective door windows (when needed).

My question for you all knowing Cruiser guru's is - Are there any other differences anyone is aware of? Is this swap even doable? Or are the dash assemblies different?

Unfortunately the prospective dash is a Bajillion miles away (OK, maybe not that far) & more than half of the cost will be shipping charges; so comparing the two is not really feasible.

Oh, please mighty Cruiser Lords, have mercy & drop your knowledge upon me.

 

[lugueto]

We had two dash styles for the 80, same as you guys. The difference is in the years. I believe the first kind was pre 1996, and the latter was 1996-2007.

The first one should look exactly the same as your 91. It should fit exactly the same. As far as options go, you might find slight differences between base models (GX) and VX models, but all the parts from your dash should have their spot in the Venezuelan one.

Can you post a picture of your dash?

 

[retrofive]

We had two dash styles for the 80, same as you guys. The difference is in the years. I believe the first kind was pre 1996, and the latter was 1996-2007.

The first one should look exactly the same as your 91. It should fit exactly the same. As far as options go, you might find slight differences between base models (GX) and VX models, but all the parts from your dash should have their spot in the Venezuelan one.

Can you post a picture of your dash?

I would wager almost all '95's have the "newer" dash in the US market.

 

[OGBeno]

I would wager almost all '95's have the "newer" dash in the US market.

Correct. This would have been a world wide change in design at the same time.

 

[krs2fur]

Correct. This would have been a world wide change in design at the same time.

So, does that mean the 93 Venezuelan model is similar enough to work on a 91 US model?

 

[OGBeno]

Possibly.

 

[lugueto]

I would wager almost all '95's have the "newer" dash in the US market

Correct, that's why I stated the difference is in the model years those changes took place.

While you guys only had the first style dash for the FJ80 (which we never had) we had the FZJ80 with the first style up until '95 and then the newer style dash up until '07.

Model years are never the same in our country, specially for Toyota. That's why we had the 80s up until 07.

So, does that mean the 93 Venezuelan model is similar enough to work on a 91 US model?

That'd be my educated guess.