Dashboard ABL?

[supersport24]

I just got my camaro a couple months ago and one of my favorite qualities of the interior is the blue light bars that light up the panels in the door. While in it the other day, I wondered if the small panel that runs across the dash is supposed to be lit up as well? I've never been in another camaro so I was just checking if this is normal or if my panel in the dash isn't lit up? Hopefully i didn't confuse anyone with this beat-around-the-bush question

[My 5th]

Do a search for "ABL" You'll see threads about DIY projects to add the light strips to the dash panels.

[cab2g]

It is not supposed to be lit up in the production version Camaros. GM deemed it as "too distracting" But as the previous poster said, you can add it yourself and make it look pretty nice.

[Zabo]

Originally Posted by cab2g

It is not supposed to be lit up in the production version Camaros. GM deemed it as "too distracting"...

Was that the actual reason why they didn't put the lighting on the dash? I always thought it interfered with the passenger dash airbag or something on the dash that made it an impossibility for production?

[Gene Culley]

Here is the link to the ABL install thread that 2SS/RS has done. It is a great thread!

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40804

[cab2g]

Originally Posted by Zabo

Was that the actual reason why they didn't put the lighting on the dash? I always thought it interfered with the passenger dash airbag or something on the dash that made it an impossibility for production?

Well I guess since I don't have a source, It's a rumor at this point. But I could've sworn there was a thread about it with an official answer.

[Captain Awesome]

Originally Posted by cab2g

Well I guess since I don't have a source, It's a rumor at this point. But I could've sworn there was a thread about it with an official answer.

People working on the car before production said that there were problems making it light up evenly and look right. If you dismantle the door panels you can see the way they put the light pipes above the bevelled edge internal to the clear panel and this causes the bevel to illuminate by the glow coming in from the top edge of the clear panel up inside the door.

If you take the dashboard clear panels off, you can see there's no channel above the clear trim pieces and no bevel to catch light coming from the edge into the clear plastic piece. The only way to get light out of the dash is to sand off the silver paint on the back of the clear parts and put the light pipe behind that. This results in uneven lighting and it really doesn't look the same as the light in the doors.

I think from this we can conclude that the dash lights were not working well enough or looked shoddy and the cost to remake the dashboard molding and trim pieces was considered too much, so they deleted the dashboard lighting and then made up some cover stories like "too distracting" (which is one of the most humorous explanations given that GM models made before and after the Camaro continue to have dash lighting and gigantic LCD screens on the dash that are not deemed "distracting").