Vannin' Home Forums Chevy General Discussion 94 G20 dash panel vents

Hey all - long-time lurker, 1st time poster.

Got myself a 94 G20 shorty V6 a few days ago and I'm currently in clean-up & assessment phase.

The dashboard is in decent shape besides the previous owner running screws through the panel. I may keep it as-is but will keep my eye out for a replacement.

This dash has no front air vents above the radio or on the sides of the panel - only small vents on the very sides facing the doors. Can someone confirm that this is standard vent configuration for a "non-A/C" G20?

If I replaced panel with vented version would I be able to easily re-route air to the vents?

That's the first late model G van I've seen with no vents.
But I'm in Texas... I don't see many of anything without A/C.

I would think that you could somehow route outside air or heat to the vents (anything is possible given enough time and effort), but how easily it can be done depends on how your current heater/fresh air box is set up.

(After I wrote a bunch of hot weather related nonsense, I realized that you're in Oregon and might want heat to come out of the dash, so I erased all that. LOL)

I don't have much info in the way of helping you modify your dash, but I do know that pulling the dash panel out of our vans can be a bear of a job and can take several hours.
Ask anyone who's replaced a heater core.
I've done it myself, and I wouldn't do it again unless I had to.
I'm not trying to talk you out of doing it... Just letting you know.

Congratulations on your new van!

All the non-AC 90's GM vans I've seen in the past still had vents. Also in my part of the country, a non-AC van would be a cheaper fleet purchase so it's a little unusual to see tilt and cruise. Maybe a fleet van but the column has been changed. Is it a slider or barn door model?
Maybe an ex-government or military vehicle? Might be interesting to know it's history. Maybe a special order or a Canadian model?
You should find everything you need on a donor van. Search the junkyards.

It's fairly time consuming but not difficult to pull the whole dash off. If you can find a donor I would take the dash off that first and see what all routes air to those vents. You're going to need the pad and the dash face, plus whatever passages run between vents and heater box. I think the pad itself can come out of most any 85-up but that panel, bezel, around the cluster is 93-95 only.

I was reading my owner's manual the other day and the heat control doesn't have a "vent" position to direct air out of those vents, so you may want to grab that as well.

I don't recall ever seeing one without the vents. Even my stripper work van was ordered with front and rear A/C (but oddly not rear heat). I want to say my first one, a 95 work van, had A/C too but I don't remember.

If you do eBay grab the cluster from your donor, you can sell it to offset your costs.

If you can't find one, I do have an extra grey dash pad with a couple holes in it and some other stuff - but I'm in New York so the shipping will probably cost a fortune. There's one out to my local yard right now, too, tan dash with no issues. Would be easy to paint.

Thanks all.

It is a former fleet utility van which would explain the unusual lack of vents.

Pulling everything from a donor makes sense. I have higher priorities and not in a huge rush but I'll start hitting the yards and see what turns up.

Not sure how important those extra vents will really be for comfort - may need to spend a winter in it to find out! Mostly just figure that if I do find a replacement dash I may as well pump air through it.

I run vents all the time in mine because they blow cool air on me. You can aim the left and both middle to blow on you.

The heater will blow either full defrost, full at your feet or blend between. It may be okay.