Had a little time today so whipped up a new dash. The original was gone so I used some starboard and mounted the gauges and switch panel on it so if I need to access behind the dash I just can pull it out as one big panel. It gives me plenty of room to work in the console as well.
I used a couple wiring harnesses I had laying around so if I need to remove the dash I can just unplug a couple plugs instead of having to cut stuff again. Hopefully I'll never have to get in there once I'm done though.