[Porsche-Eh]

Answers in-line in red below.

Originally Posted by ben2000

Porsche-eH - thanks for taking the time to add that info. Yeah it helps some. "Some" being the operative word. The pictures are really clear and probably help a lot of people here at some pt.

In your 2nd picture, the dusty looking thing at the bottom is basically the bottom part of the dash, but the top side of it I guess. Correct. I took this picture via the drivers vent you need to remove. I never tried but now I think about it you may be able to get your arm through the hole created by removing it.
My iphone certainly fit as you can see.

In your 1st picture, it looks like you have (white wires) an inch or 2 of slack in that......which I don't recall was there for me. I had a really hard time getting the ignition lock cylinder back into my car (because there was no slack in that wiring - i posted separately about that here). Did you have the lock cylinder removed before you actually removed the pistol lock device? Or was the lock cylinder in place when you finally removed the pistol lock device?I removed the whole pistol before I did anything, including removing the ignition switch on the rear.
Thanks

As for why your cluster won't come up it is curious. If you use a pry,
like a screwdriver or something less damaging, to pop up each clip, do you see it is actually un-clipped all the way around and you simply can't move it around after that OR, you can't even get it un-clipped? The three connectors on the back are in different locations so even if one was tight (say the one closest to the passenger), you should still be able to tilt up the left hand-side of the cluster. It's not like it comes way out after you get it undone, you really only get enough room to undue each connector. Can you post a picture of where you are at now?