How to open the dashboard?

Back in my car stereo installation days we often had a situation where we needed to take apart a dashboard... You can sometimes find parts diagram in exploded view style to better know where the clips and screws are, but in general you just gotta start taking stuff apart till you get stuck, then work on another part of the dash, then when you get stuck on that part go back to the previous part you were stuck on and try again. Mostly it's just time consuming laborious work of moving things in as many directions as possible until they come loose. So be patient and find a wrecked Prius at a junk yard so you can both pull spare parts for anything you break, as well as practice forcing stuff on the wrecked car before you force it too much on your own car.

 

There is a YouTube on replacing the combo meter which might be helpful