I'm fairly positive the entire dash (black and tan) comes out as one piece...a PITA

You must remove all retainers for the top as well as the bottom to remove it. Dropping the steering column would be beneficial as well.

 

If you haven't done so, you should check the connectors in the A-Panels and the splices in the floor harness that connects to the CCM.

NOTE: The car in this DIY is UK RHD, this doesn’t matter, the CCM is always on LHS.
VW Passat CCM harness repair | HeadFUZZ

This thread attempts to bring together all the problems regarding water ingress and their solutions.
http://www.passatworld.com/forums/61-b5-information-base/230249-water-ingress-solutions.html

 

Here are a few photos from when I did it.. if it helps any

 

they don't separate easily, that's for sure.... I remember trying to pull the lower black portion of a junk yard passat and ended up throwing in the towel because I was getting so pissed off.

 

Yeah I gave up on removing it and am refinishing it in place which is a pain. Got everything loose except could not get the part below the center vents loose.
Hope to start putting her back together today and will post pics.

Found out the mold was because the rear drain plug was just all rotted out. Everything else seems fine.

Thanks for the pics!!!

 

Hello

I know that many years have passed but I wonder if you ever managed to remove just the lower part around the glovebox?

Regards,

César

 

You're correct - many years have passed.
The answer hasn't changed - the passenger's side "lower dashboard" (where the glovebox is mounted) is part of the dashboard. It cannot be removed separately (at least, not without destroying the dashboard.)

 

Thank you for your reply cuppie.

Just yesterday I was googling this issue again and found what might be a good solution.

Another Passat owner glued and soldered the cracks and covered the whole lower dash with synthetic leather, it looked pretty good actually.

What demotivated me more from replacing the dashboard was reading about people that did it only to find the replacement cracked not so much time later, sad after so much work to replace it.