I my experience the answer is no. I went into removing a Master Cylinder to
move it from one Vanagon to another and I did not need to remove the entire
dash - just the guage cluster.

I didn't have a clue what I was doing and the entire thing took me like 20
to 30 minutes to remove. It can be a messy job though. (at least when you
are inexperienced and head into it without thinking a head like I did.)

--
Thanks,

Jeff
'90 Carat (Grover)
'86 (We call this one Parts)
'78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus