my girlfriend has a '97 camaro and the dashpad has a crack going right through the middle of it. is there anywhere besides the dealer that these are available? how hard are they to replace?

Junkyards. Depends where you are located. Out here in California we have a place called GM Sports Salvage. They buy up a lot of wrecked f-bodys and you can find some good stuff there cheaper then the dealer asks fot it. They dont allow people to walk around and take their own stuff off either so there are better chances that more parts arent as damaged as the pick in pull where people just bust off anything in their way of the part they need.

Anyways just advice to look around and see what your options are. There is always ebay too.

anyone have any suggestions on changing these?

Changing the dash from factory to factory isn't that bad, but if you get a earlier year dash, it will be a headache. Be sure to get an identical dash. I swapped a 95 dash into a 97 and it was almost not worth the trouble. the 95 has a driver wrap around dash were as the 97 has a straight dash. The wrap arounds look alot better, but the instrument clusters are not the same, and require you to change the connectors on the wiring harness. The top panel of the dash simple pops off, the remainder is bolted on along the top, and underneath.