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Dashboard Material - need help.
saigonij - 26/4/08 at 09:42 AM

All,

I need help deciding what material to make my dash out of.

I have made a dash out of 8mm MDF before for a previous car, but the dash is heavy, and you cant bend it ( easily )....

so i thought about Ali -

a nice 2.5mm plate.

Trouble is, i have not made an ali dash before, so i dont know how easy it is... It will be covered in vynle ( how ever its spelt )

if its out of 2.5mm, what about the bottom radius - can i solve the radius problem with some fuel line glued under the dash?

what do people think?


matt.c - 26/4/08 at 09:47 AM

if the car hasn't been sva'd then go for a wooden one and cover it over with foam ( which make mr sva very happy)
Much easier to make and costs you sod all. Then bin it after sva for a nice carbon one.


clairetoo - 26/4/08 at 09:48 AM

ISTR the dash bottom radius needs to be at least 19mm for SVA - that would be a big bit of fuel pipe

[Edited on 26/4/08 by clairetoo]


theconrodkid - 26/4/08 at 09:49 AM

made mine from 1mm ally,bent the bottom over a piece of 19mm tube,adds a bit of strength and looks sexy


orbital - 26/4/08 at 09:56 AM

Do the SVA Police not like carbon dashes then? I'm just about to start slicing up my Carbon Mods dash ready to put in. It has an SVA friendly radius on the bottom, is that not enough?

Cheers

Dave


matt.c - 26/4/08 at 10:18 AM

quote:
Originally posted by orbital
Do the SVA Police not like carbon dashes then? I'm just about to start slicing up my Carbon Mods dash ready to put in. It has an SVA friendly radius on the bottom, is that not enough?

Cheers

Dave


Yes they like them if the have the radius on them. Mine is a flat piece with no edge so sva man has a fit!


orbital - 26/4/08 at 10:27 AM

Phew! Panic mode aborted

Cheers

Dave


StevieB - 26/4/08 at 10:42 AM

If you put a straight dash across (ie, without the 'ears' on either side), what are the rules for trimming the scuttle edges that remain - do the count as part of the dash or just general edges?


Humbug - 26/4/08 at 11:54 AM

quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
made mine from 1mm ally,bent the bottom over a piece of 19mm tube,adds a bit of strength and looks sexy


John - presumably that's only OK if it's 19mm radius, and not 19mm diameter?


westcost1 - 26/4/08 at 12:16 PM

yes 19mm radius im making up a mdf former today add the radius on the bottom edge and then make a fibre glass mold into that will be layed a carbon and grpmaking the finished dash. its going to be oversized so i can cut it down to fill the gap between scuttle and airoscreen. a weekend of itchy fibre glass fun



[Edited on 26/4/08 by westcost1]


theconrodkid - 26/4/08 at 12:17 PM

quote:Originally posted by theconrodkid
made mine from 1mm ally,bent the bottom over a piece of 19mm tube,adds a bit of strength and looks sexy



John - presumably that's only OK if it's 19mm radius, and not 19mm diameter?


thanks for pointing that out Simon


paulf - 26/4/08 at 04:35 PM

If covered in foam and vinyl it can be a smaller radius, i used 25mm steel tube and covered in 4mm foam and then vinyl so that it had some give to it, no problems at SVA.
Paul.

quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
quote:Originally posted by theconrodkid
made mine from 1mm ally,bent the bottom over a piece of 19mm tube,adds a bit of strength and looks sexy



John - presumably that's only OK if it's 19mm radius, and not 19mm diameter?


thanks for pointing that out Simon