further to my earlier post on achieving a 5mm SVA okay radius on my dash. I got in the garage last night and tried various options from the bits and bobs tray.

The easiest by far to fit was 15mm pre split convoluted tubing. If fitted so the inner bottom edge of the tubing was pressed up against the bottom edge of the dash it's suprising strong when pressed.

How hard is the bottom edge press tested at SVA. If it's just a reasonable press I think the convoluted tubing will do and will look nice and neat when covered.

Opinions please before I go further.

Thanks

Not sure but the convoluted stuff I have becomes brittle with time, also at a certain pressure it will crack. Last thing you want is the SVA man cracking this as you will have to re-cover the dash for the re-test..

Dan

Apparently it should be about the strength of a pencil eraser.....

I used a length of rubber tubing (actually from a door seal) and split it along it's length. I then filled it with PU adhesive and pushed it on... once the adhesive had set it was going no-where and seems to give just the right level of padding.

When my car failed for the bottom of the dash, the tester said it it had to be about the same or better than the Sierra wheel rim which I had fitted at the time

Many thanks all that's exactly the information I was after. Now I can try all sorts of different wall thickness of rubber hose etc to find one with the pencil rubber/steering wheel squeeze resistance

Whilst on any tips for splitting hose quite neatly down a length without going off and partially round the hose? I tried a few test lengths last night with a sharp blade and couldn't cut in a straight line to save my life on the curved surface

All tips and tricks to make it easier gratefully received.

I used a good pair of scissors

are you the MDF dash or aluminium one?

if MDF, then I used t his sttuff:


I thinned the edge of the dash -using dremel - not easy as it was already fitted - the pu'ued the rubber edge on. Diagram below shows the idea - it is impossible to feel any edge through the rubber trum.
Rescued attachment ld..JPG

I'm the MDF dash one. Many thanks for the diagrams that explained everything really well and I know now which trim type from Woolies you used as well.

Thanks to you all again for your assistance, seeing you have to look at the dash all the time it would be nice if it looked half decent.

could'nt you just glue a piece of narrow mdf along the bottom behind the dash say an inch wide or less to make it double thickness at the bottom and radius that,?