I've seen on here more than once the idea of making a dash out of ali and forming the bottom edge around a broom handle to give a rounded edge. I am doing it post SVA but it still seems a good idea.

But here I am, got the ali, got the broom, but how do a get the radius keeping it looking respectable, especially as I am thinking of the keeping a brushed ali finish

Broom not big enough! You need a diameter about 38mm.I dressed my ally panel around a 38mm piece of tube with a rubber mallet. I used clamps to hold the panel onto the tube and beat it from the centre outwards in about 3 passes, it worked very nicely though I decided not to leave it ally but covered it in Vinyl without padding. At SVA all the instruments were in the safe area behind the Sierra steering wheel, the passenger side was blank. I also made two small triangular sections and radiused the edge facing into the car. I also put edging strip on the back edges though they did not get looked at by Mr SVA.

I like mine it is very retro!

Caber

PS check my photo archive for Dash pictures

[Edited on 3/22/2008 by caber]

Use something soft, like wood.

Its hard to form small width sheets, you really need to clamp it and roll the edge over by hand as far as possible then with a wide piece of wood gentle work the metal over the handle.

Try with a few offcuts to perfect your technic.

If you are having limited success try holding the block of wood against the metal and bashing the wood with a hammer.

Worked for me








dash roll 2

Why 38mm, SVA manual states 19mm radius on lower edge ?

Ah. Because a 19mm radius = a 38mm diameter. Thats why to use 38mm diameter pipe.
Me and Gav did mine. Clamped a 50mm pipe to his worktop and sandwiched the edge of the ally between these. We then heated it with a blowtorch then put gloves on and just bent it over by hand using brute force. Came out really well. All credit to Gav. It was his idea.

[Edited on 22/3/08 by mistergrumpy]

I bent mine round a woodon post. Watch out for legroom though. My first attempt was straight across the scuttle and I found it was severely limited. I've now changed it to be angled at the sides (while still keeping the radius). I'll put some photos in my archive.

Rich