Dashboard Radius

[Guest ant.b]

hi all

have started to build my dash mk2 from 6ml mdf and cover in 2ml foam, have rounded off all front edges with a sander is this ok for sva once covered in vinal? if not how do i get a 20ml radius on bottom edge of dash?any help welcome .

cheers ant

[Guest Ant]

The foam is unlikely to help because it will probably be deemed too soft as mine was. Best thing to do is either:

 

- Build up the wood thickness at the bottom by glueing / screwing on extra layers, and then radiusing off the whole lot to 19mm

 

- Get some 38mm O/D waste pipe (from B&Q at about a quid a length) and screw this onto the wood from the back. Then use putty or body filler to smooth over the joins in the lengths.

 

Either way, cover the whole thing in vinyl (with or without the foam layer - up to you) to hide whatever you put beneath.

 

Ant

[Guest Ianz]

Ant

 

I believe you only need a 5mm radius,on the edge of the dash ,as long as the dashboard is padded up to the edge with a material of suitable density,an analogy I read elsewhere was....the softness/hardness of a pencil rubber.

 

I shall soon be in the process of making a dash,and i intend to use

the bedding roll....used under sleeping bags,the green /reasonably high density foam....if you get my drift.

I shall check the Sva manual when i get in from work and hopefully confirm

this.

Cheers Ian

[Guest JohnS]

I used 6mm ply and glued a section of 25mm quadrant along the bottom ( soft wood (B&Q))

i then padded this with thin foam backed carpet as this gave about the right density ( glued the carpet side to the ply then vinal to the foam.

I was very pleased with the result.

 

John

[Guest Ant]

I offered the SVA station a range of materials but one by one they were all deemed to be either too hard or too soft. To be honest I don't understand the theory. If it's softer than a pencil rubber it's deemed too soft and may as well not be there. If it's harder than a pencil rubber than it's rigid and hence must be 19mm radius. So maybe the solution is to make it out of pencil rubbers?

[Guest TerryBarry]

This question of the hardness / softness of padding appears to hinge around the following description :-

Check the instrument panel lower edge is rounded to a radius of not less than 19mm (5mm if covered with a non-rigid material).

NOTE:. A "non-rigid material" is a material which has a hardness of less than 50 shore A.

For the purpose of this examination it will be deemed to be a material which is capable of depression under thumb pressure and when deformed retains a degree of protection against contact with any structure which it is covering and when released returns to its original form.

 

Less than 50 shore A to me interprets as somewhere between a soft rubber and blancmange - but I'm sure the latter will be unacceptable

I would think that the closed cell type camping mat should fit the bill and that's what I currently intend using.

 

If you can wait six months I might come back with an answer as to the interpretation of my local SVA inspector (I wish / hope)

Terry

[Joel]

I fixed an extra bit of wood on the bottom edge of my mdf dash, so when I attached the foam it wasn't folding back on itself. In other words it gave the impresion on the dash being about 2" deep, not just the 9mm mdf thickness. Hopefully a picture will make more sense

 

I used camping mat foam and it was fine for SVA, but I think that's one of those things that's down to the examiners interpretation on the day.

[Guest Fred2b]

It is definately down to the examiner on the day. I failed SVA on Friday on the lower edge of the dash. I have used the RH supplied steel dash covered in 8mm closed cell polyfoam which extends beyond the edge of the steel by 25mm and is then folded back on to the rear. The dash is then covered in black vinyl. Under hard thumb pressure he could still ( just about ) feel the edge and so it failed.

I think the build quality on most cars these days is very high so they are being really picky just to find something.

This is true when you consider another fail point - the RH supplied and e marked front indicator repeaters which I have mounted on the cycle wings. Apparently the front and rear edges where the screws go in are not exactly 2.5mm radius, 2. 45 maybe but not good enough, and of course they are plastic so someone just might cut a finger on it!!

Good luck

Peter

[Guest Battery Bill]

Terry

50 shore A

Call me thick but whats the beach got to do with a dashboard

Joel

Nice looking dash you have there,

[Guest TerryBarry]

Hi Bill,

Shore A is a measure of hardness - usually measured using a Hardness Tester or Durometer.

Usually applied to measure polymeric materials and rubbers (UK English - NOT US)

See Link

I will just stick to "Rule of Thumb"

[Guest ant.b]

hi all

thanks for the replys, now have better idea of what i need to do so will crack on with it.could do with one ready made the same as joels would be nice,but supose i should make my own like most things on this car...

cheers ant

[Guest brummy-ade]

I got some viagra cream if rubbed on affected site can sustain hardness for about an hour long enough for sva if thats any help!!!!!!

[Guest Stephen Robertson]

Is that like viagra eye drops?

 

To make it look hard!!

[Bob Tucker]

I solved this for my SVA using 19mm water hose from Halfords.

It already had a curve from being stored in a roll, I slit the outside edge

then put double sided sticky tape on the edge trim fitted onto the dash to hold the pipe in place.

Acceptable in 2002, but maybe not any more?

Bob.

[Guest paul mercer]

still available in 'for sale'