Dash - Wooden or Fibre Glass

[Daz Johnston]

All,

I bought a rollng chassis, part complete, and in the sale was included the wooden former for the dash. The guy I bought it off said that after he had bought the wooden dash he discovered that it was not SVA friendly. How so? Surely if the edges are rounded off and the face and edges are padded with thin foam it would pass SVA.

Or am I going to have to resign myself to getting the fibre dash with pre-fixed dial positions?

Secondly, where does the dash actually attach to? (I do not have the body yet). I looked at the Pilgrim demo car and noticed that the dash sits approximately a hands width away from the metal bulkhead, but never checked the mounting/attachment points.

Daz

[m eeley]

The wooden dash blank is the what Pilgrim used to supply.

I have just had a quick look through the SVA inspection manual and can't find any specific reference to suitable materials for dashboard construction. In any case, personally I would prefer to use a fibreglass one.

My dash blank was a fibreglass one with "prefixed dial positions" however, I fibreglassed and filled these and layed out the dash as I wanted it.

As to the fixings, the dash fixes to the underside of the scuttle which has a lip to which the dash screws. I used 'secret' fixings from behind the dash so that the screw heads are not visible. I fixed the lower edge of the dash to the chassis tunnel with a bracket just in front of the gear lever hole. I should point out that my dash has an inset walnut panel which houses the instruments. Also I mounted my heater as far forward as possible and made the control plate a remote unit which gave far more flexibility in positioning everything on the dash.

[Kevin W]

I used to have a wooden dash, and like most things on my car, decided the job had to be done again after the first attempt. The fibreglass dash is probably more work to get it trimed and fitting nicely, but IMHO it looks a lot nicer, but each to his own.

Your seller was probably refering to the fact that Pilgrim used to use Philips screws and screw cups which were externally drilled though the dash and into the scuttle lip. These are not SVA friendly. However, its perfectly possible to use the SVA friendly 'hidden screw' method on a ply dash as well as a fibreglass one - as demonstrated in 'A car is born' video. The main thing is that you must put a layer of sponge over the dash (and the screws) and then cover with vynil or leather, so that there is a soft finish to it. You'll also need to make sure you recess the instrument dials if you have the standard ETB Pilgrim kit, which have non-compliant bezels. If you have instrument bezels with the new rounded section then no need to recesss these.

HTH


Kevin W.

[breskit]

I have a wooden dash in my car that has passed SVA. With the ETB dials supplied by Pilgrim, I made a cover to fity over the dials as the edges were not SVA compliant. This padded cover was deep enough to give the dials a recessed look and was simply stuck to the dash with double sided pads.

The lower edge of the dash must be radiused to 19mm, easily done with a router.

If you want to hide you fixing screws, simply glue it to a thin piece of plywood, with the screws fitted into the plywood (I used fibreglass resin to hold mine in place). The screw heads will then be hidden between the two.

Cheers,
Tony B
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http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tony.breski

[breskit]

I have a wooden dash in my car that has passed SVA. With the ETB dials supplied by Pilgrim, I made a cover to fity over the dials as the edges were not SVA compliant. This padded cover was deep enough to give the dials a recessed look and was simply stuck to the dash with double sided pads.

The lower edge of the dash must be radiused to 19mm, easily done with a router.

If you want to hide you fixing screws, simply glue it to a thin piece of plywood, with the screws fitted into the plywood (I used fibreglass resin to hold mine in place). The screw heads will then be hidden between the two.

Cheers,
Tony B
---
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tony.breski