Dashboard top - how to remove?
Discussion
Thread resurrection time 
I've tried to remove my dash top before, but the hot/cold air hoses seem to be firmly stuck onto the connections on the underside of the plenum. It looks as though my car (early mk1) has a slightly different arrangement to the OP's car, as mine has flexible hoses/ducts held on by large jubilee clips - see pic below:
I've loosened the jubilee clips but the hoses are still firmly stuck in place. It looks as though the only way to get them off so that I can remove the dash top will be to cut them off - not a problem in itself, as I suspect that the hot air inlet has a leak anyway and needs replacing, which is the whole reason I want to remove the dash top in the first place.
Before I do something irreversible, does anyone know where I can get replacement hoses from, and how they are attached at the other end? I've looked on the TVR Parts website but can't find them listed anywhere.
I've tried to remove my dash top before, but the hot/cold air hoses seem to be firmly stuck onto the connections on the underside of the plenum. It looks as though my car (early mk1) has a slightly different arrangement to the OP's car, as mine has flexible hoses/ducts held on by large jubilee clips - see pic below:
I've loosened the jubilee clips but the hoses are still firmly stuck in place. It looks as though the only way to get them off so that I can remove the dash top will be to cut them off - not a problem in itself, as I suspect that the hot air inlet has a leak anyway and needs replacing, which is the whole reason I want to remove the dash top in the first place.
Before I do something irreversible, does anyone know where I can get replacement hoses from, and how they are attached at the other end? I've looked on the TVR Parts website but can't find them listed anywhere.
A belated update following on from my post above - this job had slipped down my to-do list recently, as I'm not in urgent need of a functioning heater in the current climate! I figured I should try to get it sorted sooner rather than later though, as it'll be autumn/winter before we know it...
I tried to approach the problem from a different angle (literally) - I found that peeling away the upper carpet in the passenger's footwell gave me just about enough access to the underside of the dash to see what was going on. Turns out the upstream end of the hose for the hot air duct had worked loose and was hanging freely... the original jubilee clip has gone awol, presumably after the hose had worked itself loose
Luckily I have small hands, so after much fiddling and cursing while upside down in the footwell I eventually succeeded in persuading the free end of the hose back onto the duct, as shown in the photo below - tested the heater blower and now I get a lovely strong blast out of all of the dash vents on all temperature settings, much better!
Now I just need to get hold of a new jubilee clip... will have to see whether I can open the clip up, place it around the hose and then do it up, don't much fancy pulling the hose off and having to refit it again
I tried to approach the problem from a different angle (literally) - I found that peeling away the upper carpet in the passenger's footwell gave me just about enough access to the underside of the dash to see what was going on. Turns out the upstream end of the hose for the hot air duct had worked loose and was hanging freely... the original jubilee clip has gone awol, presumably after the hose had worked itself loose
Luckily I have small hands, so after much fiddling and cursing while upside down in the footwell I eventually succeeded in persuading the free end of the hose back onto the duct, as shown in the photo below - tested the heater blower and now I get a lovely strong blast out of all of the dash vents on all temperature settings, much better!
Now I just need to get hold of a new jubilee clip... will have to see whether I can open the clip up, place it around the hose and then do it up, don't much fancy pulling the hose off and having to refit it again
Finally got it all fixed - had to start by pulling the heater blower hose off again to fit the new jubilee clip:
The cheapo jubilee clip I picked up from Halfrauds is a piece of s
te, seemed to need about 100 ft-lbs of torque to get the adjuster to budge at all. Not easy in such a confined space, but managed to get it tightened up in the end. Should be nice and secure now! 
...oh, and for future reference (in case anyone cares), the large hoses in the photos above are 80mm diameter
The cheapo jubilee clip I picked up from Halfrauds is a piece of s
te, seemed to need about 100 ft-lbs of torque to get the adjuster to budge at all. Not easy in such a confined space, but managed to get it tightened up in the end. Should be nice and secure now! ...oh, and for future reference (in case anyone cares), the large hoses in the photos above are 80mm diameter
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