Is here anyone to exlain what does "safety pad" mean in the expression:" instrument panel safety pad"? What does it look like? What material is it made of? Why does it anything to do with safety? I am not a native user of English, that's why I'm asking. Adam
I think that it refers to the soft, plastic covered, foam material that is normally used on the fascia panel, which surrounds the instrument cluster.
In the old days, before air-bags, this used to be a solid surface and was considered to be very dangerous in the event of a crash.
Thanks for your answer. A.
Up till the late 1950's the entire dashboard area of an automobile was painted stamped steel, like a fender. With cut-outs for the instrument cluster, glovebox, and the radio.
The padded dashboard was a great improvement - at first, they just put an inch of stiff foam and a molded vinyl cover. That alone cut down on minor facial injuries tremendously. Now they're using engineered plastics designed to absorb quite a bit of energy without damage or hurting the person impacting it too badly.
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