[blockp]

I had the new (to me) boat out this weekend in a bit rougher water than either of the previous trips. Still loving the way it drives and rides, but one minor complaint that I can't live with. Both dash counsels squeak when bouncing through waves. The squeak seems to be coming from the dash to fiberglass mounting point, not where the wood grain attaches to the dash part. Anyone know off hand how this is attached? Screws, glue, magic? Can I get at the attachment points from an access panel of some sort (under the dash or in the seat cushion)?

I haven't had a chance to look behind it yet, but if anyone has any advice or a fix for it, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
Paul

[lomitabob]

I had several squeaks on my boat also. The squeaks came from areas where two fiberglass panels were screwed together. Mine was assembled with fully threaded sheet metal screws. Some of these worked loose so I replaced them by through bolting the parts together using fender washers to spread out the load. I also used a nylon insert nut so that they would not loosen again. It is somewhat of a challenge to gain access to do this but well worth the effort. I am now squeak free!

[blockp]

Thanks. I thought I would have a chance to look at it tonight, but the weather was too nice to pass up playing outside with my 3 & 4 year olds 78F in WI in the middle of October is practically unheard of, so I just enjoyed the evening with the kids.

I've been accused of being anal when it comes to squeaks or rattles in my car, so why should the boat be any different It drives me absolutely nuts to have a single squeak or rattle in the car and I find the boat is no different.

Hopefully I'll get to look at it tomorrow and I'll look for the screws you mention. Good idea to replace them with through bolts, fender washers and nylon locking nuts.

Thanks again.

[blockp]

I found the source of the squeaks, but I'm debating on how to fix them. I'm a little surprised that none of the plastic dash panels have felt or anything between them and the fiberglass part of the boat. The plastic is more flexible than the fiberglass and when it flexes against the fiberglass, it is causing the squeak. I tightened everything up, but when pushing on the dash panels, I still get a squeak.

I'm not too excited about it, but I think the only way I'm going to be able to fix this is to pull out the entire dash assembly enough to get some felt tape between the joints. After reading ShabahZ250's writeup on Dashboard Removal and repair, I'm not too excited about trying to do this. Granted, he's talking about removing the wood grain part of the dash where I'm going to have to remove the outer part, but it's all tied together.

Anyone else have experience removing the main part of the dash?

[ShabahZ250]

Oh man, trust me you don't want to get into doing the whole dash project. That is literally a nightmare. And I only did it because my dash was literally crumbling to pieces.

If you can get access behind the dash, try and inspect the glue points, as shown in my writeup. If you've got flex in some spots, maybe the glue seal between the dash and the fiberglass has broken. Perhaps you could reglue any broken ones to tighten it back up. Or I wonder if it flexes enough, could you possibly wedge some small pieces of felt in there to eliminate the squeaking without having to mess too much with the plastic dash. I really don't wish anyone those headaches.

I picked up some of these felt pads at the local hardware store, and have used them to eliminate squeaks all over the boat. I use the small ones, which are about .25" around.

[blockp]

Hey Chris, I'm glad you responded. I'm not talking about taking out the wood grain part of the dash like you had to do. Take a look at my Avitar... the red part of the dash is plastic and is what's squeaking against the fiberglass that it's mounted to. That's the part I'm considering loosening to get some felt behind. Was your wood grained part of the dash mounted right to fiberglass?

Also interestingly enough, the wood grain part of the dash isn't glued to the red plastic part. It has those push in automotive type clips (I'll try to find a pic online). I can't imagine trying to get to all of them to remove the thing, but it's not glued like yours was.

Here's a link to a fastener that is like what holds the wood grain part on.

[ShabahZ250]

Hmm, yours sounds much easier than mine! I guess they just intended for the dashes to last forever, with no need to replace them.

My whole drivers console is one piece, there's screws along the top edge by the windshield, and it appears to be heavily screwed into the flooring system as well.

If you can loosen the red part, I'd try and do it that way, insert some felt pads in between, and give it a try! If you could, try and photograph the process so you can help others who might have similar issues! Good luck with it and let us know how it turns out!

[mikeyt]

If you're going to re-screw the dash down or even thru bolt items make sure you dont over-tighten the plastic. Given most of these boats are at least 8 yrs old, the plastic turns a little on the brittle side....so it might be wise to use cushioning spacers of some sort where possible & just tighten to snug with maybe a dab of loc-tite on the threads.

[blockp]

Hey MikeyT.

After further review. My dash assembly is mostly plastic, not fiberglass on fiberglass, or woodgrain (plastic) on fiberglass like ShabahZ250's dash. At this point, I think I'm going to remove the plastic dash assembly (red part, not wood grain part), then put some one sided sticky felt between the plastic and the fiberglass, then remount it using the original fully threaded machine screws and some loc-tite.

I also have much squeaking on the lower wood grain part of the dash and will probably perform the same exorcism on that part too.

It's raining and 50 here now, so hopefully we get a couple more days of decent weather so I can work on it before I put it in storage for the winter.

On the plus side, I got the back light on my trim gauge working

I'm considering changing all the courtesy lights to red LED's. I own a couple Audi's and have always liked their red interior lighting, so I might convert the Maria to look a bit more Audi like If the lighting doesn't look good, I may just switch the instrument cluster instead/ or in addition to

A bit of an afterthought. What's your 18's outer/main dash made of? Do you have the fiberglass on fiberglass?

[mikeyt]

Originally Posted by blockp

Hey MikeyT.

After further review. My dash assembly is mostly plastic, not fiberglass on fiberglass, or woodgrain (plastic) on fiberglass like ShabahZ250's dash. At this point, I think I'm going to remove the plastic dash assembly (red part, not wood grain part), then put some one sided sticky felt between the plastic and the fiberglass, then remount it using the original fully threaded machine screws and some loc-tite.

I also have much squeaking on the lower wood grain part of the dash and will probably perform the same exorcism on that part too.

It's raining and 50 here now, so hopefully we get a couple more days of decent weather so I can work on it before I put it in storage for the winter.

On the plus side, I got the back light on my trim gauge working

I'm considering changing all the courtesy lights to red LED's. I own a couple Audi's and have always liked their red interior lighting, so I might convert the Maria to look a bit more Audi like If the lighting doesn't look good, I may just switch the instrument cluster instead/ or in addition to

A bit of an afterthought. What's your 18's outer/main dash made of? Do you have the fiberglass on fiberglass?

I've done the courtesy light change over to red LED's and i agree it looks much nicer.

As for my dash / console it is all plastic. I mentioned the overtightening issue because I had that happen to me when i got rid of my squeeks....