[JLMounce]

My car has been essentially "done" for quite a while now, but I'm always wanting to tinker with it and improve it where possible.

I'm not old enough to have lived with these cars when they were new, so I don't have any frame of reference on what kind of squeaks and rattles were normal for their vintage compared to what I experience with my car.

When I restored and updated the interior back in 2021, there was a pretty noticeable improvement in the amount of squeaks and rattles the car exhibited. There's been a few that have come back over time and even some new ones that weren't there previously.

I don't want to get rid of the charm of the car, but I drive it so often at this point that I'm yearning for a little more serenity from the drivers compartment.

I'm currently dealing with sail panels are are squeaking pretty severely over any kind of rough road. The 1/4 windows rattle a bit as well, but my main issues are in the dash pad and gear shift cover. Both rattle and buzz terribly at this point.

The gear shift cover plate has always been an issue. The repop that I purchased never really fit right and I know there was originally a TSB to screw those in place instead of using the clips. The dash is a new reproduction as well. My factory dash was in terrible shape and I opted to save a few bucks and buy a repop over having mine restored.

For you guys that are living the rattle free life, any tricks of the trade you can offer? This will probably end up being my winter project this year. I've got to take the dash panel out anyway as there's a loose ground somewhere.

Thanks!

[67Sprint6]

My 1967 Lemans with 140k on it has some of the squeaks and rattles. A few I have chased down and fixed (console, hurst shifter, dash pad, etc.) Still others that often I don't even notice as they became background noise. Some I figured were just part of the car.
Then I got my 1977 Firebird with 18k original miles. It is quiet, almost nothing in the way of a rattle. Everything is tight. Then I realized that is the way it should be, and like you plan to turn more attention to the Lemans on this front.
I assumed it was just going to be a matter of focusing on one thing at a time.
I suspect the Lemans needs fresh rubber body mounts. Although I don't know if that is a noise maker or not.

[burd]

https://youtu.be/8B7xr_EjbzE?si=5GG2uXyNh2SnZ_BR

[bbnotop]

I am totally with you on this. Finished my '64 this summer with a complete frame off and everything replaced or reconditioned. The rattles and squeaks were driving me crazy. I now have about 800 miles on it, and some have gone away, figured they found their happy place. Others have popped up. My dash bezel squeaked and rattled to the metal dash. I took it off and used the fancy "BMW uses it" cloth wire loom tape at covered strategic points and that helped a lot. Some of the rattles were my fault as it was a resto mod and I didn't secure under dash aftermarket components and relays well enough. I am tracking these down. I do remember in disassembly that there was degraded tape products in certain areas that I assume were there as anti squeak and rattle. My radio was rattling against the rear mount and I put a ball of butyl rubber in between to cure that. It may work it self out to rattle again at some point, but working now. Good luck.

[Rachelsdad]

Sometimes, we can be our own worst enemies.

The plating on the Bonneville's grab bar was really looking...sad, and instead of having mine redone (I still may), I picked up a really nice looking one on eBay, pulled my glove box, and swapped. Wouldn't you know it? I probably didn't get one nut tightened down quite far enough, as now, going over a rough patch of road (or a not-so-rough patch), the dang thing rattles... Grrrr... I think the rattle is coming from where the bar meets the dash.

The rest of the car is pretty rattle-free, even the top frame. One little buzz which has always been present (always=as long as I recall when driving myself, so since the car was 13 years old or so) is the speedo head when going over bumps. It doesn't bother me, though.

Good luck swatting your rattles. These things take patience and time.

[indymanjoe]

I hate any kind of rattle,squeak etc.. i fought my dual gate shifter last year. it made a buzzing sound at various speeds. had it apart soooo many times. turned out my exhaust was rubbing on the crossmember slightly. that was making the buzz sound....

[Jeff Hamlin]

The Dash bezel in my '66 is OE, and the ABS-type plastic would creak depending on the temperature.
I ended up using small bits of strip caulk along the bottom between the plastic and the metal dash.

This has worked well, however,
The piece that still creaks and pops with temp changes while driving is that GD plastic collar around the steering column

I guess that was/is a common issue and likely why PMD did away with it in '67

[besserspat]

I live in Montreal and we ought to have the worst roads in North America.

The potholes, the halfassed patches, the winters... Really takes its toll on any cars. Driving my vintage stuff becomes and exercise of caution but also frustration. The terrible roads highlight all the creaks, rattles and makes your nice car feel like a piece of garbage no matter how tight your car is and it ages your car prematurely.

Last year I fixed a pretty bad rattle that drove me nuts on my 73 bird, the passenger side rubber engine mount had collapsed letting the hooker header resting directly on the subframe. This would send a rattle so loud through the whole car. After fixing the engine mount, the header tube was a good 3/4" from the subframe...

The battle against rattles is incremental...

[indymanjoe]

i have used double sided carpet tape on some interior parts to stop rattles etc

[HWYSTR455]

Yes, foam tape, mesh loom, brushing plasti-dip in certain areas, clamps, zip ties, whatever works.

I doubt there is any 1 thing that can be used exclusively, in every case for me, it's always been a combo, targeting a particular squeak or rattle.

Window regulators are a pain, you basically have to replace the rollers, clean & re-lube them, and ensure the fuzzies, bumpers, etc are all in order.

One of the areas that bothers me on my A body is the hood. The side edges rub on the brace part of the fenders. The rubber bumpers that are repopped are too hard, and more I can't use. Was considering using a length of washer hose slit and glued on the edge, but haven't gotten that far yet.

I have a pretty beefy stereo in that car too. The underside of the hood & deck lid rattle at higher volumes. Was going to try to squeeze something in there, or may use expanding foam or something, another area I haven't gotten to yet.

Once you start knocking out some of them, it makes it easier to focus on the remaining. I have some items I'm addressing that feel have a higher priority, but I do go back & forth in time and knock out rattles, squeaks, and bumps/knocks.



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[Rachelsdad]

The Bonneville used to have an annoying buzz from the rear speaker grill. This was no doubt caused by a missing pin (only 4 hold it to the speaker box in the rear seat), and the resulting looseness between the two.

When I had my interior redone last year, it took me a while to notice that the buzz was gone (wish I could have said the same for my original speaker which finally started buzzing so badly that I had to turn off the reverb and only listen to the front one).

When I got my replacement speaker from Electro - Tech, Inc (https://www.smelectrotech.com/), I discovered that the upholstery shop had quite literally loaded up the perimeter of the grill with black 2-sided tape of approx 3/8" width (3M automotive trim tape). Great idea, out of sight, and enough "give" to contour and make a good insulator.

[HWYSTR455]

Yes, 'foam tape'. I have a few diff widths, automotive type, which withstands heat and moisture.

I also have a bunch of dots and squares that are 2 sided, and can trim them to fit the area I'm working on.

DynaMat works too, depending on what you're working on. And thankfully, it's now available in black.

I usually put a sheet of DynaMat on the top of gas tanks, it takes the drone out of it when it's under a half tank.

For glass reveal molding, they have plastic clips that have a little tab on them that are between the body and the molding.

There's also a plastic liner that you can slide into reveal molding that prevents the molding from vibrating on the glass. I know 1979-81 firebirds had it, but haven't looked to see if I could find it. It's just strips of arched plastic that slides in on the backside of reveal modling.

There's also universal 3rd party sources, but haven't tried those either:

https://www.deadnutson.com/1969-70-w...-rattle-clips/




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[Deadhead]

After taking apart a few ‘66 Bonnevilles, I found what they did at the factory on these was put Mortite (putty) strips between almost all places where 2 pieces of metal touch. I have had very few rattles in these. Worst has been in the dash bezel at odd times.