The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 47-55 Running board to fender anti-squeak/gasket

I’m hoping to get some thoughts on the anti-squeak/gasket that goes between the running board and the rear fender. I purchased some replacements and they surprised me how thin they are. In looking around it sounds like the thought is that these „replacements“ are nothing more then 15# roofing felt. I came across some reading that some people have used 30# roofing felt. Or even have doubled up the 30# felt by gluing them together. I might just do this. I have the cheap replacements as a pattern. I was wondering if anyone has used something else like a rubber instead. My seam between the two is decent but not perfect. Some type of a compressible material would clean it up.

Also doesn’t the filler panel on top of the running board also come into contact with the fender? Mine does at least. Why isn’t there any type of a gasket/seal there? Other than there really isn’t much of a lip on the filler panel.

Any thoughts on these two topics is appreciated. Thank you.

Adam

Need a new set of running boards because mine are pretty beat up. No way a paper gasket is gonna fill the gap, so I traced the shape onto extra thick motorcycle inner tube. You can get them 4-6mm thick and probably thicker than that. Even standard inner tube would be better for my purpose than the paper gasket.

Yes, yes they do.
I may try to put something in there, maybe glued to the apron.

Skooter,

That's a great solution to the problem.

Thanks for sharing!

Well, three of mine are about an inch away from the nearest fender. I never knew they were supposed to touch!

Not sure they're supposed to touch. My original aprons were scrunched down pretty badly, which probably caused that wear spot in the fender. Lots of squeaking going down the road.

It’s kind of a strange connection to me. The perfectionist in me says to get a nice joint/seam between the apron and fender. But I’m wondering if the intent was a gap but it’d be a very small gap and would make sense why they didn’t put any type of anti-squeak material on it. But a small gap would collect dirt and moisture. So a tighter gap would be better for that but then again no material between the pieces and the flange is so small on the apron you can’t hardly attach anything there. It’s just a strange area to me.

Since the cab and the bed are two separate entities that twist and flex in different directions, I'm sort of surprised that the running board would touch the fenders at all, even with a thin piece of felt or rubber between them.

The cab isn’t bolted to the running boards. So the flex can be there. There’s a large gap between the running boards and the front fender. The running boards are bolted to the support arms from the frame and the rear fender so that’s where the solid connection is.

The cab and front clip are really the only things that move relative to the frame. The bed, rear fenders, and running boards are rigidly attached to the frame. That's why the rear fenders attach to the running board, while the front fenders do not.
[on edit] Looks like Adam got there while I was typing.

OK. That makes more sense. With about an inch of space between my fron fenders and the running boards , I didn't see how they could ever connect.
One of my rears is close but the other is a half inch or so away.

The rear fenders can be moved fore or aft to close the gap between the running board and the front edge of the rear fender. You can probably get some more adjustment by loosening the running board-to-bracket bolts and nudge the running boards fore or aft.