1995 ProStar 205 Windshield Door

[Huckelfin]

Huckelfin I don't know where you are located but when bringing our 205 in for a separate issue (bogging under load) Ace Marine in Austin, TX disassembled and reassembled my windshield for a very fair price. It's solid as a rock now. If you're not down this way, I'd see if you can find a marine shop that works on old inboard/v-drive boats regularly as chances are they've run into this before. Alternatively, the only way to really do it is to completely remove the windshield frame from the boat, put it back together that way, and then reinstall.

For the record, they also tracked down the bogging issue for me and are great people.

Thanks for the reply. It is not actually my windshield that is not solid, its mostly the dash itself. Although after putting some hours on this boat this summer, I barely even notice it anymore. It is just not as stiff as I expected it to be on the first few times out. On choppy days you can see the movement between the walkthrough and drivers side panels. Before the season started I had the whole windshield off to replace base gasket material, through bolt the screws, and just try to tighten up areas that were let go too long by previous owners. The highlight here being the piano hinge is a bit blown out, not perfectly smooth. I added some nylon washers between the joints to help stiffen it. It helped but still not perfect.

[tmothy07]

Huckelfin I don't know where you are located but when bringing our 205 in for a separate issue (bogging under load) Ace Marine in Austin, TX disassembled and reassembled my windshield for a very fair price. It's solid as a rock now. If you're not down this way, I'd see if you can find a marine shop that works on old inboard/v-drive boats regularly as chances are they've run into this before. Alternatively, the only way to really do it is to completely remove the windshield frame from the boat, put it back together that way, and then reinstall.

For the record, they also tracked down the bogging issue for me and are great people.

[tmothy07]

Just in general I think the 205 dash and windshield combo is not the most robust product ever made. Everything on mine is now tight with the appropriate screws on the aluminum cross braces, through bolts on windshield, hinge rewelded and also with supporting screws to help stiffen it, etc. and I am pretty surprised with how much movement there is in the entire drivers helm area with respect to the other side. I saw another thread from a good while back saying that some amount of shaking is pretty characteristic of this vintage. Hope so, to be honest, as I have not seen any cracks or anything like that in my hull. I think it's just the way it is.

Kind of along the lines of this discussion, I still very much struggled with alignment. It seems that dealerships were the ones to install the windshields back in the day and I have to say that it looks like mine was done on a Friday afternoon. I did everything I could to align it, but it's still just not great.

Haha, I took mine to my local dealer and they said they couldn't do anything to help me after looking at it, so they must not do it anymore

[Huckelfin]

We haven't actually been able to reattach it fully, so we're still managing with it not being fully connected unfortunately. As far as I can tell, yeah, it's a fairly common issue with the 205.

Just in general I think the 205 dash and windshield combo is not the most robust product ever made. Everything on mine is now tight with the appropriate screws on the aluminum cross braces, through bolts on windshield, hinge rewelded and also with supporting screws to help stiffen it, etc. and I am pretty surprised with how much movement there is in the entire drivers helm area with respect to the other side. I saw another thread from a good while back saying that some amount of shaking is pretty characteristic of this vintage. Hope so, to be honest, as I have not seen any cracks or anything like that in my hull. I think it's just the way it is.

Kind of along the lines of this discussion, I still very much struggled with alignment. It seems that dealerships were the ones to install the windshields back in the day and I have to say that it looks like mine was done on a Friday afternoon. I did everything I could to align it, but it's still just not great.

[tmothy07]

tmothy, can you tell me how this ended up working out for you? I think this is a common problem with 205 hinges, mine looks kind of similar, at least the split does. I believe this might be what happens when the bottom screw becomes neglected over the years, which increases pressure on the top. Any more pictures of the final fix would be awesome. My first thought was also to inquire with Taylormade or reach out to an aluminum welder also. My whole windshield just needs some refurb. I have a disintegrated base gasket/weather stripping on the bottom, couple of screws missing, split hinge, vinyl screw covers are shrunken, etc. In need of some TLC.

We haven't actually been able to reattach it fully, so we're still managing with it not being fully connected unfortunately. As far as I can tell, yeah, it's a fairly common issue with the 205.

[Huckelfin]

tmothy, can you tell me how this ended up working out for you? I think this is a common problem with 205 hinges, mine looks kind of similar, at least the split does. I believe this might be what happens when the bottom screw becomes neglected over the years, which increases pressure on the top. Any more pictures of the final fix would be awesome. My first thought was also to inquire with Taylormade or reach out to an aluminum welder also. My whole windshield just needs some refurb. I have a disintegrated base gasket/weather stripping on the bottom, couple of screws missing, split hinge, vinyl screw covers are shrunken, etc. In need of some TLC.

[waterlogged882]

Aside from a little porosity, the welds looks pretty good. I was hoping to see you get it repaired. Round out the holes in a defined manner to eliminate any risers.

.

[mikeg205]

Paint it, and if anyone starts looking that close poke them on the eye with a sharp stick.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[tmothy07]

Well, she's all melted back together. Picking it up later today and possibly trying to put 'er back together today or tomorrow. "Looks like an aluminum weld" says my welding engineer brother haha. At any rate, it's way better than it was.

[mikeg205]

I bought the full bill of material for rhe 1995s. Unfortunately its on microfiche.

Local library has a reader Free to use. One day soon I need to go library and peruse the data.


Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[tmothy07]

Yeah, I found an equivalent TM part number elsewhere on the forum, but they must not keep records that long or just didn't feel with dealing with a very limited B2C like me who wasn't looking for a full windshield

Dropping off the hinge with the welder on Friday, so hopefully this will be fixed soon!

The big thing will be getting the curved glass fully seated so that it puts as little pressure as possible on the hinge portion.

[mikeg205]

That winshield was manufactured by ALDON.. which taylor made purchased. They only thing I was able to secure from taylor made was new glazing rubber. But that was 3 years ago. There's a thread under general discussion that has links to marine windshield manufacturers..

Maybe they can think of another solution for the hinge





Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[tmothy07]

Whelp, Taylor Made was zero help basically saying "nope, we don't know anything" even though I gave them their part number, and MC's part number for the windshield. Time to attempt the weld and hope everything goes well haha.

[Ski-me]

The welding I'm sure is going to be a LOT cheaper. I'd give it a shot and see how it goes. But also continue following up with TaylorMade and see what they say. Post your results from them too. It would be good to know for the future.....

[tmothy07]

Talked to an aluminum welder locally and he seems to think he can handle it for a fair price. I also have an inquiry in with TaylorMade on if I could just get a new hinge portion from them. My brother, a welding engineer, expressed concern that the frame may not be made from 6000+ series aluminum and that a weld would just crack again as the design of this door hinge isn't the greatest in the first place. I'll keep this updated and let y'all know what TaylorMade says, as I know the early-mid 90's 205's tend to have these issues.