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Does anyone have a good way to replace the screws, so they stay tight, in the fiberglass for the railing bases? Would a star pop rivet work or would it tear the glass?
ED

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Ed -

Welcome to WC.

I did a quick site search (on the top menu bar) for all of the words "rail base repair" and found this:

Rail base repair thread

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Another simple way to repair is to get a small allen wrench and insert the long end in a drill and then place the smaller end into the hole. Slowly spin and this will loosen up any broken foam. Then fill the hole with gorilla glue or some other epoxy. Be very care in that Gorilla Glue expands when dry so use sparingly. After it sets up drill a pilot hole and you'll have a secure base to keep it in place

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This is the best group of fine folks on the internet there is.
Would a star grimp pop rivet work to hold the base and side bracket?
ED

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Tom-would yopu set the base and screws into the gorila glue so when it dries it would be set?
ED

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I would not. Time may come that you need to remove the screws for whatrever reason and that would make it much more dificult as well as a possiblility of cracking the adjoining fiberglass. Just drill a pilot hole after it dries and then screw away! :) If you have never used Gorilla Glue then you should do a test run on something so you can see the expansion. It almost seems to grow! :@

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Tom -good points and advise. I'll try the test holes on an old piece of fiberglass and see how it works.
Thanks again.
ED

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Remove the railings and fill all the holes with marineTex. then reinstall the railing, only move the flanges slightly so you can screw into virgin fiberglass but close enough to the old MarineTex filled holes so that they are covered by the flange.
rich

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I don't know what kind of Whaler you have, but I disagree with all of the above. Some are close, but not quite complete.

Here is the recommended method by a major Whaler dealer, which I used on my 25 Outrage bow rail bases 15 years ago, and they are STILL perfect.

Remember that BW installed plywood pads under each railing base. These tend to get wet and soften, and the screws loose the grip.

Determine the diameter of the original screws, and DOUBLE that diameter. In my case the rail base screws were #14 (1/4" diameter), so I enlarged the original holes by drilling 1/2" holes through both the glass and the wood pad. This gets rid of any bad, soft wood. Then I packed each hole with Marine-Tex, flush with the hull surface, wet sanded flush, re buffed the surronding gelcoat. Then drilled new pilot holes exactly in the center of each Marine-Tex plug (which is clearly defined by a nice neat circle), and re-set the screws, which hold like iron. No caulking needed. So now you have a completely water-proof plug that the screw is set in. Remember Marine-Tex bonds to both the glass skin and the wood insert.

In almost all cases, the doubled diameter of the screw hole with the white Marine-Tex still will not show under the re-installed fitting.

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I just repaired mine two weeks ago. I drilled the holes out with a 5/16" bit and used a syringe (60ml from Tractor Supply) to inject West Epoxy resin until full. I soaked pre-cut oak dowels in the resin and then inserted them into the holes filled with resin. Let them cure for 24hrs and re-drilled the appropriate size for the screws. Simple and worked perfectly.

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I think all agree that the main thing you need to do is make sure you have a solid surface for the screws to anchor in to. If you simply use a larger screw you will eventually end up with the same problem down the road.

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I sure appreciate all of your commets and they give me a good start with my railing. Again, this is one of the best most friendliest website I've been with.
Thanks again.
ED