www.iFourWinns.com

Those screws in the floor that hold my carpet in? I have several that when I go to tighten just spin around. Is there something I can squirt in there to tighten em up?
Also, I pulled my drain plug but there is still a puddle in my ski locker. I can't feel anything blocking it and a bunch of water drained out when I took it out. The hole in my ski locker is below the water level. Shouldn't that drain?

Thank you in advance for this info.

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06' 240 Horizon
Mercruiser 350 mag Bravo III

I believe they should be bedded in 3M 4200 or similar.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

If you want to do it cleanly & professionally, remove the snap-screw heads and fill with an epoxy (mutli-part). Then redrill the pilot holes after it cures and rescrew in your screw heads. Gorilla and Loctite make good epoxies in an easy to use applicator.

Mighty Putty (yes, the TV commercial) works great, too. I've used it a lot and it and you can get it @ Walmart cheap.

Also, if you are adamant about using a marine product then try Marine Tex.... sandable and amazing strong. Pick up at any marine supply store.

Or you could always remove the screw and then insert match stick and rescrew back in.

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Vic
"Byte Me"
1989 Vista 245
Lake Norman, NC

With regard to your ski locker having water in it...

I could be wrong...but it seems like I remember seeing on here that your model of boat has a problem with the fuel tank shifting and then stopping the drain in the locker from letting water into the bilge.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

What work really well are the PP plastic inserts used for screwing into solid walls; the polypropylene takes the thread and expand outwards into the fibreglass, but there's no localised strain trying to break the brittle resin. If you strip the thread, simply drill or pull the old one out and put in another one.

Graham

Also...I am fairly sure that they sell screws that are larger in thread diameter to fix this problem.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

When there are any composites used in an aircraft application, they would never screw directly into them. It's only a matter of time before it fails. An insert, either moulded in or post inserted is always best.

Graham

aircraft applications use inserts for everything. I know, I have to deal with them everyday!

My boat in the back yard, gets the fix that fits my wallet! I am not Boeing or Delta Airlines, so sometimes the match stick trick is all shes going to get. Other times, I think I fix better than OEM.

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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
Videos

You want to be careful about using anything that expands when putting fasteners into fiberglass. Mainly because fiberglass (unlike metals or wood) does not expand very much. This then causes the gelcoat on the fiberglass to crack (typically in spiderweb-like spokes). The best plan is to clean up and re-fill the holes with epoxy and pre-drill for the original sized screws. The pre-drilling is important, against because of expansion cracking. You want the pilot hole to allow the bulk of the fastener shaft to fit into the hole, with only the threads biting into the fiberglass. You may need to make the hole a little larger when cleaning it up, this to give the epoxy more space to make a good bond.

You could just use a larger screw, keeping the expansion issues in mind. I generally don't like to do this because you're just postponing the eventual correct repair. And that larger screw then means an even larger repair hole. I would not use 4200/5200 or other sealants for this purpose as they don't really offer the right sort of way for the fastener to do it's job. If you can get to the back side of the fastener then consider using a nut and bolt (with a nylock nut and lockwasher) instead of a screw. That's when you'd put a dab of sealant into the hole, to keep water from getting into it.

West Marine sells an epoxy kit that comes with a syringe. This makes it MUCH easier to get the epoxy into the hole. That and the syringe (and other parts of the kit) are made from a plastic that doesn't stick well to epoxy (so you can re-use them).

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Provided the thermoplastic plug is an appropriate size for the screw, with an appropriate OD for the hole, it doesn't apply much strain to the grp, it's spread over the whole contact area, not locally. The thermplastic deforms in a plastic manner. True, if the plug is too tight for the hole and the screw is too big an OD, then it can damage the GRP.

As for putting a screw into GRP or unfilled epoxy/ polyester (neither of which are particularly tough materials), unless the screw is designed to cut into the material, rather than deflect it as it penetrates, there is the possibility for cracking. The flutes of the thread are trying to push the GRP layers apart. Ideally of course, unless a true thread cutting screw is used, the hole should be tapped with a die or nuts and boltsd used.

Graham