How to fix stripped screws?

[waterboy2010]

I have a few screws that will not stay tight on my boat. A couple of them are holding the hinge to the boat that connects to the right rear sundeck lid on my 05 24' sunsport. The others hold by ballast gauges in place. They all 4 come out within 10 minutes of riding on the water and the gauges just falli right into the cupholder. Does anyone have any ideas on how to secure the screws?

[wotan2525]

Get new screws and put a dab of silicone on them.... This should keep them from vibrating out but won't make them impossible to remove. You could also use some loc-tite if you wanted to but get the lowest strength stuff.

[Ptownkid]

If you just want to fix the screw itself, sometimes a few wraps of Teflon tape work wonders...if you can actually fix the hole it screws into, you might want to try putting a bit of filler in the hole itself. I've had good luck with a little epoxy before, but I have no idea what kind of material you are screwing into.

[saltare inverts]

I would suggest getting brand new supra and give your boat to Mapleleaf. Then again probably cheaperto use teflon, slicone or epoxy.

[wakejmpr]

it all depends on what the screws are grabbing onto. in the case of my 07 launch most of the screws that were loose had nothing to hold on to. my sundeck cover hinge screws were right into fiberglass that split so i had to get diffrent ones put washers and bolts to hold the thing in place which is how it should have been built in the first place. for the dash most of mine were missing the bolts that held it in place so once again i had to use backing plate and bolts to hold the dash in. my switchs also needed to have speed clips put in place because when they built it there was nothing for those screws to grab onto which im thinking is the case with your sunsport. i would suggest getting behind the screws and seeing if they are even grabbing anything if not time for some washers and bolts

[waterboy2010]

For the sundeck I will try and fill the hole with some epoxy and see how that works. As far as the gauges go they have nothing to grab a hold to. What do you mean by speed clips? I don't know if there is a way to hold a nut still while tightening a bolt.

[wakejmpr]

For the sundeck cover I would get bolts with nylock end and maybe washers.its how i fixed mine because i had the same issue. All you have to do is hold the nut with a pair of channel locks or a deep well socket should do the trick. Filling it with epoxy or something else will give way over the corse of a season and you'll be back to where you started. As for your dash take a pic of the backside and then maybe we can get a better idea for a solution. I wouldn't even know how to describe what a speed clip looks like. I'll have to grab a pic and post it

[jzelt]

Something along the idea of ...

http://www.inlandfastener.com/images/sinkhdr/INLAND%20PARTS%20020.jpg

For fasteners on our rub rail for snaps for the cover that pulled out, I got a putty made by loctite at Lowes that you mix together in your hands and then put in the hole and put the screw in. It hardens in a few hours and I haven't had them back out.

[waterboy2010]

For the sundeck cover I would get bolts with nylock end and maybe washers.its how i fixed mine because i had the same issue. All you have to do is hold the nut with a pair of channel locks or a deep well socket should do the trick. Filling it with epoxy or something else will give way over the corse of a season and you'll be back to where you started. As for your dash take a pic of the backside and then maybe we can get a better idea for a solution. I wouldn't even know how to describe what a speed clip looks like. I'll have to grab a pic and post it

wakejmpr I originally filled the hole with expoxy because the screws did not go all the way through the fiberglass and I didn't feel good about drilling holes in my boat. The epoxy worked a few times out and like u said I am back to the same thing now with stripped holes. Did u have to drill the holes on through so you could use a bolt and nut. I looked on the backside of the screws and there wasn't much clearance for a bolt if I were to drill a hole out. Also if i do decide to drill out a hole will I have to worry about cracking the fiberglass or should I be fine?

[waterboy2010]

Something along the idea of ...

http://www.inlandfastener.com/images/sinkhdr/INLAND%20PARTS%20020.jpg

For fasteners on our rub rail for snaps for the cover that pulled out, I got a putty made by loctite at Lowes that you mix together in your hands and then put in the hole and put the screw in. It hardens in a few hours and I haven't had them back out.

As far as speedclips go I haven't found any yet so my ballast gauges are still dangling around. Where does someone suggest I look for these?

[svahle]

As far as speedclips go I haven't found any yet so my ballast gauges are still dangling around. Where does someone suggest I look for these?

Would a spire nut work for your application? If so you can surely get them at you local auto parts store and probably Lowes.