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I'm a newbie and looking for advise. I removed my seat and mounts this weekend. The seat and the leaning post cushions backs were rotten. When removing the seat mounts from the deck I found that some of the #14 (big) x 1.5" SS screws wouldn't pull up tight in the deck. Short of cutting an access hole to place a backing plate, what should I do? Can I just relocate the seat an inch, fill the old holes with sealant and move on?
Sorry if this question has been beaten to death! I tried to find it in the search engine.
For the best appearance, you can do one of two things:
1. drill out the stripped holes 1/2" dia, all the way though the wood underlayment, then fill flush with Marine Tex white. dirll new noles and install seat in same location. The seat legs will cover up the repair, which will last forever, and at the same time keep water out of the floor.
2. put a "dummy" same size 3/4" flat head screw in the same hole, set in caulking, using a countersink so head is flush with floor. I use this method in non-skid to fill in unused old holes. It looks good, and no one even notices. They look like they were supposed to be there. Then move seat sightly and re-drill new holes. When drilling into a Whaler with wood backing, drill out only the glass skin, and let the screw self tap into the wood underlayment.
Here is situation where I moved some seats, and you can see the original screw holes filled with countersunk flat heads.
