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The gunwale mounted fasteners for my bimini brackets are pulling out. The existing hardware consists of a brass cylindrical threaded insert (1/4-20 or 10-24) that fits tightly in the barrel of a a rubber grommet. With the grommet in the deck hole, you tighten the mounting screw, and the rubber underneath compresses and folds over, which prevents the threaded insert from pulling out of the hole drilled in the deck. There is no backing wood, only foam under the brackets. Age has taken its toll however, and the rubber is disintegrating. I've never seen this type of blind threaded fastener before and am having a difficult time finding a direct replacement. I've considered stainless toggles, but am concerned about the size of hole required, and the need to gouge out a lot of foam in order to give the toggle room to spread once inserted. Has anyone used a better mounting scheme?
Jim

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Not exactly clear on your mounting. Is the bimini fixed or on sliders?

Have you considered this? The mount onto the gunnel and the pole attaches.

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I would replace it with the part in the photo Phil shows above.

Or, add a slider so you can slide the bimini forward or rearward whichever you choose.

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I guess I wasn't too clear on my situation, let me try again. My boat is a 15 Sport. I have the bracket as Phil shows, fixed. I really don't have a need for a slider track. The bracket location has no wood underneath, only foam.

Each bracket accepts two fasteners, in my case 10-24 screws. Each screw threads into a rubber grommet that sits in a rather large diameter hole (3/8"?) drilled in the gunwale. The brass threaded female piece that the screw engages is inside the barrel of the grommet. The system uses the distortion of the rubber that occurs when you tighten the screw to keep it from pulling out of the hole

I either need to find a direct replacement (my hope), or install a stainless toggle in the hole that accepts 10-24 threads, or fill the hole and start all over with a different fastening system.

Does this make sense?

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Jim,

The part you are looking for is called a wellnut. They are not that hard to find. ACE Hardware and the big box stores usually have some. If not, google.


Tom

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Tom,
That's it! I really appreciate the help.
Jim

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It sounds to me like the original hole stripped and pulled out and they used well-nuts to fix this.

I would suggest filling the holes in with wood and epoxy and then using the fitting that Phil shows above.

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Joe,

I have the fittings Phil shows. I believe these fittings were originally installed with wellnuts. The holes are clean and round, the foam inside is only missing up to the drill depth.

It appears to me that filling with epoxy and wood would involve gouging out more foam, to ensure that screws would achieve enough bite.

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What I did was put one (approx.) 4" x 6" x 3/4" Mahogany stock (already finished) where ea. cleat goes into the gunnel. Each block is a fastened with 6 S/S screws and "5200". This gives the cleat a "Wider" foot print to hold down on, They've held on for 15 "YEARS" so far. To re-finish just "Tape off" the block, sand, stain, and re-finish when you do the rest of the wood resto... Look's "Neat" and "finished" too. You can see them on my personal page.