Grabrail Repairs

tj0199

New Member
I had one grabrail pull out - captive nuts and all - and removed the other one to find only two of the nuts holding it in. I am considering just ditching the nuts and filling the holes with MarineTex and screwing the grabrails back on directly to that. Has anyone done that before and has it caused any problems? I've used MarineTex to reattach other deck fittings and it's fantastic, but these are slightly larger holes (since I'm filling in for the screw and nut not just the screw) and the plastic grabrails themselves aren't exactly durable.
 
I had one grabrail pull out - captive nuts and all - and removed the other one to find only two of the nuts holding it in. I am considering just ditching the nuts and filling the holes with MarineTex and screwing the grabrails back on directly to that. Has anyone done that before and has it caused any problems? I've used MarineTex to reattach other deck fittings and it's fantastic, but these are slightly larger holes (since I'm filling in for the screw and nut not just the screw) and the plastic grabrails themselves aren't exactly durable.
I’ve had success gluing the plastic nut in place with epoxy. Let it dry overnight and then install the screw and rail. I did that because the plastic nut was just spinning in the hole. Good idea to lightly sand the plastic before epoxy.
 
I replaced ours with new captive nuts and it worked. If the holes are enlarged you might need some kind of expanding rivet.

My grab rail is wood, I kind like the look of it. I never use it to grab though.
 

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