How do you get the little "buttons" on the hand rail nuts off ?

[bfelton]

How do you get the little white "buttons" on the hand rails off without breaking them?  I am trying to track down leaks and I need to remove the hand rails among other things.

Thanks in advance,

Bert Felton

[SpeakEasy]

This sounds like it might be the same thing as my black "buttons" that I had to remove in order to remove my teak handrails. Are these buttons inside the cabin? If they're the same things, I used a very thin putty knife to pry them off. They come off pretty easily - unless you pinch them a bit. It's much too easy to pinch them, so watch yourself. If you can get your blade underneath them without pinching them, they'll pop right off. If you pinch them, you'll reduce the diameter of their open side, and they won't come off.

-Speak

[cavie]

I found it easier to just replace them all. matching them is tuff. Good hardware store will have them.

[MacGyver]

I had a hell of a time on mine......I will be putting cap nuts and fender washers in their places.
You can buy them from Hutchins for about  10 cents a piece or something like that....

Mac

[EclipseGuy]

I have removed those buttons as well.

At first I tried doing it without damaging them but I found it was much easier just to pop them off and not worry about if they get damaged or marked up. They are quite inexpensive and it is just easier to buy new ones. I bought a bag of them from the local marina store.

In the end I decided to forgo the buttons and just use cap nuts (or acorn nuts). The Cap nuts look better in my opinion, and they are much easier to work with.

- John

[Tim Gardner]

Try here for as source.  http://www.pro-dec.com/screw-caps-screw-covers/8-8-snap-caps
TG