companionway trim boards

[kevnh]

As part of my pre-spring work on my new-to-me 2001 SunCat I've been refinishing the exterior teak. First time it's been done I think.
In removing the trim boards surrounding the companionway I found that in addition to the #10 hardware they were stuck on there with some god-awful adhesive (maybe 5200).
Luckily I got them off without splitting the boards, pulling off gelcoat, or both.
(despite all this adhesion, it was also evident that water penetrated around the screws by the rusting underneath the little white finish caps inside the cabin)
My thought was to just reattach using the screws bedded in butyl tape, but worry a bit about strength of that setup.  Anybody tried reinstalling these boards without adhesive?
Same question for handrails.
thx, Kevin

[Craig]

Not sure why you removed them. Reattach the same way they were attached. Probably was 5200. Used when a permanent bond is desired. My personal rule is :If I can work around it....don't take it off! If there was rust I guess you had to.

[Tom L.]

Hi Kevin, I also have a new to me 01 Sun Cat and had the same issues with leaks. However the sealant was not 5200 but maybe life caulk. In any event I re-set all the cabin top parts in Life caulk. It really bothered me that the factory used those plastic buttons because the washers that the button snaps into were steel and rusted. The plastic buttons were shot. I used nylock nuts and cut the screw after installation with a dremel and made the bolt/nut very smooth almost like an acorn nut.
I wouldn't use any kind of permanent or even semi-permanent adhesive. Prefer Life caulk but butyl tape would be ok too. One thing to do is to use a large countersink bit on the cabin exterior. Not too deep. That gives a little trench around the screw to fill with caulking compound. When tightening down the machine screws try to avoid turning the screw too much and tighten the nut only if possible. Turning the screw will augur the compound out of the hole.

Good Luck

Tom L.

[kevnh]

Tom thanks, the countersinking seems like a good idea to help seal the screws.
Of course, the leaking had to be addressed but I would always want to be able to easily remove the wood trim for routine maintenance.
Here in NH the season is so short it's nice to be able to do the grunt work indoors in early spring and be sailing the boat in warm weather!
Those steel/plastic caps also bother me - I plan to replace them with ss acorn nuts