Toe Rail Fastener Rebedding Project
While rebedding the starboard aft running backstay attachment and starboard aft lifeline stansion I noticed that two of the toerail bolts appeared to have a small amount of corrosion, the washers showed that the gelcoat which had been applied to lock the bolt (there are no lockwashers) had lifted. I then pulled these two bolts out of the deck and found significant corrosion and a small of moisture on the bolt. I had noticed a couple of washers in the port side which looked like the gelcoat was lifting as well but did not want to risk pulling the bolts unless it proved necessary. Pulling the rest of the toerail bolts show that about one in ten bolts is showing some indication of moisture or corrosion. Thus started the replace all of the fasteners through the toereail project. The toerail fastener rebedding was unexpected, due to the cosmetic condition of the toerail I am not currently going to pull up the toerail but rather rebed each fastener independently. All of the fasteners go through solid glass, thus, so long as the fastener does not leak into the inside of the vessel it will not be a problem. There is a significant amount of corrosion in the port-aft portion showing perhaps 10% loss of material. It is purely a cosmetic issue but one which I may come back to at some future date when everything else is finished up. Perhaps it would be possible to re-anodize the toerail after some cleanup? But I have larger fish to fry at this point. The bolts through the toerail are Metric 6mm countersunk flathead bolts which are 45mm long. Locally available 6mm fasteners are not longer than 35mm which is definitely not long enough. However, McMaster Carr does stock these stainless fasteners and they have a pickup location in LA for will call!!! Counting the all of the bolts through the deck there are 105 bolts on each side of the deck for a total of 210 bolts through the deck to replace in the toerail. The materials from McMaster Carr:      M6x45 countersunk flathead phillips head 8-18 stainless machine screws - 5 packs of 50      M6 hex bolts 8-18 stainless - 3 packs of 100      M6 lockwashers 8-18 stainless - 3 packs of 100      M6 fender washers 3/4" diameter 8-18 stainless - 5 packs of 50 The materials from West Marine      1/4" fender washers 1.5" diameter 8-18 stainless      3M5200 sealant The materials remaining to get      M6x45 countersunk flathead phillips head 8-18 stainless self tapping screws - with 30 of 210 screws pulled we have found 2 which are of this type so probably less than 15 or 20 of these Materials on hand      Latex Gloves      Blue Masking Tape      Mineral Spirits - Cleanup   Due to the small size of the screws and how they go through the deck a permanant sealant is a good choice, I will be using 3M5200 normal cure as the bedding compound. All fasteners will be tensioned to just over finger right and then allowed to cure a minimum of 1 week (7 days) which according to the instructions will fully cure material up to 1/8" thickness. Then the bolts are carefully held while the nuts on the back are snugged up. The toerail bolts are being completed as we work through lockers throughout the boat. Note that there are a few self tapping screws which go directly into the tops of bulkheads (two found thus far) which will need to be addressed, plan is to fill hole with epoxy to seal bulkhead from leaks (penetrating epoxy) and then coat the self taping screw with mould release wax and insert into the hole. After the epoxy cures I will pull the screw up and rebed the screw with 3M5200. So far there are two of them which have been reinserted with just a bit of 3M5200 and the original slotted screw (all new are phillips head) Nov 21-22, 2009 - 18 toerail bolts rebedded Nov  26-29, 2009 -12 additional toerail bolts rebedded (40 bolts total), both aft jackline d-rings were also rebedded Dec 5, 2009 - Port toerail bolts in aft cabin final torque. All but the forward most three were sufficiently set that Tom felt no torque as I tightened the bolts Dec 6, 2009 - Starboard toerail bolts in aft cabin final torque. Tom felt back torque (no movement) on all of the bolts on this side, they had one week less time to setup March 2010 - Toerail bolts in the Saloon have been replaced except those in the nav station, planning on giving them a couple of weeks to setup, note a change in process using Alodine on the countersink to try and reduce corrosion and enhance the 5200 connection to the bare aluminum. Current plan is to do this for all bolts going forward. April 2010 - Torqued all of the Saloon bolts, more like 3.5 - 4 weeks of cure time before being tensioned up. June 2010 - Starboard side of the forward cabin toerail bolts have been replaced except for the locker (Cure time 2 days) July 2010 - Port side of the forward cabin toerail bolts have been replaced, including the locker (Cure time 2 days)