Rebedding railing stanchion bases on 1996 2870WA

[heydad]

After some damage to my rail rafting up with another boat from boat wakes, I am getting rain water leakage under the bent up stanchion bases into my cabin. I want to remove all the screws and repair and rebed the bases. From what I can see there are not any thru bolts. An email I recieved from Pursuit said that there are no thru bolts but they imbed aluminum plates in the gunnel and use machine screws to secure the rail. Before I create a real monster is anyone familar with this or have done this same thing?

[YOLO]

My only concern would be the stainless crews fusing together with the aluminum plate and snapping off the heads. If that happens you'll need to drill it out, retap it, and use a liberal amount of 5200.

[heydad]

That was one of my concerns also plus the thought of what if they thru bolted the rails before they put the deck to the hull.

[heydad]

I decided to take on this project today and hope for the best. Out of 20 screws I had to remove only 3 broke off and I had to drill and tap them. I bought this boat new in 1997, there was not one bit of caulking under the stanchion bases. Hopefully I have fixed the leaks I'll know after the next rain storm.