How fix a Christmas Tree stud that has pulled out of seat cushion backing?

[Evening Shade]

I have a couple of these Christmas tree studs that have pulled out of the seat backing and won't stay in now. Any ideas how to fix this?

[nukemustang]

Are you saying a new one wont stay as well? They do seem to make them a "one time use" item as all the leafs get torn up from ripping them out in the "wrong" direction. I ordered a pack of them off nautiqueparts.com when I ordered some other stuff to have them handy if I have to pull off side panels for anything.

Tim

[swatguy]

From my experience you need to have a handful of extras laying around. Some only last one time others can be reused. There is no rhyme or reason just the way it works. Once they lose their rigidity or the "veins" get bent you can't really bring them back to life

[Evening Shade]

I have some new ones that I need to try, but I have one seat back that it appears that the hole in the backer board that the stud inserts into has gotten a little to large to hold the stud. It was like this when I purchased the boat. Don't know if that seat back was removed several times by the pervious owner. My first question is can the hole somehow be repaired so the new stud will remain in place?

Also, I have another seat back that I want to replace the studs in. However, when I tried to pull the old ones out they were extremely tight. I didn't force them because I didn't want to make the holes too big for the new studs to fit. So my second question is: Is there a way to remove the old studs without damaging the plastic seat backer board?

TIA

[swatguy]

The stud will usually break off before the plastic base is damaged. If it does break off just push the broken part through the hole into the cushion side and go from there. Just be sure you have good pressure around the seat base with your hand while you pull. Again though the tab will usually break before the seat base.

You can try and tighten the loose hole up with couple small strips of duct tape strategically placed inside around the hole..... Much like they do when they cut the extra vinyl for speaker cutouts. They fold it over the edges.

Solution number 2: drill new hole in fiberglass as well as in the seatbase. Simple job.

[Evening Shade]

Good idea swatguy. I'm gonna try the duct tape first.