Hi Jay,

I have never experienced the problem myself. Perhaps I stumbled upon a good grade of plastic.

I would think that pushing is not going to work as it will just compress the plastic in the holes.

A question... Have you already bonded the deck to the hull?

If you have not, your easiest solution may be to grind down the offending lumps with a rasp until you can extract the plastic, and redo the two Maroskes. This may be possible if they are near the cockpit too. You wouldn't necessarily have to grind down right to the deck, just enough to extract the old plastic and push some new plastic through.

Another question... What are the centres between the holes. If they are long Maroskes we may have to think again, but if they are one inch centres, then a woodworking chisel, like the one pictured here, sharpened really well, should be usable to whittle away the plastic in the holes.

The next photo shows the blade of a tile saw. It is basically a metal rod about six inches long with abrasive imbedded in it. If you snip off the one end and slide it through the plastic and gently saw from the inside. The blade pictured was fairly stiff, so I bent it carefully so it didn't snap.

Another solution may be to use some form of solvent that melts silicone plastic but doesn't dissolve epoxy. Just pour a little into the plastic tube and wait a while.

I don't know if any of the chemists on this forum can help with identifying such a solvent. It is possible something like acetone may work. Test it on an epoxy covered off-cut first though.

Let us know what happens. I'm sure others will experience the same problems.

Et