Stripped screw
Instructor
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 155
Likes: 0
From: Pea Ridge AR
If you can drill the the center of the screw, you should be able to back it out with an easy-out. Available at fine parts stores everywhere.
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 38,897
Likes: 1,926
From: Washington Michigan
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,974
Likes: 2
From: Crownsville Md.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,937
Likes: 163
From: OP Kansas
C2 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
I can't remember what they are called, but they make a screw to fix that problem. The screw has the same size head, but the shank is larger, so it will tighten in the stripped out hole.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 5,214
Likes: 447
From: NJ Hockey beer league
Another method I discovered is to use the 2 part epoxy putty (available at Home Depot, Lowes ect...) and fill the hole. Smooth with a wet finger, let dry, drill a 7/64 hole and put your original screw back in. I like working with the putty since there is no chance it can drip on the interior. 
Pilot Dan
Pilot Dan
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,541
Likes: 1,975
From: Temple Terrace Florida
Stripped screw hole
Try putting a zip tie or two into the hole. When the screw is secure, trim off the ends of the tie. This works well for tapcon blue screws in concrete when the hole is just a little too big for the screw. Jerry
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Drifting
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,946
Likes: 28
From: Long Beach CA
There is a kit for this that is carried by most of the Corvette parts houses. It's a bunch of metal strips, about 3/4" by 2", with 3 holes in them. The idea is to drill the fiberglass and pop rivet the metal strip over the stripped hole so the screw now threads into the metal strip. I did this to all of the window surround mounting holes when I redid the interior. I bought the kit, but one could obviously make what they need from thin sheetmetal from Home Depot.
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 26,118
Likes: 1,874
From: Greenville, Indiana
If the stripped screw is threading to metal, push on the head of the screw with your screwdriver. If you feel resistance, bump the end of the screwdriver with the heel of your hand, then just run the screw in as normal.
Bumping the screwdriver handle will push the metal back together so the screw can get a bite on it if it hasn't been enlarged too much.
Bumping the screwdriver handle will push the metal back together so the screw can get a bite on it if it hasn't been enlarged too much.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 58,061
Likes: 7,146
Army
A metal paper clip works too....but the epoxy makes it more like original. I think the metal pop rivet plates are pretty lame. You are going to drill 2-3 more holes to fix one...never made sense to me.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3,494
Likes: 125
From: Kissimme now from LI,NY
A little trick I use occasionally on my metal aircraft skin and other non- heavy aluminum is to cut a piece of aluminum pop can into a strip about 1" long and about 1/8" wide. Place in the screw hole, hold while running in the screw. It can be tightened about as tight as you want without problems. Most never again fall out, and are easily removable should the need arise.
Safety Car
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 4,460
Likes: 1,293
From: minneola fl
OK, first a short rant 
On this forum, we're ALL guilty of slamming bubba fixes. We talk about the right way to do something, and then provide information to do it the wrong way!!! If you have a fiberglass hole that is stripped, don't put a friggin blue plastic thing in it. Every time I get a car with those damn things, it makes my blood boil. The point is, we're all driving the coolest cars out there, so why bring bubba into the equation......FIX IT RIGHT!! A little glass, and some resin, and it's like new. OK, I'm off my soapbox.
Frankie, I paper clip falls into the same category as noted above, and.........The metal plates are "stock" on all of the midyear cars. That's why they added them.
Mike Coletta
Do it right the first time, and then you don't have to do it again.
On this forum, we're ALL guilty of slamming bubba fixes. We talk about the right way to do something, and then provide information to do it the wrong way!!! If you have a fiberglass hole that is stripped, don't put a friggin blue plastic thing in it. Every time I get a car with those damn things, it makes my blood boil. The point is, we're all driving the coolest cars out there, so why bring bubba into the equation......FIX IT RIGHT!! A little glass, and some resin, and it's like new. OK, I'm off my soapbox.
A metal paper clip works too....but the epoxy makes it more like original. I think the metal pop rivet plates are pretty lame. You are going to drill 2-3 more holes to fix one...never made sense to me.
Mike Coletta
Do it right the first time, and then you don't have to do it again.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 58,061
Likes: 7,146
Army
Sooo....when I take those blue plastic anchors out and replace them with a paper clip its still Bubba ??? I never knew.
I don't make a practice of such things -- but it does work as a stopgap until a proper repair can be done.
I don't make a practice of such things -- but it does work as a stopgap until a proper repair can be done.
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 4,049
Likes: 134
From: St. Clair Shores MI
C2 of Year Finalist (track prepared) 2019
2017 C2 of the Year Finalist
I have been doing the paper clip trick for decades
re glassing the hole is just plain a waste of time for something no one is going to see in the next 15 yrs, it is a hole behind a trim panel, I could care less if a tampon string was hanging out of it, if the screw tightens, does not fall out, and the repair is not detectable, the it is a repair well done.
I guess I should be using a tourque wrench on all these interior fasteners too
re glassing the hole is just plain a waste of time for something no one is going to see in the next 15 yrs, it is a hole behind a trim panel, I could care less if a tampon string was hanging out of it, if the screw tightens, does not fall out, and the repair is not detectable, the it is a repair well done.
I guess I should be using a tourque wrench on all these interior fasteners too
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2,660
Likes: 7
From: DFW
paperclips... For years and they work. I am a little afraid of the plastic dry wall anchors.. Worried that when you go to pull the screw that the anchor will just turn in the hole. Epoxy and mending plates seem like a lot of work for a hidden hole..Harry
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,976
Likes: 54
From: On the bank of the Columbia River..... Washington State
I have been doing the paper clip trick for decades
re glassing the hole is just plain a waste of time for something no one is going to see in the next 15 yrs, it is a hole behind a trim panel, I could care less if a tampon string was hanging out of it, if the screw tightens, does not fall out, and the repair is not detectable, the it is a repair well done.
I guess I should be using a tourque wrench on all these interior fasteners too
re glassing the hole is just plain a waste of time for something no one is going to see in the next 15 yrs, it is a hole behind a trim panel, I could care less if a tampon string was hanging out of it, if the screw tightens, does not fall out, and the repair is not detectable, the it is a repair well done.
I guess I should be using a tourque wrench on all these interior fasteners too
