[sastanley]

Cajun, in tearing apart at various times my own pulpits and stanchions, I have found that it is generally stainless screws and nuts, but I have on occasion found aluminum backing plates, that are sometimes threaded, instead of nuts/washers, most notably, on the stern pulpit of my Catalina. I've been able to remove and re-bed every one so far, but sometimes you need to squirt a good penetrate and let it sit...especially on those dissimilar metal bonds (SS bolt/screw into a aluminum threaded plate).

Also, almost every bolt was chopped off (with a hacksaw??), so the threads are buggered on the end and you need a wrench to get them off...or...if you don't have a helper, I clamp a pair of vice grips onto the nut, and then duct tape it to the underside of the deck so it hopefully doesn't crash into the boat when I get the bolt/screw out.