I am going to start using a foam bulkhead and plan to remove my foot rails.
What do you recommend for filling the holes?
thanks
Matt
I would either …
1. tape the inside and fill the holes with epoxy resin. You could then gel coat the outside so you end up with no sing of the holes.
or
2. Put the bolt and nut back in so a future owner could reinstall the footbraces if they wanted to.
~wetzool
Re: filling holes
Hi, Depends on what the boat is made of. For a composite hull use five minute epoxy, just put tape over the outside and fill the hole from the inside for a smooth finish. Add a little color too the epoxy to match your boat.
On a plastic boat I find hot glue works about the best and you can get glue sticks in any color to match the boat. Once again tape the outside of boat and fill from the inside for a seamless repair. Hope this helps.
Michael
Wait a little first
If you haven’t spent much time paddling with the BH foams, put the bolts back in after you remove the rails. Make sure you really want to stay with the BH foams before you fill in the holes, just in case you change your mind. Ummm, you have been known to change your mind frequently–no offense!
I ordered my new boat without the holes, so I committed to the BH foams. I’m still tweaking the amount of foam and have yet to make anything fixed in place. The process is a bit of a PITA.
second using the old bolts
Put a bit of silicone on them and put em back in. If they are too long, just pick up shorter bolts and use them. You may change your mind yourself and put the footrests back in someday.
White nylon screws
with cap nuts. Won’t be as visible as the original and still easier than patching a hole.
I suspect that Matt won’t be satisfied with screw heads that are too visible. 
It does take some
fiddlin’ but you’re really goiong to like the padded bulkhead for bracing. I have my Nightheron set up that way and wish all my boats could be so comfortable and versatile.
What kind of boat are you waiting on?
Why are you taking the tracks out?
I have 3 sea kayaks (nordkapp avocet pintail) and I have foamed out the bulkhead on all of them. I leave the tracks and foot pegs in (so others can paddle the boats). Also makes it eaiser to resell the boats. Just my opinion.
What he said…
I now leave the rails in and move the pegs all the way toward me. I never know they are there.
As fast as I change boats this system works best…
Not waiting anymore
Picked up the Explorer LV last week. Due to an NDK screwup (hah!), they moved the front BH forward instead of backward. Despite this screwup, the distance to the front BH is still a few inches LESS than in an American kayak. I wish they’d screwed up by just leaving it at their standard placement, though.
Looks like I need 8" of foaming-out! I thought it’d be 9" but that was too close for comfort when I paddled it. 7" was useable but a bit too much of a reach. My last two paddles in this boat (while still in Montana) I stuck a drybag in front of my feet because I didn’t have any more foams in other thicknesses to try. But after we got home, I cut foams to result in a total of 7.5" or 8" from the front BH. I’m pretty sure that 8" is right but will test both the 7.5" and 8" tomorrow on the water. It’ll be hot enough I will definitely want to roll, even at risk of having the unglued foam pieces come out! I’ll glue them when I know which thickness to use.
Rails
You can unbolt the rails, remove the rest that one’s feet rest on when they are in the rails. Then put the rails back onto the boat, but missing the foot rest pieces. You will have to cut a slot in the foam sections going into the boat for the foam to be able to slide past the rails while installing the foam . That worked on my Explorer and the rails were out of the way enough to be a no issue for foot space It also meant you wouldn’t have the bolt with nut protruding by them selves into the hull for your feet to get hung up on or scrape or cut your feet on.
hi matt
I remove rails–less weight and they are great for scratching up your feet/legs and replace with plastic screws with an acorn nut + a little silicone to seal. That way you can put the originals back when you want to sell.
No reason to glue
Run a stretchy velcro strap around all the foam blocks. Trust me, they won’t go anywhere. Dumped my LV more than once in surf with that arrangement a few weeks ago and everything held fine.
That way it’ll also be easier for others to use your boat.
Rails add weight
My only sea kayaks with rails are the two that can easily serve as guest boats - my Romany and my Elaho DS. Both my Nordkapp LV and Aquanaut have no rails.
I used white nylon screws (bolts) with neoprene washers and nylon cap head nuts when I first removed the rails from my Aquanaut. Subsequently I had Tom Bergh fill the holes when he had the boat to install a new seat. Th Nordlow came without rails.
PC-11
On one boat I left the rails so I could add the foot pegs back on quickly for others to use and on another boat I plugged the holes. To plug the holes I put a small fiberglass patch over each hole on the inside of the hull then plugged the holes from the outside with PC-11 after the glass patches had cured. I find PC-11 a very easy product to work with, affordable (about $6) and available at hardware stores. My local ACE Hardware carries it. It comes in white and is designed for use in a marine environment. I put the fiberglass patch on the inside just to assure the boat wouldn’t leak if for some highly unusual circumstance the PC-11 plug should pop out. It also gives more surface for the PC -11 to bond to. I believe you might be able to smear PC-11 all over the fiberglass cloth patch, stick it on and skip using regular epoxy resin if you don’t have any resin. You might want to test that out first. PC-11 also works great to fill in chipped gel coat and wear spots on the keel of a boat.
http://www.pcepoxy.com/puttyepoxies/pcmarine.asp