Dealing with @!*#! canvas fasteners

A device known as the "lift the dot" canvas fastener ranks at the very top of my marine hardware enemies list.

It's a post and spring assembly  that is supposed to secure a canvas closure and to release when you lift at a dot stamped on the fastener face. It does the first function admirably. But I can't get mine to let go -- short of prying them apart with a tool.

Ms. Bettencourt's new canvas has a bunch of these things, installed mainly to hold rolled up canvas or clear window panels with vinyl straps.

I am replacing them with Common Sense twist-lock stud  fasteners from Sailrite:
http://tinyurl.com/b79tttr





Here's the hardware, together with an eyelet I found easy to install on one of the side panel roll-up straps: (My pocket knife is in the picture to provide a sense of scale). The pieces are, from the top:

-A twist-lock stud and its backer plate

-An eyelet installed on a vinyl strap

-An eyelet and its backer washer






I think you can see why they named these  Common Sense fasteners. Installing the first eyelet was a simple job, though I probably would have messed up had I not watched the how-to video that Sailrite provides on its website.

Putting the stud part of the fastener on the canvas was even easier, since the the prongs on the stud fit neatly in the slots the canvas guy had cut in the material for the "lift the dot" fastener posts.

And here's a completed assembly on the canvas, the first of many I need to get done while the weather remains sunny and dry.






In other news-- I found the the reason the fuel gauge dropped to beyond empty and refused to move, even though the tank is full to the fill neck. The solution was simple: I Googled "troubleshooting Teleflex gauges" and found a step-by-step process on the Jamestown Distributors website: http://tinyurl.com/coory5g

It turned out that there is nothing wrong with the gauge. The sending unit inside the tank has failed. I have acquired a replacement sending unit, but installation will have to wait until I have used up most of the fuel in  tank. At Ms. Bettencourt's usual consumption rate, that will be about 29 hours of engine running time. The tank might be nearly dry sometime next spring.

And finally, the curtains project remains on hold. This job might have to wait until spring as well. I still can't muster sufficient confidence to start cutting that expensive material.