rubrail

My rubrail is coming off, how do I re-attatch it? it is in good shape, but its pulling away from the fiberglass. about a 2 foot section.
Stay away from glue? Glue it?

I wouldnt glue it-it might make any possible future repairs or replacemnt a nightmare. My last boat was a MC and the rubrail had a T type channel on rail itself that locked the rail in place. It took a thin metal blade and a lot of force to pop mine back in.

pull the center out and screw it back down

Excuse me for being stupid.... but can you give me more info on how that is done?

anyone?

Assuming yours looks anything like this:



First pull off the rubber cover strip (the white part in the diagram. This may be difficult starting from the middle instead of an end, but careful work with a small flat screwdriver should get it out. Then see what kind of mounting the backing plate uses (the black part in the diagam). On my old boat, it was riveted on every foot or so. I imagine yours is either riveted or screwed. Replace as necessary, then work the rubber cover back into place. Hope this helps!!

-Steve

Swerver, Steve has the legis of doing the job. I'll just offer some words of advice.
If you need to add any screws to secure the rubrail back to the hull, make sure you screw into existing holes and/or drill new holes and then counter sink the holes on the deck, otherwise you could get spider cracks on your deck. Depends on how your boat manufacture constructed your deck. Some score a line above the screw line and below the rubrail in the gelcoat to prevent spider cracks. Others will just countersink the holes.
When you're trying to get the insert back in, you can use some gentle persuasion with a rubber mallet to get it back in.
Also, if you find that your rubrail is wavy right there, ie not straight with the rest of the rubrail you can again use gentle persuasion to whack the rubrail into line.
Also, you can use heatgun to warm the rubrail up to make it easier to work with. Use discretion here.

Chris
Get the Grip you Deserve
www.wakejunky.com

Swerver:

Is the problem that the rubber is comming out of the metal track, or the metal track is coming loose from the boat?

If the rubber is comming out of the track you might be able to just work it back in. It is possible, however, that the track has been damaged and the rubber will no longer stay in. If you can't bend the track back into shape you might have to replace a section of it.


If the problem is that the metal track is coming loose from the hull then you might be looking at the tip of an iceberg.

The rub rail servers two purposes:
1) It gives you a rubber edge to absorb minor little bumps against docks.

2) It covers the joint between the deck and the hull.

The construction I have seen before the deck overlaps the hull by about an inch or so. The two are fastened together by rivits or sheet metal screws or bolt/Nuts. Once the deck has been essentially fastened the rub rail goes on, and the bolts that hold it on provide additional hull to deck fastening.

Depending on the shape of the deck and hull there can be many places where it is just plain too difficult to get a backing place and nut on the inside so they use pop rivits or sheet metal screws. These have a tendency to shear off or pull through under hard use, which leaves the rub rail loose but it also leaves the deck to hull joint loose.

If the hull and deck were a really good fit then joint doesn't open up much. On the other hand, it is hard to make the two pieces match exactly so sometimes there is a sizeable gap that needs to be closed before you can tighten it down.

I had this happen on a much older ski boat that I used to own. I ended up completely removing the deck, fixing some other problems while I was at it and then refastening the deck down. There were a few places that I had to use really long screws (like 8 inches) just so the end of the screw would stick out far enough that I could get a nut on the end of it.

I will post some photos.

Centurions reverse shoe box keeps the water spray from being able to come up and penetrate the joint. When the hull and deck is joined in a Centurion Plexus is applied to make the joint solid. The ss screws are put in place to hold the 2 together until the plexus is cured


You can see more pictures from the NC plant
http://www.clarkboatmotor.com/centurion/index.shtml

Ok, I finally got some pics, and I'm not sure what to do... It looks like the rivets have broken that hold it to the deck, I might be able to drill out the rivet hole in the deck and place a screw there? What kind do I use?
Here are some pics... hope it helps! Also included one pic from the inside






Also included one good pic, they way it is supposed to look. :-) and one from the inside of the boat, with the carpet pulled back.

Swerver:

If the rivit broke and didn't enlarge the hole then you could probably get away with just installing a new rivit. I recommend a stainless rivit over the aluminum ones. They are much harder to POP but they won't shear off so easily either.

If the problem is that the rivit has pulled through the fiberglass then the hole will be too large for a rivit, and proably any type of sheet metal screw to hold.

If you can get in there to take that picture then I would recommend drilling the rivit out and replacing it with a stainless steel screw, with a nut and large washer on the inside. It will be a bit more of a bitch to install if you use a "nylock" nut but that would ensure that it doesn't loosen up on you.

If you can't get up to where you need to be on the inside then the best thing to do is to drill an entirely new hole next to the old one, then use either a rivit or sheet metal screw.

No, the rivit broke, and half of it is in the fiberglass (see the last pic, with the black box, thats from the inside of the hull) Half the broken rivit is in the rub rail, and the other half, is in the fiberglass.
Im new to rivits, I guess i need a rivit tool? I could make new holes I guess, I am a little worried about drilling new holes in my boat! In pictures 1 and 2, you can see holes in the top deck, that do not go through to the inside? there is not a rivit in each hole, only about every 2nd one or so. Could I just use this hole in the top deck, and drill a new hole in the hull? (to the inside)

One thing about rivits is that they have very little "draw" distance. You basically have to have the two surfaces tight together in order to have the rivit provide a good tight squeeze.

If you can apply clamps or just lean against the rub rail and make it press tight to the deck and have the deck press tight to the hull then pop rivits are the easiest way to go.


Aluminum rivits are easy to work with but they are not that strong. Standard steel rivits will rust so don't use those. Stainless steel rivits are a bitch to POP so buy a really stout rivit tool.

If the rub rail has unused holes on either side of the broken rivit(s) then I would just use those. You will have to drill a new hole, of course. Use the largest size rivit that will fit through the hole in the rub rail, then drill the appropriate size hole for the rivit.

Estimating the length of the rivit might be the hard part. The rivit body needs to be long enough to pass all the way through the rail, deck, and hull and still have some body length extending through the inside. It is this excess length that "mushes" out that tightens the whole thing down.

You may still need to drill the rivit out of the rub rail, however, if it interfers with getting the rail to push back tight. If the old rivit was aluminum it will drill out easily. If it was stainless, well, expect it to be a bitch, have a beer handy and take your time.

If you can't get the rub rail / deck / hull to rest snuggly together then I would use long machine screws.

I think Im going to go the screw and nut route here. (that sounds bad! lol!) I'll get a stainless screw and nut and washer. Basically, I want to drill through the deck and hull and make a large enough hole so that the screw slides in, and I dont have to screw it in or force it, right? I dont want cracks!! Machine screw, Stainless 1/4 x 1-1/2 I'd assume.

1/4" sounds a bit large. When I did mine I used #10 screws. There were places where I had to use a 3" long screw to get the end out to a spot where I could start the nut, but for most of the spots 1-1/2 would have been fine.

Well its done, and it turned out great... 1/4 was way too big! I ended up putting in 10/32 I think. (2 sizes smaller than 1/4) washer and nylock nut. Anyway, it looks and feels solid. the rivits were cheap aluminum I think. very soft.