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Replacing rub rail


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After almost 10 years on the water, my rub rail looks worse for wear. I was wondering if it's possible to replace it? I was poking around under the side pieces and I didn't see any obvious way the rub rail attaches to the hull.

I'm sure people have done this.....but how?

thanks!

FWIW, this a 98 Sunsetter LX

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It is possible.. You have to remove the center insert piece, that will expose all the rivets (or screws) that you have to remove.. I haven't done it yet, but I hear a trick to putting them back on is to let the new one sit in a bucket of hot water to make it more flexible..

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I had my rub rail replaced on my boat this year as it was now 11 years old and fairly banged up. It was fairly expensive because of the labor, the insert and rail itself I paid $175, but the labor was almost $500. Even though it was expensive replacing the rubber seemed to take 5 years off the look of my boat, it really makes it look new.

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My rub rail is starting to pop out near the back corner and it has white all over it from something?? I would really like to replace it with stainless - has anyone done that themselves? My friends rinker has little screws holding the stainless rail in all the way around?

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I had a minor incident where some of my rubrail came out. When I tried to get it back in there was too much material there so I ended up taking the center cover off, where the seam is, pulled probably 8 feet if it out and hammered it back it. It went surprisingly easy. I don't think it would be very hard to replace the whole thing. With plastic. I don't know how the stainless works.

I used a mallet and a block of wood, worked great.

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As mentioned, you can replace the rail with a new vinyl or stainless. The caveat is the model. Certain boats with bow and stern corners that are too sharp of a radius will not allow the stainless insert to bend around it without kinking. The Sunsetter/iRide model is perhaps the worst bow, it will without a doubt kink. If you are a metal worker with a hammermill like Jesse James you can flatten out a portion of it as it wraps the bow point and it will look "okay". I do pity the poor guy that may ever have to replace it, for it would be nearly impossible. Malibu won't offer the stainless rail on this model for this reason.

That all said -

The vinyl insert is just that, it inserts into the vinyl/pvc base moulding that is screwed or riveted onto the boat. You can peel out the insert and install a new one, or replace both. The ends of the insert are under the center cap over the platform.

The stainless rail I would leave for a dealer to do, unless you are a good fabricator/metal worker/etc. The stainless rail uses a different base moulding, so you must install that first. This molding ONLY works on boats built using the shoebox design, not the butt-fit edge/edge design. (Caveat, if you want to modify the base molding first, using a powerplane for example, it can be done) The boats built in the 90's were nearly all butt-fit boats, providing excellent and very solid boats. The top deck and the bottom hull met edge to edge, instead of the top deck overlapping the hull. Therefore the shoebox design uses a stepped rubrail base, and the butt-fit design uses a flat rubrail base.

Some of the issues wrapping the stainless. Don't put a screw hole in the center of any radius. The lack of material at the hole will cause it to kink. Models with non-vertical transoms will wreak havoc when trying to bend the stainless around the corner. Suddenly you need to stretch the metal, otherwise if wrapped flat it will be headed downhill on the off-vertical transom.

This is just some experience. I've done Response LX's and I did one 2003 Wakesetter (Sunsetter/iRide). It definitely dresses the boat up and works great, but it's a bigger installation than you think.

Peter :)

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I had my rub rail replaced on my boat this year as it was now 11 years old and fairly banged up. It was fairly expensive because of the labor, the insert and rail itself I paid $175, but the labor was almost $500. Even though it was expensive replacing the rubber seemed to take 5 years off the look of my boat, it really makes it look new.

I need a short piece of the PVC backing until I can replace the whole rail and insert. Would you have a piece from your old rail? ~18" long. Anyone?? I have a '95 Sunsetter... obveously!

I was told to use a heat gun and get the PVC hot enough to make it real flexable. I have seen electricians bend PVC tubing. They have a metal box that the tubing lies in and then is heated with a heating element simular to an oven element in your house.

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