Torn up rub rail?

[Wakeboarder3780]

Has anyone ever replaced a section of their rub rail? My boat current has a section that looks like someone nearly cut the entire thing off. It's more than half way through for about a 2 foot section. No idea what you have to do to a boat to make something like that happen..

Anyways I can see from the torn section that the rub rail is attached by pop rivets and if my memory serves me I believe the rub rail runs the entire length of the boat in almost one piece. I have no idea how anyone got a pop rivet gun all the way up where the rub rail is.

Anyone with experience in this?

[m_lesney]

Yea like u said as far as i kno its one peice! found out on my moomba!

[bigkitch]

What kind of boat do you have? I did the complete rub-rail on my Supra, and the kit was 3 sections that are riveted to the hull/deck, then with a softer rub rail insert.

The rub rail took me a couple of days to do, considering all of the work I had to do to fix some of the gel coat and add in silicone to get rid of the leaks!

If you have any questions, let me know!!

[Wakeboarder3780]

I have an 89 malibu sunsetter.

So for those of you that have replaced rub rails - did you actually pop rivet it back in place? Was there room inside the boat to get up inside the area where you pop rive all the way around?

That is the part that confuses me most. I feel like I would need to tear apart the interior like mad not to mention drill out a TON of pop rivets. Any tips to make the job easier?

[bigkitch]

Wakeboarder3780,

First of all, the only way to get the rub rail off is to drill out the rivets, its long and tedious work but its the only way to get it done right. Just make sure you are not drilling into the fiberglass of the deck/hull and making the holes larger, as you need a certain size pop rivet to fir through the new rub rail.

So, once you have the rub rail off, then you need to clean out any and all silicone that may of been between it and the hull of the boat. The silicone (on my 85 Supra) was put there to act as a sealant and prevent water coming into the boat under the rub rail.

Installing the rub rail is some more long and tedious work. Depending on the type of rub-rail you get, it make take longer to install, but my style was a rigid vinyl piece that came in 3 sections to do the entire boat, along with 1 string of felxible vinyl for the insert.

And no, you do not need torip apart the interior of your boat to rivet them in place, at least I dont think you should. Almost all rub rails are riveted from the outside inward, so that shouldnt be the issue.

http://tacomarine.com/cat--Rub-Rail--rubrail.html

[Wakeboarder3780]

Apparently taco has never heard of malibu , can't find it on their literature for matching up rub rails. Also you mentioned it's pop riveted from the outside in, I don't see how this is possible, does the rub rail flip up at the bottom to allow access to the pop rivet holes? Where the hole is on the rub rail (looking outside in) i can see the mushroom end of the pop rivet. So doesn't that mean its inserted from the inside of the boat?

[bigkitch]

Wakeboarder3780,

Is your rub-rail obe piece? By that I mean does it have a softer section that is snapped into a base section?

There are tons of different types of rub rails, I used Taco to get mine, even though they do not list Supra under there OEM's. Once you figureout what style you have you could probably find a match in there products.

As per the rivets, maybe I am mistaken on your boat how the rub rail is installed on your boat. On mine, you lay down the base section of rub rail, then pop rivet it in place from the outside. I havent heard of a style that rivets it from the inside, but I could very well be mistaken!!!

Could you post any pictures of your rub rail??