Since I will have my boat on the hill for some days.....
I was planning on doing some other improvements on the boat ....apart from the bonding system I am doing a complete rewire and try and fix the guard rail on the boat.
On the rewire I have a question on cable quality. Is there a big difference in quality between ANCOR wire and the wire sold at www.boatwire.com of brand "Pacers". The price is very different.
On the guard rail I know they make PVC now but I hace the original installed and getting a PVC shipped all the way here would be expensive. Is there a way of unistalling the guard rail to polish paint and then put back in??? How is it supported to the boat??
jc
do not attemt to take off the old rail, unless you plan on replacing it with pvc. the original rail is thru bolted at the joints and screwed in every 8" or so. you will have to cut it out on a angle and use a pry bar. i re finished my about 3 years ago, sand it down and clean it off with aecetone, the use a good eching primer followed with 2 or 3 finised coats. iam pulling mine off at the end of the month because iam re painting the hull.
Thanks for the advice!!! I wont take it out then untill I get some PVC railing on hand. The metal shiney strip on the rail has some space at some spots with the base of the guard rail...this traps saltwater all the time and looks crappy...
Can I take of the metal shiney strip to sand down the base and then paint and put the strip back in???
JC,
Hope the Pacer wire is good, it looks good. Understand from the distributor that it's made in FL. for what that's worth. Found a source on the net for it in Quebec. Think it's a Mom & Pop organization. They used to live on a boat in FL and got into this. Ben and Sylvie are at BestBoatwire.com. Make up a list after careful measurement plus ten percent for oops. Send them the list for quote and be amazed. They use Pay Pal and drop ship from FL. I asked for some unique items and "No problem." Shipping was quick.
God bless Al ,Gore for the internet.
Mikey
3/18/1963 - -31-327 factory hardtop express, the only one left.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
-Albert Einstein
If I understood right it is not possible to remove the shiney metal strip and put it back on?? Sorry to be such a pain.. I just bought all the materials and was going to take of the small rail sand the base paint and put the rail back on but if you say it wnt be possible to put the rail back on I wont do it. If anybody has ever done this let me know if its OK please. I dont want to be in a situation where I can put this back on.
jc
do to the age of these boats, and all the corrosion you might end up breaking the screw heads off drilling them out, and running the risk of not setting the new screws into the alum rail. you are talking about the stainless cape that mounts around the rail correct.
Thats correct. Yes its the stainless stell cape that goes around the rail. I wanted to take it out so that i could sand the rail and paint with no obrsuction and then put it back on/
From what I was told when I was considering putting a Stainless steel half round over my aluminum rubrail, there is the problem of dissimilar metals in contact with each other and exposure to salt water. I was advised to leave a strip of tape between the two and use a liberal amount of Tef-Gel in the screw holes drilled to accept the SS self tapping screws in the Aluminum. I decided not to do it but perhaps someone has more input on the reality of what I was advised. Walter
Those SS strips will come off. I pulled two sections off my boat, no sweat. You might want to be prepared to deal with broken-off screw heads as others have said, although I didn't have that trouble. Do be prepared for how crappy the aluminum is going to look under that stainless, I was shocked. Lots of pitting. Those two metals are not friends. It was definitely a factory mistake to do it that way. I decided to re-install the stainless and save the project for another time, but need to get to that soon too.
I originally wanted to pull off all the stainless and leave it off, but the pitted aluminum looks too bad, and I was afraid anything I filled it with would come off during a pile rub. So I'm planning to paint the aluminum and re-install the stainless, same as you.
I was advised to cut strips of eisenglass to use as a gasket between the stainless and aluminum, which seemed like a great idea to me. Cut them wider than they need to be, then trim with a razor after install. Could probably get some free scraps from a bridge enclosure guy. I was planning on filling in the pits with JB Weld, but not sure if that is the best thing to do.
Capt. Pat has graciously posted very detailed instructions on caulking and painting the aluminum rail in the past... a message search should find that. It might be on the old board. If you can't find it let me know, I printed and kept it and could get you a copy.
Definitely use lots of tef gel on the screws too. And use 316 alloy screws, not 10/10 stainless which is crap. If it doesn't explicitly say 316 stainless on the box, it is 10/10.
If you do it, let us know how it goes.
Oh yeah - white or black rubrail? Haven't been able to decide that for myself yet
