my rubrail is trashed. i need a new one but im curious with 12 foot lengths where is the best space to splice the sections together? ill need to plug my existing holes with some dowels and resin, sand em flat, and drill new ones.  Best way to attach with SS rivets or screws?  Then how do you bend it around the bow and back corners without it losing shape?  Lastly Ill need the vinyl insert... anyone know the difference between teh 190BK and 191BK?

http://shopping.rexmar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=rubrail-insert

http://shopping.rexmar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=rubrail-alum

my rubrail is trashed. i need a new one but im curious with 12 foot lengths where is the best space to splice the sections together? ill need to plug my existing holes with some dowels and resin, sand em flat, and drill new ones.  Best way to attach with SS rivets or screws?  Then how do you bend it around the bow and back corners without it losing shape?  Lastly Ill need the vinyl insert... anyone know the difference between teh 190BK and 191BK?

http://shopping.rexmar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=rubrail-insert

http://shopping.rexmar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=rubrail-alum

Having installed several thousand feet of gunwale moulding, I can tell you it takes two people to do your first one...After about 10 or so, you can do it by yourself.

You want one seam/joint at the very center of the transom and never near a corner....You will end up with a joint at about half way down the hull on each side.

I will be doing one in a few weeks, but I can walk you through it if you need help.

BTW, I don't agree with the dowels because there is not much meat where you will be repairing the holes. My recommendation would be to scruff it up with some sandpaper being careful not to damage the paint/gelcoat and fill them with some Cab-o-sil putty (mixture of polyester resin and Cab-o-sil to make a filler)...

You should use stainless steel rivets with a stainless mandrel (sometimes they are mild steel and they rust). I normally use a good quality machine screw and nuts at the ends and a few wood screws just to get things started. Be sure to carefully mark the boat where the top of the moulding needs to end up and measure/check it several times making sure the sides match. I use 2" masking tape (the blue chit) to act as a second set of hands and also to protect the surface of the boat (works great for marking the top of the moulding... )

Sharp bends are sketchy, the best way to do those are with a small piece of insert installed where the bend will be.... A terry cloth covered rubber mallet is your friend.

Good luck....Oh yeah, buy an extra piece...may need it later and it does not have a shelf life...(as long as it's not anodized, it can fade).

Possibly the extra piece could fade along with that which is on the boat and you'll always have a matching replacement.

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In my experience you would store the spare rail in the attic of the garage or similar and the boat will spend a bunch of time in the sun and be washed often (he says with some serious optimism) and ultimately may fade less..

I had black rails on my old boat that were anodized and after about two years of abuse they turned brown....

GT